STAYCATION DAYS 4-5 (SUDDENLY QUIET)

Yesterday’s unofficial high was 92. Beautiful cloud formations developed in the afternoon and evening but brought us no moisture. The lightning play to the north last night was rather spectacular. My day began at 6:30 today and the temp was 64.

It seems to me we played host to many birds this season. In fact, one pair of tiny sparrow-like birds took up residence in the soffit at the end of the kitchen porch where the hole made by the flicker allowed them egress. (Note to Mike: Patch that hole.) They were a friendly couple, one or the other often sitting on the fencing to visit with me as I watered the raspberries. Their young were extremely gregarious and demanding, chirping and chittering from morning until night. Sometimes I felt as though I could scarcely hear myself think. And other noisy bird families lived here, too.

It all changed yesterday. Apparently it was time for the chicks to say their farewells and head off in their separate directions. It seems like everyone left at once.

And now – it’s so quiet. Only a few hummingbirds still visit the feeders, battling aggressive yellow jackets to do so.

Notes from my Kitchen

Today I made jelly of the “haw” juice. Since the haws are actually tiny apples, they have a lot of natural pectin. I tried to make the jelly with no added pectin, and I don’t think it will set up. I probably used too much water when I cooked the berries. And I probably should have added the three teaspoons of liquid pectin. But – nothing is lost – it’s excellent syrup. I cooked the jelly with a whole cinnamon stick and three whole cloves. The flavor is really quite good. I’ll make notes in my kitchen diary and try again next year.

Garden notes:

Every day I pick strawberries and now I have three cups of sugared crushed strawberries in the freezer. I think yellow jackets live under the rim of that tire, and they don’t much care for my presence.

After picking strawberries today, I went on to pull carrots (first time) and pick leaf lettuce from the other bed. As I worked I could hear this slurp-slurp licking sound, and when I investigated, Nellie was trying to get a strawberry hanging over the edge of the tire. I picked it and gave it to her, and she ate it greedily.

It’s time to remove the peas, but I may leave the ones at the end of the bed as the vines seem to shade the beans. I surely hope I get some nice green beans before the frost comes. That’s one advantage of the location on the south side of the house. It’s hot in summer but somewhat protected in the fall.

Project update:

I have enjoyed crocheting while I “watch” tv. Here’s a little duffle bag for an American Girl doll. I wonder – what does a doll carry in her duffel bag? And I started a doll’s Christmas outfit reading the instructions from my iPad.

The Christmas outfit went well until I got to the pattern row. Then I had problems. I must have worked that row five times before I got it right. I thought of my mother who used to take my work and the pattern and figure out where I had gone wrong. I think she liked to do that. I was less methodical -- just kept trying until I finally came out right at the end of the row. KW