Hiking Jockey Cap

In late August our great niece, Violet, came for a two-night sleepover, as she does regularly, and Ken suggested the three of us should hike Jockey Cap in Fryeburg during her visit.

Violet was up for the challenge, as she always is with outdoor activities. That girl loves nature and every living thing in it.

So we left home early in the morning and got to Jockey Cap about an hour later.

Jockey Cap isn't a mountain, it's a huge boulder with 600-ft elevation.

The climb is easy and quick. 

Except that Violet, as I said, loves all of nature's creatures, even the tiniest of them, so we stopped several times to watch crawly things in our path. Do you see the crawly thing here?

As we were about to continue our hike, Violet cautioned me with, "Don't step on it!"

Here Ken and Violet are almost at the summit. As you can see, we chose a clear, warm day for the hike, so the view was spectacular.

Here Uncle Ken lifts Violet to look at the map which identifies the various mountain peaks along the Maine-New Hampshire border.

It was a great little hike with our favorite seven-year-old.

Sex and bell peppers

(I knew the title of this post would grab your attention:)

Supposedly, green peppers with three "lobes" on the bottom are female, whereas those with four lobes are male.

Did you know that? I learned it just this summer and was reminded of it as I picked some peppers from my garden this morning.

But perhaps this "male-female" claim is a bunch of hogwash. I suspect it is.

Check out this site: http://showmeoz.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/the-bell-pepper-sex-scandal/

And then there are those like the four on the left with one bump. Male? Gender neutral?

Bottom line: I love green peppers and can't wait to include this morning's harvest in my fall cooking. I'll dice them, spread them on a cookie sheet and freeze them, then remove them from the cookie sheet and return them to the freezer in freezer bags. That way, the diced pieces aren't frozen together into unmanageable lumps.