August 1, 2013

Optimism

Nature is cruel. 
I found this near our house.
 
We still have to wind through the hottest part of the year, but now I have hope that FALL will be coming soon enough!

 
My camera is also cruel; this was (sadly) the best picture I managed, but I know I'll have plenty of chances in just a couple of months.  I can't wait!

June 23, 2013

In a Jam?

Why yes, yes I am...
Well, not in any actual jam, but I'm in a jam making frenzy!  Ever since I discovered the Microwave Berry Jam on King Arthur Flour's Blog, we've had fresh jam.  It started innocently enough with strawberry jam a few days ago, some raspberry yesterday, and most likely, some blueberry today.  I figured it would be good, but I didn't realize how good it would be!  This sounds kind of stupid, but it just tastes so fresh, like just 15 minutes ago it was a pint of berries or something... Oh, wait!  It was!
I've been wanting to learn how to can lately but have been completely overwhelmed by everything that goes into it.  I then decided that freezer jam would be a good place to start; I've even gotten the special little jars for it already.  However, the very next day, the King Arthur Flour site had the answer of where I should start.  Freezer jams and 'real' canning are still on the horizon, but this will tide me over for a short while, especially once the local peach season begins!

April 13, 2013

Springing



Winter is officially over (according to the calendar), and I'm excited for SPRING!  Summer, not so much, but spring is nice.  It's amazing how excited you can get about flowers in the spring (especially violets), even if they are considered to be weeds!



 




 



 


 


Even snail shells seem exciting in spring...
Just the shells though!
(I haven't totally lost my senses)

January 24, 2013

More Excuses

I should do better, blah, blah, blah.  Posting should happen more than once a year, blah, blah, blah.  New Year, new resolutions, blah, blah, blah.  (Truth be told, that last one is the most accurate.)



Anyway, moving on.  I don't know if I've said it here or not, (but I'm just going to pretend the past year of posts pretty much didn't happen so it really doesn't matter) but every year I make a list of 100 things.  The list is a wildly diverse collection of random things I would like to do, to make, to become, or achieve in the following year.  This is about my fourth year doing it, and in all honesty, I've never gotten the satisfaction of crossing off all 100 things.  Continuing this honesty thing, I've never crossed off the one constant thing added every year:  "Number 100 - Finish at least 50% of the list".
I started the list after reading somewhere once that people only actually follow through on something like 8-12% of resolutions, so I thought I'd come up with 100 things and see how well I could do.  Not much better than that, I have to admit.  Last year I had starting a blog on the list, (number 58, in no particular order) and this year, actually posting regularly on the blog is on there, too (number 21, again, in no particular order).  So here we go!
I actually have finished something on the list already this year, number 10, to be exact.  It's not very exciting (and normal people don't have issues with this, either), but I helped take the lights off of the Christmas Tree in a timely manner within the first week of the year!  Yay!  If I were anyone else, this may not seem like such a great feat, but I have helped my Dad take the lights off the tree after it had been carted outside because it was a fire hazard for safety reasons, while the temperature was in the 20's, losing feeling in our hands, watching him swear at the tree and saying we'll get a fake pre-lit one next year... not a pretty picture, but you get the idea.  Sometimes Mom takes the lights off, sometimes Dad does, but usually it ultimately involves wire cutters and pruners.  Seriously.  Why does it come to this every year?
Because they let their daughter put the lights on, and I make sure no branch goes without a few hundred tiny bulbs of multi-colored Christmas magic!  But this year was my last chance to prove I could do the lights and get them off in a reasonable window of time.  I always argue to leave the tree up through Epiphany (January 6th), so this year, on January 7th, Mom and I managed to get the lights off in record time.  What actually takes me a few evenings to do before Christmas was completely undone in less than two hours!  Yay!  Scratch off number 10!

The pumpkins from Halloween are fairing nicely on the porch.
Christmas garlands are still up, too...
I'm kinda confused on the seasonal front...


...And these don't help at all!
(Yay, Spring!)