A Waning Gibbous Moon

  Now that I have put this picture up, I think I may have already used it recently, but for the life of me, I can't remember.  It's the most beautiful jalapeno jelly I have made yet. Happy as a clam with this stuff, and I will NEVER use another recipe.  lol  I hope to put up some sweet red pepper jelly as well, and today found a recipe for tomato preserves.  I can remember eating tomato preserves at my granny's house  a hundred years ago...it is a delight. It uses a LOT of sugar, lemon slices and cinnamon and ginger.  Very excited about trying it out.

   Slept in until 9 AM this morning...guess I was tired. lol  I was having some really crazy dreams too...about my ex-husband and people from my life all mixed up in a wrong time, wrong place kind of way. It was all so confusing that I kept trying to wake myself up, but would immediately fall back to sleep and resume the dream.  lol   It wasn't exactly a drinking dream, but there was lots of drinking going on around me. I was [apparently] curious, but not thirsty.  lol

Had an interesting day with MissB...she was frantic about one of her cats, and stood at the sink after searching for it for half an hour, and almost cried. She said she knew people thought she was crazy, I said, no one thinks you're crazy, sweetheart...and she said, I just love these damn animals and I worry about them, I can't have any thing happen to them, they're all I have... I said, you know I understand...and then I told her a story about one of my cats who goes missing on a regular basis, and every single time I worry myself into madness about it. And every single time, the little monkey shows up at the last minute and jumps into my arms.  About that time, I went to the front door one more time, and sure enough, the little cat came strolling out from under the hedge, pretty as you please.   We had a good day today, and I even managed to get some housework done while she was outside (she won't let anyone do anything...if you ask if you can, she will say NO) so the floors got cleaned a bit and the dishwasher got emptied.  When it was almost time for me to go, we went out front and sat on the porch. We can do that now, as the weather here has finally cooled down to some normal temperatures.

  I have sleeping dogs at my feet and the house is quiet. I'm going to head to bed soon as I have a lunch date with a friend in town from North Carolina, way too early in the day. It's been a good day, and I have nothing to complain about.  LOL

  The moon is fabulous tonight...even more fabulous last night.  I love the full moon....

  Sweet dreams to all....

Namaste.

Thundering Thursdays

Not really.  I am just dreaming of rain..and yet, none comes.

It has cooled down some though, and at 9:30, it's only 80 degrees. Balmy. Sunny and nice out there.

  I've been busy this morning making the second batch of Peach Pit Jelly, all told, 20 jars of jelly, some for keeping , some for giving...excruciatingly sweet for my taste, but yummy nonetheless. I was going to make Jalapeno Jelly today too, but have remembered that you have to use liquid pectin for that, and of course, all I have is powdered. So--it goes on tomorrow's list. I need to do some housecleaning anyway...

  There's another pint of jelly in the fridge.  Bad planning.  lol

  Whew. I always feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends this time of year. I stay busy all the time anyway, and the canning season just crams more work into what little space is left. lol I'm not complaining--I love doing this and I love eating my own food.  But it can be a lot of work. Trying to get the garden ready for second plantings, and today would be a good day to get out there too...sigh...but it's really too damn dry to plant anyway. And I have got to prioritize....lol.  May have family coming for the weekend from Minnesota. Won't know til the last minute, it looks like. If I don't do anything else, I HAVE got to vacuum up the tumbling balls of dog hair and dust and get the spare room straightened up--just in case. And now that I've had a jelly marathon I need to mop the wood floors too...because no matter how I try, I get jelly everywhere it seems. (That's it--I need a wife!!!!)  

  As I was looking up some different kinds of recipes for the pepper jelly, I found some delightful looking sweet red pepper jelly that I may HAVE to try too.  I'm gonna wind up having to buy more jars this year, I'm afraid. That's probably another thing to put on my hurry-up list : :inventory empty canning jars.  I'm guesstimating that I've already used over a hundred canning jars this season, counting jelly jars.  Maybe more than that.

  Tomorrow I am going to pull my basil and make and  freeze pesto.  I'll swing by the big store where I can get pine nuts today before I meet my girlfriend for lunch.  I still have 4 big grocery bags of dried basil from last year that hasn't been bagged yet, so...there are at least 8 basil plants out there awaiting their fate. Probably more tomatoes and peppers too...I haven't been out to look since Tuesday. But it would be great having pesto in the freezer and thanks to Judy for the idea. I have a great soup recipe  called Potato Basil Beef that uses pesto in it...mmm...haven't made that in a long time...not to mention a million other things to use it in.

  Feels good to just sit for a minute. The hardest part for me, physically is all this standing. 10 years ago last month, I was injured in an industrial accident. My pelvis was crushed and my hip was broken and my gluteal muscles were ripped away from the bones and I have all kinds of peripheral nerve damage and paralysis and  limitations from it. Very hard for me to stand for extended periods of time. I have learned how to adapt as much as I can, have special chairs and stools and do a little, rest a little, do a little, rest a little. I really need to invest in a fatigue mat for in front of my sink...I think that would help too. So you see...I have to work as much as I do to get half as much done as a "normal" person.  lol  It's all this resting between things that messes me up. lol

   Am planning a girls lunch next week with my sister and sister-in-law and several nieces. It's my sisters birthday on Sunday, and we try to get together every month or so...it'll be fun having Skyler here to be part of it too. We'll probably go to Red Robin, about 15 miles from here. It's central to everyone. Sort of. lol  If it works out, it'll be7 adults and 3 kids. Fun,Fun. Next week is going to be like a serious staycation for me.  I can't wait!!

  Alrighty...breaktime is just about over, and I have a lovely little list of things to do. Just finished wiping down all the jars of peaches and putting them away, to make room on the counter for the second batch of jam. That will sit for another 24 hours or so before I can put it away too. Need to figure out what to make my honey for upper tonight and get that going too. Gonna see if I can get ahold of my MN sister in law and pin her down about coming...don't really expect her...it's one of THOSE things. I know she'd like to, but her life tends towards the unexpected drama/crises alot.  We'll see...

   Have a grand day, ya'all.  I'm going to!

Namaste.

Whew. Am glad today is finally over!

  I was awakened this morning by a certain new puppy whining outside the bedroom door. I foolishly thought she wanted to go outside. She only wanted company, she had already peed and pooped on my carpet. Sigh...To add insult to injury, it was only 4:45.  Needless to say, I am bushed tonight at 11:45 ! This is the picture the sun came up to while I was sitting on the front porch in my rocking chair with the dogs . I guess I need to put water in the birdbath! lol (And yes-I have a rocking chair. 2 of them, in fact, on my front porch.)

  I woke the Irishman up at 5:15 because he wasn't up yet. Curiously enough, he had apparently forgotten to set his alarm. (Thank you, Bella)  I made him breakfast and we ate and he left for work around 6:30. By 7 AM, I was out back in the garden picking beans, tomatoes, squash and cucumbers. By 8:30, I was sitting in front of a mountain of green beans, nipping and cleaning them to get ready to can.  I canned over 30 pints of green beans today and 6 quarts too.  I took the last batch out of the canner at 7:30 PM, just as we were getting ready to eat supper. We grilled a couple of the filets I had in the freezer, I cooked up a bunch of baby sweet potatoes in the bottom of the box from last year, and sauteed fresh green beans, summer squash, onion, and whole garlic in olive oil and butter.  I was starving. And exhausted.
 Here are some of  the fruits of my labor of love:

  Am thinking of setting up a summer kitchen out in the studio. A friend has an electric stove she wants to get rid of, and it would be great to have somewhere to do some of this stuff so that it doesn't overtax my air conditioning like it did today. Having 3 burners on (lids and bands, tea kettle, and canner) creates a lot more heat than you would think. Something I'm thinking about anyway....

When I was a kid, we lived in an old Victorian house that had a summer kitchen. It also had a smokehouse.  The house itself had turrets and an attic bedroom and was very cool, like an old castle.

We are going to dinner and a movie tomorrow night with some friends. It will be nice to get out and socialize, not to mention eating at my favorite Chinese place and getting to see the new Tom Hanks movie--Larry Crowne.  I'm really looking forward to it.

  They said tonight on the news that the heat wave is coming back.  We just had 2 whole days where the temps were reasonable...only in the high 80's.  lol  Makes me think of the way they jimmy the gas prices up and down and now we feel blessed when we have gasoline for ONLY 3.69/gallon. Anyway, there's a heat advisory starting Sunday night at 5PM that is supposed to last until the following Friday. There have already been 2 deaths from the heat around these parts.  Scary.

  Alrighty...I am going to bed here in a minute.  I feel like I have been whipped, lol. I also got some laundry done and some floors vacuumed and so tomorrow should be a pretty easy day. Unless I decide to make jalapeno jelly.  (I do have kind of a lot of peppers out there....)

Sweet dreams, y'all.  Gabi--I am so glad to see you back blogging. Love ya, girl!

Namaste.