JOURNAL ARCHIVES BIOGRAPHY LINKS PHOTOGRAPHY POETRY
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Last Sunday Attila and I made our annual pilgrimage to visit my grandparent’s graves. It takes more than an hour of driving to get there, through very scenic country. They rest near my grandfather’s parents, and my grandfather's grandparents. Although my grandparents have been dead these thirty years or so, I still miss them keenly. While on our travels we purchased three baskets of field tomatoes, a basket of peppers and a small basket of jalapeno peppers. Monday evening was spent chopping, measuring, heating jars and canning salsa. On Tuesday night we repeated the performance. We still have enough tomatoes left to can another batch of salsa, but I have not decided yet between salsa and chili sauce. Chili sauce seems very appealing. Decisions, decisions! While we were in the north we managed to pick a quart of fully ripened wild rose hips. Today I have prepared the hips, and boiled them down to produce two cups of juice. Since the recipe calls for four cups of juice, I might add two cups of apple juice. This is a job for tomorrow. Yesterday I spent the day at the library, busy with genealogical research. I found few pieces of new information, but I did manage to make copies of birth, marriage and death records for my direct line. I arrived at the library before 9 A.M. and left at 3:30 P.M., and then only because I had additional errands to run before picking Attila up at work. When I arrived home I realized I had forgotten to eat and drink during the day. It is wonderful to conduct “free range” research, following ones nose onto more and more interesting bits and pieces of the past. Also this week I took the time to clean out the masonry fireplace, removing the ashes to the ash bucket and then outside. The glass door cleans spotlessly using crumpled newspapers, wetted down and dipped in wood ashes from the fireplace. This technique works so well that using a commercial cleaner seems like a lot of extra work, and costs quite a bit more besides. Now all we have left to finish off the fireplace is to parge the back wall, and install the cleanout door for the ash dump; I bought the door yesterday when I had the car to go to the library. Temperatures are cooler now, the daytime highs ranging from 14 to 21 degrees. The nights are much cooler, but above freezing, wonderful for sleeping beneath a fluffy comforter. It rained all day yesterday, but today is fine and sunny, big fluffy white clouds dot the sky. I will be spending the rest of the day sorting and filing the vital records I copied at the library yesterday. This is a lot of fun. I have decided to file these records alphabetically by surname, then given names. Some of the records have many entries on the page, not just my ancestor’s information. I will transcribe all of this additional information and make note of the surname/given name filing of the copy. Well, enough writing for now, a nice cup of tea and then back to jelly making and history exploring. |
RECIPES :: Cast Worldly Distractions  Salsa!  Rosehip juice, ready for jelly making. Weather Sunny Temp 16°C Pressure 101.8 kPa Visibility 15 km Humidity 53 % Dewpoint 7°C Wind WNW 9 km/h By the Easy Chair Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi Quote "Eventually the whole town would pretend... and the next generation would be fed that illusion as history... who would preserve the texture of truth, not to let its fibers slip beneath the web of silence and collusion which people - often with the best of intentions - spun to sustain and protect one another." From Stones from the River, by Ursula Hegi, page 29. |
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