Moseying Along

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When the humidity is high, I am not comfortable. I spend time in the garden in the early mornings, before the heat of the sun makes for steamy conditions. There is surprisingly little weeding to be done in my raised beds, and I have no trouble at all keeping ahead of unwelcome weeds. Life is full of small pleasures at the moment. Canning, and the Garden Part of this year’s canning activities are intertwined with garden activities. Attila brings in produce from the garden every evening. There is never a lot, all at once, but after a few days there is usually enough to warrant a day of canning. Yesterday I canned 3 500-ml jars of No-Sodium Zucchini Relish, and 3 500-ml jars of Hot Cherry Bomb Tomatoes. The steam canner has been a game changer in my canning life. It sits on the stove almost all the time, at the ready. It will can 7 1-litre jars (quarts) or 7 500-ml jars (pints) at one go, or just one jar. My Steam Canner is the lighter, smaller aluminum model, the stainless steel model cans even more jars at one go. My little steam canner uses just two liters of … Continue reading →

Chocolate Cherry Jelly… not exactly!

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Have you ever had someone knock on your door and run away? Apparently the Conservative party of Canada considers this technique a great way to make friends and influence people. When the candidate knocked on my door, I was in the kitchen. I walked ten feet from the kitchen to the front door, 4 seconds tops, opened it, and there was his back, as he headed off at speed, half way to the road. Obviously our little house was not someplace he wanted to make actual eye contact. But I caught him, and he smiled, and he suffered through the routine question, “do you have any questions?” Of course I did, and he answered every one of them with a pat statement that didn’t address my question. I let him do that, because really, I knew, and he knew, that he didn’t give one %$#^ what I thought about anything. He ended by asking me who I was going to vote for. Undecided, I said. Then he asked me who Attila would vote for. Undecided, I said. He typed that into his cell phone. If we are lucky, that will mean that there will be no more knocks on my … Continue reading →

Fine Wine

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The garden just keeps on giving us a little of this, and a little of that. Today a rogue zucchini will provide a lovely stir fry for our lunch. It was ready to be picked days ago, but was missed and just discovered, and is larger than would be ideal. It was delicious. Attila picked 4 cups of Basil for Pesto, which is already made, spooned into a muffin tin, and is in the freezer. Later today there will be the last of green string beans, the bugs are decimating the plants, so this will be the last harvest from these plants. Two of the Cabbages are ready, so hopefully one of them will be made into Sauerkraut, which I’ve not attempted before, and can’t eat anyway because of the high sodium content, but Attila loves it, and if it turns out, then yay! The big canning jobs at Mist Cottage are tomatoes and apples. Their season is yet to come. A few of the tomatoes in the garden are light red, not quite there yet, but there are many more to come, barring disaster, weather, rodents, insects, birds, or humans. It is hot and humid today. I enjoyed the … Continue reading →

Cherries and Zucchini Relish

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I’ve had a pretty good week. Little things, of course, little things, and no drama. Today it is hot outside, but not too humid. I opened the windows this morning, no regrets there, even though it is much warmer in the house than is comfortable. The birds sound amazing. Attila has been working on Tank off and on for weeks. He has removed some substandard superfluous wiring that had been installed by a previous owner. He has researched, and identified a faulty part, which he dismantled and cleaned, and which fixed a small problem. And I’ve kept the process going by joining an online forum, submitting questions, and assisting Attila in discussing the issues in the forum. The very last suggestion given to us on the forum, after weeks and weeks of trying all sorts, was to add an octane booster, to see what would happen. While at Canadian Tire it was discovered that octane booster needs to be added when the gas tank is low, so although the product was purchased, using it had to be delayed. But Attila spotted another product that could be tried immediately, injector cleaner. After using that, there was improvement. When I drove Tank … Continue reading →

Little Old Lady in Training

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Friday night we had a wonderful experience. Sitting on the back porch in the late evening, when the light was fading fast, the fireflies began a beautiful flickering light show. There were dozens of them in our yard. Theirs is one of the most beautiful mating rituals in the world, in my opinion. Love was in the air! Suddenly I am noticing strangers, or they are noticing me, or both. A few weeks ago, a woman in a parking lot cornered me to confirm that I had witnessed a confrontation she had just had, for which I had observed no evidence. It was awkward, disturbing, but not threatening. Today, Attila and I did a run to the retail outlets to buy supplies. After emerging from the grocery store, we took our cart to the car, and were moving items from the cart to the car, when an older woman [older than me], a complete stranger, approached us, and who, in a laughing manner said, “Hurry up and get that cart emptied!”. She then asked me if we were “heading to the cottage with all those groceries.” ” Just stocking up on sale items,” I told her. She rightly observed that, … Continue reading →