Another Show & Tell Post

Along with all the "finishing-up" of outside fall tasks yet to be completed, I've been taking down time for myself to indulge my handwork craving.  I'm still stuck in the cross-stitching craze I've been in for a while.  

 

Please remember I've never claimed to be a good photographer.  (That goes without saying!)  Far from it as you will readily notice.

 

 A small knob-hanger for Halloween time.

 

Three happy pumpkins for that time, too.

 

Yep, Happy Thanksgiving!

It will be here soon.

 

Although fall themed, we can remember

this saying year 'round.

 

I'll wait to hang this little piece

until closer to Christmas.

 

 This one is waiting for the

final finish.  The picture on the pattern

had more muted coloring, but 

I'm very happy with mine.

 

There's no doubt this time of year makes me think of spending lots of time on the couch, with a fire crackling in the wood stove, keeping my hands busy and happy as can be.  And we may need that crackling fire sooner than not as our temperature at almost 7 this morning is still 34°.  Cozy time is coming! 

Some of the Last Flowers of the Season

I thought I'd share a few pictures of some of the flowers growing in our new berm boxes.

 

This white hollyhock has taken a bit of a beating in our recent rains, but it sure is purdy.  The tippy-top reaches over seven feet tall!  Not bad for a first year's growth.

 

We have two black hollyhocks that have blossomed profusely.

 

This delphinium is labeled "dark blue" but the color is actually more purple to my eye.   Beautiful!

 

I'm not sure whether to call this astilbe lavender or pink.  It's one of a grouping that was supposed to be either white, pink or lavender.  It seems to be changing color as it grows.  At any rate, it's lovely.

 

In the window boxes, I tried nasturtiums this year and had to replant them twice to get much of a showing.  They turned out okay, but now they're battered by the rain and on their way out.  Time to pull them and decorate the window boxes for fall. 

Hello, Mr. Bear

Our trail camera caught this sighting of a big, ol' black bear in our back wood working area a couple of nights ago.

 

I'm happy we haven't seen one this spring or summer during the daytime.  I'm very happy we haven't had one investigating what we might have in our plywood box that holds our recycling bottles and cans.  Or creating any other kind of (destructive) mischief.

 

I'm not planning on any midnight walks around the property though.  That's for sure. 

Still Behind

But I'm catching up!  So far, I've gotten only seven quarts of dill pickles made, but that's primarily because my pickling cukes are so s-l-o-w in coming this year.

 

Lots of haskap berries, blueberries and strawberries waiting in the freezer to be made into jam.  I got the one batch of strawberry jam made so Papa Pea is happy for the time being.

 

We've had almost steady rain for the last two days and nights.  This morning we had heavy fog and everything outside is drenched with moisture.  We've needed the rain, though, so no one is complaining about that.

 

I sloshed my way out to check on the garden a short while ago and found several branches broken on the green pepper plants.  I neglected to stake up the plants well enough so the heavy fruit apparently was too much on the outside branches during the rains.  I had to bring in this big bunch of lovely peppers.  Fortunately, I know someone who will take all sixteen of them.  I hope.  (That's a huge, old colander I inherited from my mother-in-law and I'm glad I have it as I use it a lot.)

 

Eureka!  We have pears on our pear tree for the first time ever.  We'd about given up on it.  There are a whopping total of five of them!

 

Two of the three shelves of onions curing are shown here.  I'm very pleased with the size of both the red and yellow ones this year.

 

Our garlic harvest is looking good.  This shows a portion of them hanging to dry.  There are 96 bulbs total.  More than we will use over the year, but after they're done curing I'll save the biggest cloves from the biggest bulbs to plant for next year's crop.

 

All in all, everything is going well as we move into our fall season.  The forecast for the next week is temps back up into the 70s so the growing season isn't quite over yet. 

Harvesting and Preserving Continues

Seems as though more harvesting from the garden goes on every day.  And it's a good thing because although our days are filled with sunshine, the temperature is dropping especially at night.  For the last few nights we've gone down into the 40s which makes me think the time for ripening garden produce is drawing nigh.

 

In the last day or so, I've made my last batch of Bread & Butter Pickles.  That will last us for possibly two years.

 

And a first batch of Strawberry Jam from berries I froze earlier in the season.  This amount wouldn't begin to last us two years!

 

The vines of pickling cucumbers have oodles of blossoms which should mean lots of cukes to come.  But with our dropping temperatures I'm getting a little nervous thinking I may not get enough to make as many quarts of Dill Pickles as I'd like.

 

I brought in this huge bowl of parsley to dehydrate and add to the stash for winter's use.  (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

 

After getting more blueberries this year than I anticipated, the ripening of the green berries still on the bushes if definitely slowly down.  While I was working on making Stuffed Green Peppers for the freezer this morning, Papa Pea picked these berries from the bushes.  Only about two cups but we're happy to have them.  I'm going to miss my bowl of fresh blueberries with a little cream and milk for breakfast when they're done for the season.

 

How about you?  What preserving are you doing right now?  All pictures enjoyed and appreciated! 

First Canning of the Season

 Our weather has taken a turn cooler.  That means I can do some canning in the kitchen without boosting the temperature up above 75°.

I didn't think I had any pickling cucumbers ready but, much to my surprise, this morning I found some big ones.

Either I'm going blind or they exploded into this size overnight!  No problem.  Even though they're too big for Dill Pickles, they are just the perfect size for my Bread & Butter Pickles.

Here they are all scrubbed and ready to be sliced.

The end product on the counter right now:  Eight pints.  I'll plan on doing one more batch like this which should be a two-year supply for us.  I try to plan it so I have to plant and grow pickling cucumbers only every other year.

Tomorrow what will the canner hold?  My first batch of strawberry jam.  (Oh, Papa Pea will be so happy.)  In July I froze berries to make into jam when the weather cooled a bit.  The next ten days for us are to have highs in only the 60s so I'm planning on getting as much canning done as I can.  Sure, it's a bit of work, but I enjoy it so much that I don't mind at all and get a big bunch of satisfaction in seeing all those full jars on my pantry shelves.