North Carolina State University's Number One Fan

Fall 2007

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

- Robert Frost

The Standards for Decency Have Just Been Lowered ...

Photographed in Blowing Rock, NC on October 12, 2007.

A Deer Visitor

Last night, this little guy walked out of the woods to check out our parched yard. He drank from the pan of water I had left for him and then skipped away. I am sure he will be back later to eat my azaleas.

Easy as Pie

I once bought a book called Pie Every Day by Pat Willard while on vacation in Seattle. Sadly, I make pie only about 3-4 times a year.

Here's a recipe for a really good one:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Splenda for Baking
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 flour
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks beaten
1 baked pie crust

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Mix milk and egg yolks together and whisk together with dry ingredients. Pour into a double boiler and cook until thickened. Cooking times vary; however, 10-12 minutes should be enough time. Pour into baked pie crust.

For the meringue, combine two egg whites with 1 tablespoon of Splenda for Baking and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar. Beat with electric mix until soft peaks form. Spread on pie.

Place pie in a preheated 300 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until top is browned. Enjoy!

Dog Days of Summer

Bliss

We have a new addition to our backyard menagerie, a fawn born to Smokey. We have named her Bliss, because of her penchant for jumping up and down and trotting across our backyard. If you look closely, you can she has the same black marking across her face just like her mom Smokey.

A few fun facts about deer:

- Baby deer, called fawns, have no scent for the first few weeks of their life. This protects them from predators.
- The deer population in the U.S. has nearly doubled since 1980. This over population is attributed to a lack of natural predators. Deer's main predators, cougars, are mainly extirpated in the Southeast.
- They poop 16-18 times daily.

Here is a closer look at Bliss the fawn: