My early riser!

Capturing a still, quiet moment!

Two things my little Cricket loves...cutting flowers and the peaceful, early moments of the day!

A fun CM week!

What a fun (and busy!) wrap-up to a great summer we have had!
As the leaves are already starting to fall and the rest of the growing season is wrapping up its final showing, we're relishing these last few days of summer! (After all, fall is my favorite season, and I'm eagerly awaiting it!)

One afternoon, a good girlfriend called upon several of us other gals to come and help her carry her burden of blueberries! Uh, yeah...we're there! So the next morning we all adorned ourselves with our buckets tied around our necks (like professional berry pickers) and met up with everyone to help out sweet Joanna! What a fun time we all had! It was so sweet of J to open up her yard and her home to all of us...and our kiddos in tow! The kids had the best time playing, and we would all pick for a while and then go outside and 'sit a spell' while we cooled off and had some tea, scones, cookies, etc. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Isn't this the cutest berry-picker you've ever seen?!?

And as we started off our new school year, two girlfriends and I hit the road for an impromptu over-night trip. We learned of a great SCM conference, settled our fams, and hit the road! We had a great time yackin' all of the way up there and back! We rushed out of town so quickly so that we could make it to our hotel in time for happy hour, and after enjoying some time relaxing, we went to a wonderful restaurant...I have no recollection what the name of it was, and I paid cash, so I have no receipt, but here's a photo of it...it's down on the bottom left! Oooh, and I'm still craving their chicken with capers! It was soooo good! It was served over a bed of angel hair pasta with a lemon and white-wine sauce and with the most gently sauteed green beans and red tomatoes on the side!

After we ate and laughed til we could eat and laugh no more, we giggled our way back to our hotel room, stayed up way too late, and got up way too early the next morning. After enjoying a scrumptious breakfast at the hotel, we were off to the conference! (Notes to be posted later!)

Preserving our blessings one by one!

Whew, it's nice to be out of the kitchen! After our two families collected and sorted our yummy apples and pears (please note: I've decided to just call these apple-pears "asian pears"), Labronda and I got together for a day or so of canning/preserving!

(Two of our little helpers!)

It is always so much more fun when you do something as tedious as that with a friend! And we had a blast...but whew were we tired after having been on our feet for so long! And we still didn't get to do all that we wanted to do, so we split up the fruit once more!

So after a few days of looking at all of that fruit, I decided we just had to finish up what we had started (come this winter, we'll be thankful to be tasting yummy fruits!), so when Ricci called to say he was on his way home from work, he asked if there was anything that he could bring...I did put in a request for some 4-oz. jars...knowing that I couldn't find them anywhere! After about 30 minutes, here he came...with some 4-oz. jars! That guy's amazing....he got them at Ace Hardware! I would have never thought to check there! Well, now I know! It was funny to hear him tell of the jars' sealing themselves as he drove up to our house! Thanks, Ricci!

And there's still more to do!

Pear Honey

"This tastes so much like honey, your friends will never believe that the bees did not make it."

Ingredients:
8 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
8 cups white sugar

Directions:
Place chopped pears into a large pot, and pour pineapple juice over them to prevent them from browning. Stir in sugar, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. When the pears are at a full boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook until the mixture is the color and texture of honey. The longer you cook it, the thicker it gets. Ladle into hot sterile jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the top. Wipe rims with a clean damp cloth and seal jars with lids and rings. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Pear Preserves

Ingredients:

3 quarts pears, sliced or chopped
3 cups water
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
6 slices lemon

Directions:

Wash and pare fruit. Cook until tender in water. Remove fruit and make a syrup of the liquid and sugar. Add fruit to partially cooled syrup and bring gently to a boil. Add lemon slices. Boil rapidly until fruit is clear and tender. Let stand in syrup to cool. Remove lemon. Pour fruit into sterilized jars. Reheat syrup to boiling and pour over fruit. Seal each jar as filled.

Pear Apple Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

4 C. diced pears
4 C. diced tart apples 5 T. lemon juice
5 C. sugar

Grated rind of 1 lemon

Directions:

Peel and dice fruit. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Boil about 20 minutes. Take from heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes to plump. Bring back to boil stirring frequently until mixture is thick and clear (about 10 minutes). Pour into sterilized Kerr jars to within 1/4 inch of top. Put on cap, screw band firmly tight. Process in Boiling Water Bath 10 minutes.

Blessed with a bounty of food and friends!

A sweet, dear friend suprised us today when she dropped by to share some goodies with us.

Every Wednesday afternoon, several of our hippie friends stop by a local drop-off and pick up their produce from a co-op that they are all in (Y'all KNOW that I'm kidding about the hippie-thing! And some of you may take that as a compliment [;)]). And throughout the summer, when our itty-bitty garden isn't producing what I'd like for it to be producing, I have to admit that I do get a eensy-teensy bit jealous!

So this afternoon, I was thrilled when Elaine stopped by and sweetly gave us what we wanted out of her basket!

There was so much bounty...full of amazing color, texture, shapes, etc.! (Our God is so good to give us what we wouldn't expect!) Now I'm excited about serving them to my family...and of course, Nick and Elaine too! Since they aren't feeling too well these days and don't feel like 'dealing' with these great foods, do you think if I prepare them some yummy things that they'll stop by next week?!? I won't count on it!

Here are the names and some pics from their shared bounty!

- Delicata Squash
- Garlic
- Tomatoes
- Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
- Zephyr Squash
- Cucumbers
- Zucchini or Sweet Peppers
- Hot Peppers
- Eggplant
- Okra
- Genovese or Cinnamon Basil

Isn't it all gorgeous?!?

Thank you sooo much, Nick and Elaine!

A garden that only an owner could love!

Once again this year... our gardening containers are flourishing, our flower beds are continuing to look better than they did last year, and.... our garden is only a garden that an owner could love.

You know....how beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

The herb-side of the garden is doing really well with our cilantro, basil, mint, lavender, and rosemary! Too great, perhaps! And the vegetable-side...well, it's less than desirable! But our tomatoes are finally beginning to fruit after 'we' (Ricci) removed the horn-worm, and we did harvest one amazing zucchini from seed! So I'm happy with our results!

We don't have the space to go crazy with a garden area, so I'm happy with the results that we've achieved from our 4'x8' space! And this one flawless zucchini made an amazing addition to our lasagna that evening! The girls gobbled it up! (Of course, it was helped that it was also made with our yummy puttanesca, Aunt Jan!)

But I just had to share a photo of this tomato hornworm for those of y'all that are interested...it's quite a bundle of nature study! Oops...I just remembered that I was too afraid to take the lid off of the jar to even take a photo...yes, y'all can tell that I love a controlled atmosphere to do our nature study! [;)] But here is a photo that looks identical to the one that we had...complete with all of the 30 or so white eggs that covered it! And be sure to click here to learn more about this nasty, fascinating creature!

(Now we know why we haven't produced any more tomatoes than have been on the grocer's shelves!) Then this evening I walked by his glass house (a Ball jar with a lid w/ holes), and it was full of flying baby wasps! So BACK upstairs I went to get the girls BACK out of bed! Between impromptu nature study and allowing them stay up later than normal to watch the Olympics, thank goodness we homeschool!

It was amazing to watch the baby wasps chewing out of their eggs like they were making little hinged lids! Yes, we have gotten our money's worth out of our little $2.50 magnifier!

Two things one can't live without...friends and flowers!

After a long week/end, I decided that my thyroid levels must be out-of-whack once more, for I could barely get out of bed, and I rested for most of the day on Sunday! Perhaps, we're just doing too much these days, but we surely can't stop now! Ivey's wedding is next week!

So after doing this and that during the day, I ran over to return some borrowed gardening tools to a good friend of mine (who sent them back home with me....she's so generous!), and that sweet thing sent me home with three huge bucketfuls of luscious, green perennials! She divided her Black-eyed Susans, Obedience Plant (just lovely when in bloom!), and a new aster that I've never had, Stokesia Aster! Of course, Eric new that he was in for another little project, when I pulled into the driveway and asked to borrow a shovel! (We're going to be such a great older couple [as if we aren't now!], for we do love to garden together!) I was really eager about getting my new gifts into the ground as soon as possible, so we did, and they love their new home!

Thanks, Elaine, from the bottom of my heart! I will always cherish our friendship as well as these lovely perennials!