Bird Fest / Bluegrass

We have enjoyed a lot of wonderful fall weather but luck was not with us for the local Bird / Bluegrass festival. We kept hoping, along with the organizers, that the festival would have some decent weather. We spent quite a bit of time inside as the rains tended to take over much of the weekend. Celia did not seem to mind the time with her great grandma there to read to her. Greg had suggested that we have borscht (Russian beet soup) to go with the Birds and Bluegrass. The recipe came in two versions, one with tomatoes and one without so we decided to make two pots and give people a choice. Both seemed to be a hit as the two large pots seemed to disappear. Celia also enjoyed having extra family at the house and was good at sharing her toys with others like Ted and Rosalie Hulbert who were also visiting. Roy had a surplus of green tomatoes that needed to be used, so we checked for recipes and found little. A decision was made to try a rhubarb custard pie recipe and substitute green tomatoes. It was a good fit and we now have a new way to use green tomatoes at the end of next season. It sounds strange, but sure is tasty. As groups we wandered down to the town center and found many bluegrass bands “jamming” which we enjoyed listening to. As part of the festival there were many activities involving birds. We enjoyed seeing the kestrel and owl as well as other birds displayed by a local rehabilitation facility. There were also tours through the wildlife refuge and we enjoyed taking the tour. It was a bit early for the fall migrations of Sand hill Cranes but we did see a few. We enjoyed seeing the coyote working the grasslands and blue heron along the banks.