Can do, Cans in Blue

'Tis the season!

‘Tis the season!

‘Tis the season for the canning and jars to catch up with each other. See the middle shelf: the foods in the middle are all that remains from last summer’s canning. In fact, since I took this picture, we’ve brought up the last applesauce and one jar of dill pickles.

Eventually, as time goes on, as the basement cleaning and drying and refinishing goes on, Chuck will move his model train gear into the far room and I will have more space for my canning equipment. I like the shelves pictured for food storage; the glass fronts are handy. For now, though, the full jars are competing for space with those that are empty.

Speaking of jars, have you seen the new retro blue jars? (New retro – that must be an oxymoron. Neo-blue jars?) Petunia brought over a pack, and I tried them out.

Blue jars, smiling at me

Blue jars, smiling at me

  • Top row: blue jar, empty
  • Middle row, left to right: sweet bread & butter pickles, regular jar, blue jar
  • Front row, left to right: 1/2 pint jars, regular glass, pickles and rhubarb BBQ sauce

For my next trick, I’ll choose just the right foods to can in the blue jars. There must be a song in this, somewhere. Am I blue…am I blue…

 

 

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Being a Princess – what does it mean?

When a three year old girl announces she wants to be a princess when she grows up, what is the family to think?

Princesses wear pretty dresses and shoes. Maybe she could be an actress or musician with an endless wardrobe.

A princess might become fashion icons. Wherever she goes, the world watches to see what she wears. Then the tabloid journalism world decides whether the real people in the world should like what the princess is wearing. At that point, the marketers step in. Could this little girl become a fashion designer or marketer some day?

A princess’ life has very little privacy. While Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, labored to give birth to her first child (the royal heir, no less), media gathered outside the hospital to report the progress. At three, a young princess wannabe certainly won’t be thinking of her own progeny – we hope.

Princesses in fairy tales have servants, human or animal, to clean up and cook and sew their clothing. Princesses in real life? Let’s just say this preschool princess should learn to take care of herself, just in case.

In some stories, the princess saves the world by using her courage and intellect. Her Royal Highness has a High IQ and High Creative Talents rather than just a royal family tree.

Upon close examination, the popular Disney Princesses turn out to be more than fictional characters…. more and also less. Technically, Disney Princess is a marketing term, a media ploy on the part of a corporate consumer products department head. Since each Disney Princess was a star or costar of a Disney movie, the franchise calls them heroines, but let’s be honest. Some are strong women worthy of the heroine label, and some are more victims waiting for a dramatic (and hunky) rescuer.

So now we’re back at the top of the page: what’s a princess? What does she do? Wear? Say? Think? Where does a young woman go to college to earn a Royal Degree?

If you’re a three year old, what does the role of Princess entail?

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What to do On a Cool Saturday

On a cool Saturday, when the heat wave finally broke, Chuck had a weather headache. He toughed it out and accompanied me to the Farmers’ Market anyway. What did we buy, you ask? Readers, you’re way ahead of me. Of course I took a picture of the goods!

To Market, To Market

To Market, To Market

The most important pieces in the picture are the peas falling all over the center and the cucumbers on the right. It’s time to freeze more peas and make pickles!

Peas! Peas!

Peas! Peas!

As long as I was prepping peas and pickles, I pulled a few bulbs. Remember the magnificent walking onions? They produced some decent bulbs, too. I yanked these from the ground, cleaned them up, diced them, and added them to a batch of sweet bread & butter pickles.

These onions were made for walking

These onions were made for walking.

To summarize, I spent much of Saturday sitting on the deck doing food preparation. The breeze was wonderful, I felt productive, and the pickles were (and still are) delicious.

 

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Heat Wave

Sing it, Linda Ronstadt! Or if you prefer, sing the one by Irving Berlin or the Motown song performed by Martha and the Vandellas. I’m not giving you links, people. Use your search engines. 

Now that we have a sound track in place, let’s look at the before pictures.

Hot, hot strawberries

“Feed me, Seymour!”

Thirsty tomato plants

“Water, water,” pant, pant, pant.

After an early watering and another later in the day, I thought I heard the strawberries saying “We feel MUCH better now!”

It's so peaceful in the evening breeze!

“It’s berry, berry peaceful in the evening breeze!”

Ah. Water. Such a relief.

“Ah. Water. Such a relief.”

And since the plants are talking to me, I’ll take that as a sign that it’s really too hot to be outside. What’s the worst that happens to you when it’s hot? Leave me a comment, please, and TTFN – TaTa For Now.

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Garden Clue – Daisy’s version

Sergeant Pepper, in the garden, with a purple stake.

Maybe.

The mystery started with Free Super Saver Shipping. I was short 81 cents – cents! I tell you. Less than one simple dollar!  I brought my order to the magic $25 by ordering a packet of seeds. The seeds, Rainbow Peppers, cost just enough to put me over the minimum.

Clue number one: the package

Clue number two: my pepper plot, including jalapeno, banana peppers, and the “wide array of color” rainbow peppers.

The Peppers

Many Little Peppers and how they grow! 

Clue number three: an honest to goodness jalapeno, maybe. Or it could be a yellow banana type. It’s a little too small to tell.

A single pepper - so far

A single pepper – so far

Clue numbers four and more: what in the world of gardening are these creatures?

The Fairly Odd Peppers

The Fairly Odd Peppers

A Closer Look at The Fairly Odd Peppers

A Closer Look at The Fairly Odd Peppers

Back to the beginning: I guessed Sgt. Pepper in the garden with a purple stake.

Well, readers? How about you?

 

 

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The To-Do List never goes away.

Subtitled: One thing leads to another.

So far:

  • Labeled and put away jam from last night’s canning session
  • Discovered I’m nearly out of 1/2 pint jars
  • Started a shopping list for a trip to Fleet Farm
  • Had breakfast (cereal with blueberries) and made sure Amigo ate, too.
  • Put more blueberries in the refrigerator (from 10 lb. box we bought Sunday)
  • Reheated coffee from yesterday
  • Realized coffeemaker could use cleaning
  • Threw swim towels over shower curtain rod
  • Knocked down shower curtain rod
  • Replaced shower curtain rod AND swim towels
  • took Internet break and realized the rug in the den need vacuuming

Now the world was looking a little more complicated. It was time to multi-task.

  • Started the coffeemaker with water-vinegar mix, and then vacuumed the den.
  • Brought frozen blueberries downstairs to the freezer, and then laid out more blueberries for freezing.
  • Sampled a few blueberries; quality control is part of my job.
  • Used vinegar water from coffeemaker to attack a slow drain in the bathroom. Success!

And so on, and so on, and so on.

 

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Variations on Murphy’s Law

The original: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. 

If you water it, rain will come.

If you plant it, something else will grow.

An appointment with a specialist guarantees the problem will heal on its own – one day before the appointment.

If the store in which you’re shopping has a loyalty card, you will have a different store card in your wallet when you reach the checkout.

So, readers, what do you think? Can you add to the list? Add your example in the comments.

 

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Questions, questions, I have questions

If I use a strawberry dump cake recipe but replace the strawberries with blueberries, cherries, and a diced peach, what should I call it?

When the rain barrels are full and there’s more rain coming, should I put out buckets to save even more rain water?

If I water a strawberry plant with the leftover liquid in my coffee cup, will the strawberries have caffeine? Is there such a thing as a decaf berry?

Why is the city-planted grass in the terrace playing host to more weeds than grasses?

How much of the terrace should I actually weed, given that we’re going to have our service sidewalk replaced and a new baby tree planted and more people digging in the terrace dirt?

Health and circumstances have cut into my time and energy. Does anyone really mind the weeds?

Will the city crews avoid the water and gas lines this time? Don’t. Even. Think. About it.

Why does Krumpet the bunny get so worked up when I’m grinding herbs in my mortar and pestle?

Why is Sadie the bunny shedding – in July?

When should I schedule our garage sale? We have plenty of good things to sell, and the little collectible junk will make people happy, too.

And why has Grandma Daisy been so quiet lately? There’s plenty going on, and I’m sure she has opinions on just about everything coming out of Madison and Washington, among other places.

 

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Guerrilla Tomatoes and more tomatoes

I’m blaming a colder than usual winter. That’s one possible excuse for the compost not fully composting, which is an excuse for the random tomato seedlings turning up in random places.

Tomato and Dill

Tomato and Dill

 

tomato and grass

tomato and grass

Tomato and - mums?

Tomato and – mums?

It’ll all be irrelevant if we get an early frost, so I’ll just nurture these little strays of mine and maybe I’ll get an extra salad or two.

 

 

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Herbs! Through the grinder!

I’ve brought herbs inside for the last few winters. They don’t always do well indoors in this cold climate. This year’s herb collection is doing well on the deck – so well that I’m attempting the process of drying and crushing and storing herbs. I’ve tried two different locations in the house for drying. So far, the attic is winning out. The basil didn’t fully dry, though, even after hanging for about a week and a half. I ended up putting the basil (and its friends oregano and cilantro) in the oven on a low heat setting for about 20 minutes. At that point, I could pick up a leaf and crumble it.

The fun part was playing with my new kitchen toy: a ceramic mortar and pestle set. The set is rather pretty, and it grinds nicely. See how it works!

Oregano!

Oregano!

 

Basil! Purple basil!

Basil! Purple basil!

The poor rabbit, though. Little Krumpet, the tiny and very furry lion head rabbit, was upset when I tried to grind herbs in “her” room, the den. Maybe she didn’t like the overwhelming odor. Maybe the grinding sound was hard on her fuzzy bunny ears. Whatever it was, she kept thumping when I tried to grind.

You know me, readers. I relented and finished prepping herbs in the kitchen.

 

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