This morning Shelby sent me this text: “Gramma, why not Violet?” So, now the lady gnome has eyebrows and a name. J
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We didn’t get up in time to watch the church service live back home, so
we pulled it up on Youtube. The
campground has internet, which in the past has been sort of sketchy back in our
corner. Because of that, we choose to
use our mobile hotspot to get online on our computers and stream TV. The video was a little shaky at times, but the
audio was good, so I listened more than watched.
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Walked to Nutt Rd and back today. Kim hasn’t been wearing his
compression socks because he doesn’t want to be ‘the guy who wears knee socks
and shorts’ but his water intake and exercise have increased. His legs haven’t
shown any sign of swelling, and he’s only complained once since we got here about
them feeling like stumps; and that was after three days of pretty heavy
driving. So, it’s all good and maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to do the
Shamrock 5K.
Yikes, just checked the event online and it’s being held on Sunday, March
9th…one week from today! It’s usually on the Saturday closest to St.
Patrick’s Day. Moving it up puts a whole
different spin on it for us. Only one
week to ‘train’. I’m making no promises
at this point.
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Well, there were still bees hanging around camp this morning…they found
the feeder I’d hung on the back of the tree. Not nearly the numbers that we
have been seeing, though.
The new feeders arrived today, and I set them up immediately. I removed the feeder that was out on the tree and replaced it with a new one. Stayed to watch the bees come back to it and try to dive into the all-you-can buffet. They couldn’t do it; the yellow flowers had a long enough neck that their bee tongues couldn’t reach in to get the nectar but the hummers will have no problem. I call that a win.
I thought ‘bee guards’ were going to be some fancy add on to the feeder.
Not so…the bee guards are simply flowers that cover the opening for
feeding. I’ve had feeders in the past
with flowers and hadn’t realized their purpose; I just thought they were an
attractant for the hummers. The feeders
I bought last year out here have tiny slits, not flowers, for the hummers to
stick their tongue into. Last year bees didn’t bother them but this year it was
almost an immediate problem. Those feeders
have been retired and hopefully, we’ve solved the bee problem.
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The birds have found the water fountain. 😎 This afternoon when we were sitting outside
cooling down from our walk, a couple birds used evasive measures to get a
drink. The birds out here don’t fly
directly to the feeders, the fruit, or, as it turns out, the water fountain. For
the feeders, they’ll land in the bushes or nearby tree branches to assess the
situation before coming to it. Hummers do
the same thing although occasionally they will flit right to the feeder. It was
the same situation with the fountain today.
They made tentative hops toward it, cocking their head this way and
that. They jumped on the table and still did a bit of looking around before hopping
onto the plate where the fountain is located.
I suppose there’s a measure of safety in doing it this way.
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Took a ride to Marana to check for burrowing owls. The direct route is under construction, so I took us in the roundabout way. No owls today.
We stopped at a grocery store in Marana after striking out on the owls; one of my purchases at the grocery store in Marana was a package of Sweet Bread Cochitos. They were in the shape of a pig and looked like the piggy cookies I buy at the Eloy IGA, except with a shininess to them…maybe from an
So, after
comparing ingredients of the Sweet Bread Cochitos and the cookie I buy in Eloy
and finding them different, I googled Sweet Bread Cochitos. Turns out there are
several names for this type of cookie: marranitos, puerquitos, cochonitos, Mexican pig cookie and more. And there are recipes galore, each one claiming
to be the traditional way of making this pastry. And yes, egg wash is part of
the process.
Years ago when I first found them, no one could tell me why they were
called piggy cookies, not even Google. One
girl said, “Because that’s what they are…piggy cookies.” That was no help. However, the internet has possibly grown
since then, and in one of the recipes a brief history was included:
Why are marranitos pig-shaped?
It’s all in the name!
Since marranitos means “little pigs,” it makes sense that
they’d be shaped like piggies. But why did the tradition start in the first
place? The history of marranitos can be traced back to the 1500s, when
Spaniards first introduced pork to Mexico. Mexican cooks began to incorporate
the pig shape into their baking, both in line with the tradition of
shaping pan dulce as well as to symbolize the cultural
influence brought by their colonizers.
Now I finally know why they’re called piggy cookies.
And I have to wonder
if the cookie made by the Estrella Bakery is a traditional cookie/sweet bread or
a variation. Whatever it is, I prefer it
to the shiny, egg washed, sweet bread concoction.
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Too cloudy
for imaging tonight. All caught up on the Reacher episodes.
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