turn turn turn*

in which our plucky heroine notices that the season changed...

though the quality of light is still bright, this morning it was actually chilly, with that particular autumnal scent. The forecast is for some rather intense rain on Saturday, so gathering in more of the remaining plums and apples beforehand seems wise.

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~ creativity challenge ~

Nandina and Almandine in their new party outfits...I'm rather pleased with how  the embroidery on Almandine's felt pinafore turned out. I drew it in first, using a Pigma micron pen, then carefully outlined and filled it in with stitchery using my smallest pearl cotton floss. Not sure what party decorations, food, and favors might be possible, other than that I know I want to make some "trick or treat" bunting.

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This morning, when I was out riding my bike, what did I see (for the first time) but the Alpenrose delivery truck... and sure enough, when I got back home, there was a shiny new box on my porch, and inside, my first delivery! Nom nom nom.

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So.. in order to make space in the chest freezer for the 10# of tomatoes, I needed to declutter and sort it. Which rather led to "remove the contents", and hence to defrosting (which needed to happen anyway)

Four hours later, there is now space, and all the random unlabeled mystery items are in the compost. I am so exhausted, from moving that much cubic of frozen things, that I don't even feel up to cooking dinner. But the remaining plums will have room, and the tomatoes from the market can have their frozen couple of days...

I freeze tomatoes at the start instead of blanching them... I don't like tomato skins in my sauce. At a certain point in their thawing out, the skins just slip off; it is much easier and less messy to remove their skins that way than faffing about with dipping them in boiling water and then in bowls of ice cube water. According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, each. 5# of tomatoes = a quart of sauce... which I'll put up in one meal recipe portions of 8oz. With luck, I'll be able to get another 10# in the next week or two.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Greek masks block carved	rodent removal	yard waste bin
2	pillowcases printed	bicycle tube replaced	recycle bin
3	snood for Ariadne	side plum pruned	yard waste bin
4	memorial calligraphy	apple tree pruning	broken oven bits
5	tiny fox "Almandine"	moar apple pruning	old frozen food
6	fig lemon jam 5 jars	added bat embroidery	yard waste bin
7	Almandine clothing	freezer defrosted	x
8	windfall applesauce 5 jars	x	x
9	Nandina blouse	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - It isn't exactly what I thought a time machine would be, but YouTube lets us go back in time and see what we may have missed the first time, or to revisit beloved media, over and over again. *There are so many versions of this song; this one was new to me: