Let's Talk Strawberries

I bought this decal in a package as well as a red geranium, originally 10 cents, now $2.50, adding a little color to a lingering-a-little-too-long winter.  I love how it looks on my depression glass.  It sits on a little clock shelf in my kitchen.   ;)

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Can we talk strawberries?  We have to plant a new patch and I would love to hear your tips, tricks and the type or variety you like.  Although we didn't have any last year, there's still plenty in the freezer!  Yum!

Autumn Beauty! Gorgeous Ornamental Cabbage

I have never seen anything like this ornamental cabbage I got this year.

It is wide at the base and goes up into the exact shape of Christmas tree...

And at the top is a big bunch of lavender and yellow blooms!

The chillier it gets, the prettier they become and they love the rain.

And the night before this photo, it had rained, and still there were raindrops nestled in the blooms...

The "tree" is so tall, and the blooms so heavy, that it leans like the tower of Pisa...!

Fall is just so majestic in so many ways...the colors so vivid.

I just wish I could wax just one bloom and keep it all winter long...

Autumn...such a gorgeous season.

Start to Finish: A Photo Essay

It is a pleasure when nothing else is on the agenda for a sunny Saturday but getting the tomatoes done, and I can enjoy the whole ritual.  Today I am sharing that with you in photos.  

There are so many lessons in gardening and canning:

Initiative. Starting hard things.
Perseverance. Work from months ago eventually pays off.
Dependability. Doing it whether you feel like it or not.
Planning. There is reward in being prepared.
Freedom. Making your own food is being independent.
Tidiness. Clean up is part of the process, just not part of the fun.
Reward. Satisfaction usually comes at a price!
Payoff. Completing a task is often its own reward.
Appreciation. Simple things make one feel the richest.

I also am happy that I am and have been imprinting my children with the rewards of hard work, and that they will always remember late summers when the house smelled like tomatoes!  

Life sometimes is a grind...but it's worth it all in the end.

In coming winter days, I can look forward to soups and stews 
blub, blub, blubbling away on the stove.  

In other words...

Contentment.

One of the sure signs of late summer is tomatoes coming in and the kitchen full of canning supplies.

I try not to can unless I have a whole bushel ready because the mess just isn't worth it otherwise.  :)

Assembling and gathering all of the supplies and getting everything ready to be organized and make it all go smoothly, is part of the process.

I am thankful for the changes of the seasons we can mark our years by, aren't you?

The Magic of the Ordinary: Domesticity

do·mes·tic·i·ty

   [doh-me-stis-i-tee]

noun, plural do·mes·tic·i·ties.

1.

the state of being domestic; domestic  or home life.

2.

a domestic  or household act, activity, duty, or chore.

Sometimes I walk by something and it just hits me:  THAT is beautiful!  I have to run and get my camera to keep the light that shined on my sheets, fresh off the line.  This was evening, with sunset shining through the window where the kitchen table sits.

Sometimes the brilliant sunrise shines in on my little buffet...and I run again for that Canon.

Yes, sometimes things just shine:  ordinary things, shine in a magical way because they're beautiful and simple.

I'm busier than a one-armed paper-hanger and I'll have to catch you up soon, but for today, just a beautiful collection (I think so anyway!) of scenery around the house on an ordinary day, all of these scenes held magic for me.

Sometimes, it's the way the light hits a certain object or collection of objects:  autumn light is one of the most beautifully golden things there is.

Sometimes, I want to freeze something to hold onto it, for instance the geranium pair just outside the front window....this scene will soon be replaced by blowing leaves, gray skies and brown, empty crop fields.

I want to pull that geranium shot up this winter, along about February, and just savor it again.

The tomatoes were just brilliant and had me running for my camera, as the morning sun shone on them one Saturday morning as I rolled up my sleeves to get busy on canning a bushel of tomatoes.  

I also want to remember THOSE on a blustery February day.  

And also this...

There's magic in our homes, and we are fortunate to be able to see it, don't you think?

Happy Sunday: Season's Gleanings!

Grape tomatoes.

The last of the last of the last...kind of sad.

There's really nothing else in the world like a vine-ripened tomato!

Happy day to my friends.  

Drop me a line, let me know what state you read me from, if you would and a little about what you've been up to lately.

For me, it's been getting everything I can out of the garden and either canned, dried, or frozen.

Would love to hear from you...  

You've all been so quiet lately!

Tomato Juice

Picked a couple bushels of tomatoes the other day...Luke went out and we worked together.

What pleasant conversations can be had in the garden!

Made some beautiful tomato juice once we got them all in and washed.  Already took the chance to turn some of into some spaghetti sauce.  It's like having the taste of summer in a jar, truly.

The whole process from start to finish is a whole lot of work, but rewarding?  Certainly!

Then I get to cleaning up the gigantic mess and I wonder...is it all worth it?

Yes, I think so.

In summers to come, my kids will have memories of late summer and early fall days with the house smelling like tomatoes and recall the ways they helped, and how delicious it all tasted later during winter evenings.

It's a tangible way to love and provide for our families.

There's something about it .... That makes me keep doing it.

The sound of the lids popping as they seal, writing the date on the lid, lining up all the jars on a pantry shelf...the pride that I feel when the job is done and the food is safely stored away for winter.

(Did you know that if you cut the tiny tip off a Roma tomato, that after you scald it, the whole tomato just pops right out when you hold it up by the bottom!  No need for the skin to split!  Just hold upside down, squeeze, and PLOP!  This is one of the reasons I love the Roma!)

Moss Roses

Moss Roses...

They love heat, and they can take it dry...

And this has been the perfect summer for my moss roses...

They help me remember my grandpa...he always had moss roses growing by his front sidewalk and they always intrigued me with their bright and happy colors.