Bob Ross is like Crack

Twitch is streaming all 400 hours of Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting. This is addictive stuff.  I am finding it hard to turn off.

Five Thirty Eight did a statistical analysis of his work and 91% of his paintings contained at least one tree.  Bob Ross is pretty good at painting trees.   This evening I watched him paint an "old tired tree," and it was asymmetric and lonely and beautiful.

I have a tree like this in my yard.  It is Diospyros virginiana, American Persimmon. It is solitary, large, crooked, and old. And it is a little tired. But it faithfully produces persimmons every year.  I have gathered hundreds of pounds of these persimmons. I have progeny growing nearby, in and around the pawpaws. Most of the persimmons I have gathered have gone toward futile attempts at persimmon wine.

Today, Lisa and I made persimmon cookies. The effort was much more successful than persimmon wine. Baking soda does strange and cool things to persimmon pulp.

We found a recipe with dates, which strikingly resemble chocolate chips.  These are terrific cookies, and there are enough persimmons left on the tree to get another batch or two.

We found some fresh salmon in town and had a nice supper of salmon with a roasted red pepper sauce, spinach salad, and cookies.

I'm feeling as relaxed as Bob Ross.