four days and a few notes

 A community park aside a mountain rise and brightly hued  trees showing off their splendid autumn apparel.

Mothers with their children, swings, footballs, and couples walking their tail-wagging dogs on leashes. All are without a doubt enjoying this warm day in late October.

We had stopped at a small community park in New Market, Virginia where we ate our lunch.

I walked around the park trail to allow my weary legs a good move before my husband said it was time to go. I wished I had my camera, but then my photography skills fall short of the special views I observed.

Destination: Buffalo, New York. 

The Blue Ridge Mountains along the Shenandoah Valley dotted with prosperous farms never fail to stir a serene feeling to my spirit. It was the most ideal time to drive through the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania because of the peak of foliage colors.

We decided to stop in a town in Pennsylvania which in times past meant nothing but now has significant meaning for us. A future family member's home town, more on this in a future post.

A quick decision to drive up to Niagara Falls on Saturday afternoon.

remembering summer

REMEMBERING SUMMER

Being too warm the old lady said to me

is better than being too cold I think now

in between is the best because you never

give it a thought but it goes by too fast

I remember the winter how cold it got

I could never get warm wherever I was

but I don’t remember the summer heat like that

only the long days the breathing of the trees

the evenings with the hens still talking in the lane

and the light getting longer in the valley

the sound of a bell from down there somewhere

I can sit here now still listening to it.

~W.S. Merwin

I think of this time of year, the end of August until October 1, as late summer. September being the star month when we are on hold so to speak. But there is a definite easing into the autumn season. The shortening of the days is always the most obvious sign that summer is beyond its peak and shouting goodbye. Whether we are ready for it or not, and I always am more than willing to move on with a high note of anticipation of the wonders of what the next season brings.  Yet sublime remembrances linger. 

 Summer 2023 will be especially remembered as the summer of the butterflies. I planted a cutting/ butterfly attracting garden. I was not disappointed. I have so many photos of the variety of the butterflies that visited my garden this summer. I even began a post titled, "Plant and They Will Come". But who really wants to see my large display of butterfly photos? But I do hope to develop the pictures and place them in a nature study notebook this winter. Some days during the very heat of summer I would walk out into the garden and I was surrounded with butterflies flying all around me. I was beholding one of my Creator's  gifts. The monarchs also visited  drinking from my zinnias as well as the milkweed I planted last year.  I even found a monarch chrysalis then was able to see the completed cycle.  

The  black bear was seen one drizzly Sunday afternoon. We knew black bears lived around here and had been spotted, but seeing one ourselves was...well, quite a late summer spectacle!

the library

“When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”

―Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

 What do they call this room I ask the man showing us the house we purchased last year. It was a room off the living room through double wooden doors. "A parlour?", he suggests. From that very first day I called  this room the library. And plans began forming in my mind almost immediately to the possibilities of making this such a room, walls lined with built in book shelves, an antique bookcase on that wall filled with books, comfy chairs with reading lamps, and maybe even a footstool.  Of course, I've had libraries of sorts all my life, wherever or whatever held my large assortment of books was considered a make-do library. And certainly this past year a majority of books have been stored in boxes on the third floor awaiting my vision to become a reality. At last I have a lovely room that embraces the afternoon sun on cloudless days, making it a perfectly wonderful place to be christened "The Library".

 “Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books— even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.”

  ~William Gladstone

I have a friend whose husband was starting a new business and was very capable and interested in building us book shelves.

Some days I have my lunch at the table that sits in the center of the room.

"In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” 
― Mark Twain

 One Sunday afternoon, a berry clafoutis with hazelnut whipped cream  with "delightful society". My husband was there too😊, and he is certainly delightful society.

"A house that has a library in it has a soul." - Plato

living my life this way now

I enjoy solitude. It's probably selfish, but why bother about it. Life is much too important, as Oscar Wilde said, to be taken seriously. I feel so sorry for those mothers who are devastated by loneliness when their children fly the coop and don't want to live at home anymore. They feel lost, but look what exciting things can be done. Life isn't long enough to do all you could accomplish. And what a privilege to be alive. In spite of all the pollutions and horrors, how beautiful this world is. Supposing you only saw the stars once every year. Think what you would think. The wonder of it!”

~unknown

Sunrise

I sit in the green andiron back chair while still in my robe,  

a mug of coffee in hand savoring a new morning.

A morning's quiet time enjoyed on the front porch.

Still in the garden everyday.

prudent preparation

"It has occurred to me that I am only doing what every housewife did as a matter of course only a generation or two ago. She always preserved food for the coming year as it came into season and bulk-purchased staples such as sugar and vinegar. Our grandmothers did this not because they were paranoid, isolated survivalists, but rather because they had learned from experience that blizzards, crop failures, and epidemics happened. The prudent, prepared household prevailed. Others did not.

As the winter storms howl outside my window and the political, economic, and ecological news goes from bad to worse, I sleep well, knowing I can care for my family during times of plenty and times of want."

~ Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens

by Kathy Harrison

figs

                                              If I had words to make a day for you, 
                                   I'd sing you a morning golden & true 
                                   I would make this day last for all time 
                                   then fill the night deep in moonshine 

                                    If I had words to make a day for you, 
                                    I'd give you a morning golden & true 
                                    I would make this day last for all time... 
                                    then fill the night deep in moonshine 

It was as if I had written a simple letter with one request, placed a stamp in the right hand corner and dropped it in the mail. 

"Please send a perfect day"

And today the letter was answered.  As I opened the front door and slipped out onto the porch I could not but help sighing with contented happiness. The hot temperatures and humidity of the past week had vanished and instead we had a soothing welcomed coolness. My morning work was already determined, but now I could open the windows and let the fresh air and light breeze fill my kitchen space. 

I have mentioned in a past post a brief intro to my personal fig story.

And I'm still  hoping one day to have a fruit producing fig tree as we have now planted one beside the back screened porch. I have visions of it giving shade to that sunny corner of the porch when it matures. I also have hopes of plenteous figs. It produced two figs this year, since it is yet young I still maintain  reasonable expectations of more fruitfulness in the summers to come.

Yesterday my husband stopped by a friend's house who has three large fig trees loaded with fruit and he was more than happy to share several containers of fresh figs with us.

 My morning's work involved making a batch of fig newtons. As a child I did not like fig newtons, that super sticky sweet paste in a dry crumbly cookie was not desirable to my taste whatsoever. But several years ago wanting to give them another chance, I tried a gourmet fig newton and  immediately I knew there was so much more to a good fig newton than those cookies I remembered from my childhood. Since I could not find a  recipe in any of my cookbooks to the internet I went. By reading what several bakers had done, I somewhat pulled together my own version of several recipes. My jam was not sweet, I added fresh lemon juice, a small amount of brown sugar, a pinch of salt and some water which was cooked  down to a jam consistency. Meanwhile I whipped up the dough. The methods of making the fig newtons varied considerably, I went for what seemed was the easiest method for me, but it still turned out to be a bit tricky. The tricky part was getting the second layer onto the cookie.

 Yet, I could hardly wait for them to cool so I could cut them into squares and give them a proper tasting.  Oh my, how delicious! They certainly are not the prettiest bar, but they are downright bona fide delicious! 

                                           " The fig tree has ripened its figs

                            And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrances."

                                                      Song of Solomon 2:13

green beans to pickle

  Many hours have been gladly spent picking, snapping, cooking and canning green beans this summer, truly just for the past six weeks we have harvested many pickings of this healthy vegetable from our garden. I decided it was high time I preserved a batch of pickled beans to add to my larder.  Here is a recipe that is close to the one I will be using, though I am not calling mine dilly beans because the dill has become rather sparse in my garden, but I will include garlic, mustard seeds, peppercorns and a cayenne pepper.

Ever time I speak to my mother-in-law these days the conversation always includes a chat concerning our garden and she never fails to bring up to me those days of the past when I would pickle green beans. Those plenitudinous years of  green bean production enabled my pantry to be stocked full with all the green beans we would need through the winter months. So with a tribute to this dear sweet lady I am pickling a batch of green beans with a heart of fun and thanksgiving.

But first I must make a run to the store because I just noticed that I do not have enough canning jars! 

 What are you preserving these days?

turning ninety with grace

 My father's brother turned ninety last week and his family rightfully honored him with a birthday party. Of course, we wanted to go to be a part of joyfully celebrating his life; I could not imagine not doing so even with the three hour drive on a Sunday afternoon.

At my brother's funeral several weeks ago I gasped when I saw my uncle because it was like I was seeing my paternal grandfather once again. (He died in 1991 at age 91).  How I love family resemblances. My Uncle Gene is sharp and clear-minded as that family line tends to be as they age. When I mentioned to him how much he looked like Granddaddy, he with his soft -spoken voice said, "I know, sometimes I look in the mirror and I can see him too."

photos 2023...words 1776

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, 

that among these are life,

liberty, 

and the pursuit of happiness..."

"Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions...."

"With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence..."

The Declaration of Independence

green bean canning

 As you can tell from my latest posts gardening occupies much of my time. I do receive satisfying joy being and working in my gardens.  Organic vegetable gardening has been our goal for some time and we are working very hard to make it happen, but we realize at the beginning of the process it does not always produce the prolific abundance we remembered our gardens of past years producing (this was over twenty years ago). It is a definite challenge but an equally definite interest to make our soil fertile  while  maintaining pest control without the use of chemicals. 

Today was not my first green bean picking, but it was the first time I had enough to preserve with canning.

Today hollered summer with the heat and humidity, therefore, keeping hydrated was important as I picked my beans. I carried along a jar of iced water with a spurt of lemon balm tincture which refreshed nicely.

This winter when pressure canning was still a dream, I ordered a new pressure canner since mine was rather old and I felt it needed some attention and might not be as safe as I would prefer. I bought mine here, it holds four quarts at a time which is perfect for my canning needs.

I have never owned or used a canner like this one one and it appeared a bit intimidating at first with the screw lock knobs, but as far as the  steam and weight it works just like my other canner.

lavender joy

The bumble bees

love my lavender

They’re on it all the time

Drinking up the pollen

when the weather is sublime.

It felt as if I was a thief of sorts, cutting the lavender stems as I was one morning. The bees swayed and dipped on the profusely blooming lavender. If I were a bee I would most certainly choose the nectar of lavender too as I swayed and dipped drinking lavender juice. This year has been a joy to this particular lady gardener as I had not been able to find a happy lavender spot for over 20 years until now. That is a long time to wait to have a happy lavender growing garden. 

Lavender requires certain things to make it flourish. Well-drained soil, even rocky, and limestone enriched soil also helps lavender to grow strong.

 During the warm afternoons we are sipping... what am I saying?... drinking heartily, lavender lemonade tea. First, you make a lavender syrup by taking 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar. Bring this to boil adding 1 cup lavender blooms. As soon as it boils put a lid on your pan and allow to steep for about 10 minutes or so, strain all lavender from your syrup. Add this to freshly brewed black tea and lemonade to taste.

The lavender syrup should be stored in the refrigerator.

• It always seems to me as if the lavender was a little woman in a green dress, with a lavender bonnet and a white kerchief. She’s one of those strong, sweet, wholesome people, who always rest you, and her sweetness lingers long after she goes away. ― Myrtle Reed