Progressing with pie, but not to the fair

One of the unwritten goals of Year of Pie was to enter a pie competition.  Our county fair was just last week, and there was no way I was going to get a pie to the fair on Wednesday after Labor Day, so I set my sights on the State Fair, which includes an live judged pie contest next weekend.  And then I found out that registration was due over a month ago.  So I don't know where or when I am competing with my pies.

In the meantime, I baked with students again last week, and we ended with 6 apple and pear pies, several of which were really good.  So I am succeeding at the written goal of teaching people to bake pies.

I also bought (and ate) Oatmeal Cream Pies on our way home from the eclipse. I don't recall if eating convenience store foods wit pie in the name is a written or unwritten goal, but I am succeeding admirably, and don't need (or want) another Oatmeal Cream Pie any more than I need or want another Moon Pie.

As far as actually baking pies, I think I am exceeding my original goal, and I do need to keep track.

September (7 so far)
Fresh Fig Tart on leftover pastry- just now
With students: two crust apple; apple crumble-top (2); apple lattice; pear, cranberry, raisin, and walnut with plaid lattice; and the extra apples and pears baked together.

August (4)
Two beautiful peach for a church picnic
A weird, crustless, gluten-free peach for the eclipse-watching
Buttermilk for the chemo crew

July (4)
Lemon meringue for Aster's birthday
Chocolate chess and apricot for 50th anniversary celebrations
Apricot with all-lard crust as a house guest

June (9)
Pie party: beet; plum; gluten-free no-bake plumberry; lemon meringue; chocolate chess; coconut cream

Some slightly overdone, a few both overdone and underdone.
All tasty.

Blackberry-rhubarb
Kale Blue Cheese
Blueberry-blackberry

May 2, April 7, March 8 plus 5 more with students and the official start bastilla in February. 47 pies baked so far.

(Just a Little Bit on the) Passing of Time

Ten years ago (10!) I wrote (on this very blog) about my elder niece starting kindergarten.  It stunned me then, that she could be that old (or rather, that I could be that old), just as it stuns me now that she is starting sophomore year as a student at my high school.  Ten years ago I wrote that the kid born the day Dirtdog walked into Physical Science S and sat next to me, despite all of the pleading in my head for him to choose any other seat, could legally drink.  Now that kid would be 31.  Had the Dirtdog-Sparkling Squirrel mating happened, and the Dirtdog-Sparkling Squirrel progeny mated at that same young age-- Dirtdog and I would be grandparents now-- OF ONE OF MY NIECE'S CLASSMATES. (Needless to say, Dirtdog, our parents, our fictional progeny, and I are all much happier that did not happen-- but wow-- grandparents of a high school sophomore [which of course, my parents are, but they seem to be better equipped to take their granddaughter to field hockey practice than I would be]).

Sophomore in high school and 50-year-weds (and the rest of us)

Kids are growing up.  Parents are growing up. People married 50 years ago have been married for a very long time.  Time is passing.  Nothing insightful here; every once in a while I just need to step back and wonder how it keeps going by.

First day 1st and 3rd grade

A representative sample of candles

Waiting for the sky to go dark.

1:06 in the afternoon.  About 20 minutes after above photo.

Apropos of not much:  the eclipse was crazy.  We had missed meetings with friends, we had debates about exactly which small country road we should park on, we had cloud cover, we had rain and grumbles about how we could have watched it rain without driving a long way.  And then evening birds emerged in the "twilight" to eat the evening insects.  And it got dark.  Crickets started chirping.  And it got darker. And it was an amazing event to witness with friends on a muddy minimal maintenance road in rural Kansas, even with the clouds.  I'm making my way to totality in 2024 and hope you join us.