blueberry milk cakes

My dad was no woodsman, but he had what I think is called a bow saw that I now have and use occasionally, and I am no artist, but I went to a workshop on encaustic painting and collage last week and woke up this morning thinking about making beeswax collages on pine rounds that I could cut from the trunk of that tree in the yard that toppled over a couple of years ago.

The trunk - a good 20 or 30 or 40 yards of it - sprawls up the hill from the river, its upper half up off the ground as the hill levels off toward the house. The tree came down one November day after a strong wind blew it to an angle that worried me. There were a number of trees between this tall red pine and the house, which it was leaning toward, and I envisioned a domino effect of toppling trees that ended on the floor in my living room, so I called some guys and they took the pine down at its base and hauled away the branches but left the trunk as I figured the trunk was good for something. So this afternoon I layered on the long pants and long-sleeved shirt and mosquito dope and, apologizing to the two robins nesting there, went into the barn and found the old bow saw and approached the task of sawing a few rounds off this old pine for the sake of ... art. (Or is it craft?)

Blueberries!

The pine trunk rests in the middle of a wild blueberry patch. Some years there are no blueberries, others simply masses of them. Today, blueberries were ripe for picking and better yet there are plenty of little green ones just waiting to blue up. I dropped the saw and picked a few berries for snacking and a few more for lunch.

I started in on the trunk, but I never got all the way through it. I'm almost through it, but the saw gets stuck so I'm stuck. I'll have to get back to it later. I decided to try another fallen tree, a beech which came down all on its own this spring, but a swarm of excited mosquitoes cut that effort short, and the lunch bell rang.

I decided to make a half batch of blueberry pancakes but mismanaged the recipe and ended up putting in too much milk. Well, that's why I'm no cook. I proceeded to griddle up the blueberry milk cakes. Slathered in maple syrup, who could tell the difference?