Jorpblog

This was a flash photo and so it revealed a lot more of the cave than we ever saw at any one time and failed to capture the atmosphere. But it shows the amazing variety of textures that we walked through just a short distance below ground.

A cave system like this has maybe 20 miles of passages. Some of the larger caves in the world have hundreds of miles. Still, there are so many limestone caves in the area that Lawrence County, Indiana is called The Limestone Capital of the World

This has nothing to do with caving, but it was taken in Spring Mill State Park the same day we went caving. It’s a cute little critter.

Donaldson cave is in Spring Mill State Park, and is much more tourist-friendly. People went in with not much more than a flashlight, as opposed to the gloves, helmet, boots and headlamp we wore into Donahue cave.

Here you can see the enormous main cavern that you are guided into by the park paths and the ranger on duty. But there is a more wild part of the cave nearby that we will have to go back to see.

We saw some wildlife underground: bats, salamanders and albino crayfish, frogs and fish (some in the other cave nearby). The salamanders were the cutest.

Here’s another spectacular view of the wild cave. A lot of the photos didn’t capture the real experience of being in the cave–but these no flash long exposures were pretty close.

This part of the cave had a lot of classic structures, known as speleothems–stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones, columns and snottites (which look like they sound).

Even without the flash, this photo still managed to capture more than we saw at any one time with out LED headlamps. The darkness enhanced the whole adventure.

This past weekend I went caving for the first time in a wild cave near Bloomington, Indiana. First of all, caves are amazing, beautiful, otherworldly. The other point about them is that they’re all over the place!

Here you can see Quentin and Heather climbing across a stone bridge in what looks daring and perilous, but was really just for fun and to get a different view. The ground–about 8 feet below–was perfectly safe to walk on, but in several places like this you could choose the low road or the high road. In some places, there were two shelf levels, so you could even choose the middle road.

We were in the cave for about 5 hours and were glad to get out…but now I’m ready to go back in.

There’ve been plenty of photos of the kitchen counter during baking extravaganzas, but maybe none of this little corner.

I always loved those hanging baskets and I think I got my first one in San Francisco, but maybe it was even before that in Urbana. This one is filled with crook neck squash (anyone know what to do with those?), sage leaves, garlic and green tomatos (we know what to do with those!)

Sara really liked all the colors here. I did that tomato painting back when I used to do that sort of thing, and I still like it.

Between the oven and the sink is our wall of hanging stuff. The dried flowers (in a vase by Sabra) have been added to very slowly, and the feathers have been accumulating as well. I used to have a non-stick wok, but I love this cast iron one. The photos and color copy of a watercolor by Heather date back to our days in London.

Unfortunately, the crepe pan doesn’t get used that often.

Sara spent some time cleaning the kitchen this weekend and so she decided to document it while it’s looking its best. Our window garden has never looked better.

Left to right, that’s petunias (thanks Oscar!), sweet potato #1, verbena, sweet potato #2, mustard greens, coriander and a basil mix.

I don’t know if I ever used a sifter or pastry brush before I turned 30, but these days it seems like I use them every week. Scanning some scone recipes (I’m looking for a good recipe for savoury scones) I found someone mention that sifting the dry mix multiple times is the key to her scones. I sifted this batch twice and they turned out pretty damn good–very light.