Friday's Feast for July 27

It's Friday, so let's have a Feast.

Appetizer
Describe a toy you remember from your childhood.

I was fascinated by an erector set at my grandparents farm in Minnesota. We visited once a year and I always pulled it out and tried to play with it. There were so many pieces missing it was difficult to make anything with it.

Other than that, I was much more into books than toys in the childhood years I can remember.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how observant are you?

I do the entire scale, 1 to 10 depending on subject, circumstances, and state of mind.

On average, I give myself a mediocre 5.

Salad
Where would you rather be at this very moment?

I would rather be sitting in my favorite knitting spot in the back room with Pappy in his favorite spot over my shoulder and Sunny in her favorite spot by my side.

Instead, I'm getting ready to drive a sixteen mile round trip to pick up the mail. While I'm in town, I'll drive through Burger King to pick up lunch for us. We rarely get fast food, so that will be a treat.

Main Course
When was the last time you learned something new?

Last night at doggy school.

I was asking trainer Gail about the best way to get Pappy to drop his highly prized moles that he's been catching. One of the other dog owners quizzed me about the size and appearance of Pappy's moles and told me it might be a shrew.

Today I checked it out on the internet, and sure enough. He's been catching shrews.

The problem of getting the little animal out of his mouth remains.

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I have ____________ but I haven’t ____________.

I have a picture of one of the box turtles (Terrapene carolina) that roam our back three acres but I haven't been able to get the picture I'd like of one eating the wild blackberries.

The box turtles are terrestrial, eating slugs and earthworms. They also like fruit and eat the little wild strawberries that fruit in the early summer and the wild blackberries that fruit in the late summer.

The blackberry crop is pathetic this year because of the drought. We usually pick and enjoy them, but this year I'm leaving what there is for the wildlife.