Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Considerations

As fall approaches it's naturally a time of change. I used to pass a reservoir on my way to work each day, and I always noticed the seasonal turnover of the lake each fall. The mix of water color across the lake was mesmerizing to me. And not surprisingly, the beautiful scene gave me a sense of melancholy. Where changes in the spring, be it lake turnover, budding trees, or melting snow, fill me with exuberance, I get melancholy this time of year. I love fall and I can handle change. I guess I'm a summer girl though and it's harder to transition into fall regardless of how much I love it once I do. This year I can feel the itch for change and I can see that in others too.

I'm considering a number of changes, from how I interact with people to the table we eat dinner at, and my head is swirling with the possibilities. I may spend my evening at the library tonight just trying to think through it all, and only because the zoo is closed. During our visit today I could have sat in the aquarium for hours. I made a mental note to return there with a notebook some rainy afternoon.

Do you feel an autumnal desire to make a change or changes in your life? I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours - comment below! Okay, okay I'll give you a sample, but it's a utilitarian change, nothing exciting. I'm hoping to change how I approach my computer time with a 'Kick the E-mail Habit 30-day Challenge.'


"When you're finished changing, you're finished." - Benjamin Franklin

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Here and There

As I admitted in my last post, I've been, well, busy. Perhaps I should find a synonym that annoys me less. In any case, I also mentioned I'd carved out time for a few things including weekend trips. Below are the highlights - enjoy!

On or around July 4th we began to stew in unending heat and humidity. This has continued with cool offs only a few days here and there up through this week. Today it's 90 and we're in the midwest so that's neither normal or abnormal but still hot (for us). I remember feeling like I was melting when we went to the parade and watched Mr. Franklin read the Declaration of Independence.


































Our mid-summer vacation was to the lake, as in the one D spent summers at growing up. It's about 40 minutes north of my parents' home so we bookended the trip visiting them. The lake is small, about a mile wide and probably triple that in length. It has a turn of the century (the last century) amusement park on it which sadly is in need of much repair. At the other end of the lake from the park is an extremely small town, and surrounding it all is rural Pennsylvania. It's quiet. It's beautiful. And we wish we could spend more time there, but alas. Last year J was afraid of the water. He has a lot more fun this year but was still wary of the blue gills that would swim right up and bump your toes or legs.






We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary in August. As usual we discussed the options of going away versus doing absolutely nothing. And as usual we ended up somewhere in-between. We visited a conservation center, that works with zoos all over the world, and took a safari tour. It was cool but we both think it would have been better if we'd done a sunset tour as it would have been cooler, and more animals would have been active. Now we know what to do next time!





























We traveled over this past weekend, Labor Day, to visit my parents and the fair we grew up attending each year. This is a small fair but it still has vendors offering elephant ears, not just funnel cakes, so clearly it's awesome. I like a small fair. I don't need six vendors selling me burritos when one or two is fine. I don't even need a butter sculpture.

This was J's first fair. We went through the animal barns first - horse, cows, pigs, goats, sheep and then the beloved chickens. Not surprisingly this was J's favorite barn. We had to go through it twice. My father met us there after we were done with the barns and the chickens were the only ones J wanted to show him. Of course I too love the chickens and so much so that I didn't actually get any photos of J's excitement as he ran through the aisles. I was too busy getting close-ups of the birds and working through my own excitement. My bad.

After the animals we hit the center field of tractors - so many tractors. J was equally happy here. Then we moved on to lunch, games, and of course dessert (the elephant ear!!!!). It was cold and rainy but overall still a good time and a nostalgic way to welcome fall.



Put up or Shut up

I've been so busy. I hate when people say that. But I know sometimes it's actually true, and when it is I don't mind hearing it. I've actually been so busy myself for the past few weeks. I've been working on freelance work in all my spare time and that's why there have been no blogs. I did manage to carve out time to celebrate my birthday, take a couple weekend trips out-of-town, and put up a bunch of goodies.

Our CSA came to an end last week; that's a little on the early side but we knew that going in. Between that, the farmer's market, our garden, and a trip to the berry farm, I've been able to freeze and can quite a bit of things. I froze two types of jam, blue berries, pesto, and corn. I hope to get at least one more batch of pesto frozen this weekend. I love pesto and I'll know next year to plan 7 or 8 basil plants since the 5 I have has not yielded as much as I would have liked. I've also discovered that though I love basil, I absolutely adore rosemary and it's likely my favorite herb.




There should be a name for this time of year, between summer and fall. The days are noticeably shorter and range wildly in temperature - today is 90 here but yesterday was 80 and tomorrow is forecasted to be in the 70s. That's crazy but also so normal for this time of year that clearly needs a name. It's also when gardeners are inundated with tomatoes and zucchini. We only grew tomatoes this year. We have 8 heirloom plants and they are massive, however they're not yielding a crazy amount of fruit. I've gotten enough to freeze some pints of salsa as well as a handful of containers of oven roasted tomatoes, however I've had to supplement from the farmer's market. I also got 12 pints of tomatoes canned. I hope the remaining tomatoes ripen in time for this weekend so I can move on to quarts and do a last batch.




This is my first year of canning and that is the source for my blog title - Put up or Shut Up. I've been talking about wanting to can for at least two seasons now. I spent most of the summer filling our freezer, hesitant to actually get the canning supplies out and try my hand at it. Well, it's easy! I'm so excited to have successfully canned peach butter, tomatoes and jelly (okay the latter wasn't a success but that was an issue with overly juicy peppers not their processing) that I'm looking forward to apple butter, applesauce, and even soups this fall! Now I need a place to store all these goodies in the basement. Of course I'm set on something vintage, so I've been scouring Craigslist.

Admittedly I could have also called the post Put up AND Shut Up considering ever since the arrival of a large box of canning jars and accessories from my mom arrived, D has been bugging me about using them. He didn't think I actually would and that they'd just take up space. Ah, but now they are taking up space and filled with garden fresh fruits and veggies for winter. Someone will have to shush now.