putting up

A little over a year ago I wrote my husband a love note that said I wanted to grow an arbor of concord grapes.  It was a weak attempt at being poetic but we used to live in a little old house in Connecticut that had grapes growing abundantly along the back of our property and we loved them.  I have always missed the grapes.

When we moved here I didn’t notice the grapevines at first.  They are all tangled amongst the weeds and trees, climbing way up high.  Now they are ripe and their sweet pungent scent fills the air - it is the most wonderful smell.

I picked enough to make a couple batches of grape jam.  My fingers are stained purple…though making jam is a wee bit time consuming (you have to pop the skin off each grape) it is very worth it.

I’m hoping to muster the energy this weekend to finish picking  and make grape juice. Hopefully I can round up some helpers to pick grapes in the Tom Sawyer-whitewash-the-fence-fashion. 

 

The recipes I use are from the Ball Blue Book’s Guide to Preserving.  It looks like a magazine (not the actual large book), I bought it at the local farm store.  They also have a website here.  I highly recommend using the Ball recipes as it’s important to put up food properly and their company does a great job at spelling out food safety while making you excited to can. And seriously I get excited to can! It makes me happy to have food reserves in the basement, both because it means less grocery shopping (ugh to that, I really don’t like doing it) and because it’s healthier than store bought stuff.

I store my jars in the basement which is very brave of me as it creeps me out to go down there.

It feels like fall is right on the edge, our yard has a few scattered leaves and there are pumpkins and mums at every roadside stand.  Is it fall where you are?

What day of the week were you born?

I’m usually not one to buy tins, especially rusty ones.  But since I needed a home for a needlepoint project I thought this one was perfect…minus the dirt and rust.

I lightly used steel wool on the outside and spray painted the inside with a primer for metal.

I wasn’t sure what day of the week I was born on before I bought it.  I was pretty sure it wasn’t a Monday as my whole life I think I have lacked the self confidence to feel fair of face.

I was really hoping it wasn’t a Wednesday or Thursday.

 

My husband was born on a Friday, this verse speaks well for him as he is the most loving and giving person I know.  Unless sports are on then he would prefer to not hear me talk about home decorating and how I just spray painted a bucketful of acorns gold.  Especially now, what is up with those Red Sox?

How lucky any of you are to be born on a Sunday! 

If you’d like to find out what day the week you were born you can go here.

I was born on a Tuesday- out of the seven people in this family four of us were born on Tuesdays.

If you were born on a Wed or Thurs I’m really, really sorry you are such trouble.

she has crooked buns

These are the thoughts in my head as I look at this picture:

50 cents

Recently I went to a yard sale atop a great big hill.  They had shelves of books that looked like they had dragged them straight from the living room (read dust covered).  It was an eclectic assortment with books about shed building right next to Charlotte’s Web. 

As I browsed through all the titles with my head crooked sideways the woman was going on about how her daughter loves buying used books and they just have no more room….blah blah blah.  Like I haven’t heard that lecture before!

After finding this one all the other books seemed dim in comparison.

Louisa May Alcott + Tasha Tudor?  Isn’t that perfection?

As I was paying the woman’s daughter came outside -- she was a teenager! I thought for sure she was an awkward middle-aged woman such as myself.   I love people that love books.  She has a lifetime of learning ahead of her and no doubt she will reflect on those books in her driveway throughout her life.   Seeing books from my youth instantly brings me back to my closet in the corner with the bookcase I would arrange and rearrange.

After I dusted the book off I placed in the honorable spot on my nightstand.  It’s waiting for me to finish Oliver Wiswell, I’m finally almost done with that darn book.  Which I love and read every single darn day but can’t seem to reach the darn end.

What are your most remembered childhood books? 

I hope you are enjoying these fair weather September days!

sunny with an undertow

We went to visit Auntie M and Uncle N.  It was his birthday and because he is crazy and loving and kind we brought our gaggle of kids and a cake and sang to him. 

He lit the candles three times so he and the kids could blow them out, and he sang louder than everyone else.

That is why I love him. 

The waves seemed angry, but the blue sky countered that.  There was a hurricane off shore (Katia) and made for some scary  great wave riding.  We were  swimming kind of far out and having a great time until Maggie, Sam and I were alone and the waves suddenly got enormous, banging into us one after another leaving no space to inhale oxygen.   We were stuck in the undertow while our family sat lovingly on the beautiful deck eating exotic cheeses and wine.   Even though I couldn’t barely breath and my belly was full of sea water I could not stop laughing.  Maggie and I would cling to each other and laugh hysterically.  Eventually the waves spit us closer to shore and we crawled through the gravelly part on our hands and knees with every ounce of strength we had left.  We laid on the sand and ventured up the bluff where everyone laughed thinking we were just goofing around in the water.  So we sat and ate yummy food thinking:  did that all just really happen?

Needless to say it was great fun but I didn’t let my kids go back in the water.

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I have been a poor blogger lately.  I need a master plan as each day my list is too long to get done.

Send me some inspiration!