Welcome Fall!

Nights are getting shorter and cooler. Days, well, it seems like summer is trying to stick with us, or at least trick us into thinking she is. That's ok, the cooler nights make up for it, and seeing the butterflies still coming to all the flowers still in bloom, makes it all right for now.

Time to get out to the orchards and pick up our apples. Used to be, we picked them ourselves. Now we just buy them in the baskets, and enjoy them anyway. This was a great peach year, and I am sure this is an equally great apple year. Driving out to the countryside along the Missouri River for the apples gives us a change to enjoy the leaves turning on the trees.

Hummingbirds have already left us for the south. Wild turkeys are gobbling in the woods, discussing where to hide for Thanksgiving. And soon the snows will fly!

Farewell to Summer!

It's been a long hot summer! And Fall has finally arrived, with cooler nights and shorter days. Garden produce is still plentiful, and having worked up spiced peaches, peaches for the freezer, sweet and sour pickled okra, okra for the freezer, and best of all, okra for frying, I can honestly say that I am looking forward to the rotation to apples. Fresh green beans, homegrown potatoes freshly dug, butternut squash and zucchini were gifted to us this summer too, so even though we didn't plant a garden, we enjoyed the bounty.

Another sign of Autumn is the blooming of our Summer/Autumn Clematis. Every year it gets more and more abundant, this time actually taking over the deck floor. Could it be because I didn't take the time to prune it off as it expanded its horizon? Monarch butterflies are now migrating, so they pause in our backyard to sip some hummingbird food. And our recent summer visitor, Mr. Lucky Kitty, lies down on the deck to enjoy the late afternoon warmth on his tummy, after a fresh refill of kibble.

Yes, Fall has definitely arrived!

Book pages

Curling up with a good book and a huge glass of ice water, under a ceiling fan, seems like one way to beat the heat here. Watering the flower garden in the morning before the sun hits all is certainly the only way to navigate around outside right now. And being thankful that we have air conditioning, and cold clean water is also the way to handle this heat. Being thankful, yes that is a big way to handle life's discomforts. Which brings me to the book I want to suggest to readers...

29 Gifts: how a month of giving can change your life by Cami Walker

This is a really thought-provoking book, written by a young woman with MS, who uses a suggestion from her spiritual teacher to help her to cope with her illness and the limitations it imposes upon her life. She actually becomes much stronger by practicing this idea every day, and this little book becomes much more, a gift to all readers. She has spun off a website from her blogging, which purposes to "revive the giving spirit in the world", www.29Gifts.org. Check it out for yourself and try some giving too!

Critter beading

Maybe it's because it is such critter-filled summer, what with all the happy butterflies, bees, dragonflies, squirrels, birds, stray cats, etc. filling our back acres, but that's what happened to inspire my latest beading projects. Found a gorgeous butterfly focal that looked art-deco-ish, so added some onyx beads to it, and made--"Art Deco Wings" for a special sister-in-law. Then saw a picture in firemountaingems.com of a creation made with glass spun squirrels and birds, so adapted that to put together my own version of "They Live in Trees", and gave that to darling daughter while we vacationed in Maine. She loves squirrels. To me, they are cute, but annoying pests with our bird feeders--I think the blown glass squirrels are much easier to handle!

Summer harvest

This summer we didn't plant a veggie garden, unless you can count the big pot of basil and rosemary, and the upside-down hanging cherry tomato plant, both on the patio and doing well. So we depend on the kindness of friends, and they really came through for us this past few weeks. BAGS of cucumbers appeared in our car, along with zucchini. Was able to obtain organic green peppers, so went to work on Monday starting the chopping chopping of green veggies. Thank heaven for food processors, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it. In between the relish chopping, I threw in zucchini so I would have plenty to make more of my zucchini chocolate cake later. Dug out my grandma's crock, to start the 24 hour pickling process. Then had to drain everything for a few hours in the sink, then cooked it for awhile, then loaded up the pressure canner about 4 times, and voila! Sweet pickle relish appeared magically on my kitchen counter! Now I have to distribute the jars to people, especially those who shared their wonderful harvest this summer.

If you have extra cucumbers, here is the Sweet Pickle Relish recipe for you to try out:
For a single batch you need---
10 cups chopped cucumbers
1 and 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped green peppers (I usually add a bit more to ours)
Put the above ingredients into a large crock.
Pour in 6 cups water and 1/4 cup pickling salt.
Put a plate on top, get a clean brick and put it inside a 2 gallon ziploc bag (I use two bags for good measure). The brick is to weigh down the plate, and make sure the chopped veggies stay in the pickling brine.
Soak this overnight.
Drain for 2 hours, and rinse off well.

Now prepare your large cooking pot (enamel or stainless steel)--
you need 5 cups sugar, 2 cups white vinegar, 2 tablespoons celery seed, 2 teaspoons mustard seed, and 1 teaspoon turmeric. Bring this to a boil, add the cucumber mix. Bring it back to a boil, cook for about 15 minutes.
Meantime you should have your pint and/or quart jars prepared. I throw them in the dishwasher about an hour before I start the draining process of my veggies. Place your rings and seals in a pot of water and start the boiling of that while you are cooking the relish. At this point I use a pressure canner, but a cold pack canner would work too. I pack the jars with the relish, being careful to wipe the rims of the jars, seal them and load into the pressure canner. Turn it on to high on your stove, and bring to a boil, letting steam come out of the stopcock point for about a minute or two. You do not need to put the jiggly thing on the point. After it has steamed for a minute, you turn off the heat. Let it cool down, and remove when it is safe enough to open the canner. If I were cold pack canning, I would bring the whole pot up to a boil for a few minutes and then turn off the heat just as I do my pressure canner. Carefully remove your jars and let cool on a board on the counter. Check your seals to make sure they are sealed, and if any have not sealed, you need to refrigerate those when they cool down. The rest you can store in your pantry now, and don't forget to label and date the jar lids.

I had some leftover relish, from the bottom of the pot, so today I got to try it in a quickie egg salad--chop up one hard boiled egg, add a dollop of mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, and another dollop of the sweet pickle relish. Tastes great as a quick lunch bite!

Are we there yet?

Been a long time coming, back since last September in fact, but we think we are getting closer to the end of this kitchen renovation thing. Got the new vinyl installed last week, and it really makes a difference in lighting--now I can actually see Violet (our black kitty) on the new floor at night in the dark! Hubby has to reinstall the trash compactor yet, and has to remove part of a trim board underneath the granite countertop to make it fit back in its little cubbyhole. Nothing comes easily with renovations, we have noticed over the years. So this is just something else to get through. Then I have to finish the repainting, but don't dare even think about it in the kind of weather we have been having lately, with heat indexes in triple digits, and the kind of humidity that gives us that "jungle feeling". Can't paint until the windows can be open once more to the outside air. Meantime we are enjoying the kitchen now, and our new "throne" in the powder room--so yes, I guess we are almost there!

Summer Vacation to Maine

We kicked off the month of July with a visit to Maine, where we had never been before, and fell in love with the beauty of the state. Spent the week in Acadia National Park, got out on the Sound for a boat ride, explored the shore, picking up beautiful pink granite rocks, saw all kinds of beautiful flowers (and all kinds of 8 foot tall fencing to keep the moose and deer away from those flowers), yes, and saw deer. No moose though, which was fortunate. I understand they are like "tanks with fur", according to a friend of mine. Visited LL Bean in Ellsworth, and of course Bar Harbor. Went to church in Bar Harbor, and back another day for a shopping expedition. Best of all, dined on fresh caught seafood every day and loved it! Hubby isn't a big fan of fish, so our hosts made sure he had plenty of meat to live on while we enjoyed our fish. Lobster fresh caught is absolutely wonderful, and of course the cooking experience is part of the fun of it. I got great lessons from our hosts on cooking and disassembling it to eat it afterward, messy fun! So hope you enjoy a little taste of Maine here.