upson downs

in which our plucky heroine attempts to roll with it...

The last few days have been all about dealing with the autumnal fruit bounty, always happy-making, if rather exhausting. Plums into the freezer, pears into the dehydrator, apples into applesauce. Lather rinse repeat. There are still ripe grapes on the fenceline, not to mention the yet unripened persimmons and quinces.

I'm planning on turning the last years tomato randomness I found in the freezer into Awesome Sauce, to make room for this years tomatoes. After I work through the daily needful chores, plus there is an online class at lunchtime on Anglo Saxon embroidery I intend to sit in on. At least there were no nightmares last night, and I even traveled to a beautiful rocky beach in dreamland!

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~ creativity challenge ~

I'm was wondering if am quite sure Almandine needed/wanted hair... I was rather taken with the long orange braids the child gave her fox doll here. There is some thin russet orange yarn, hiding somewhere near the bottom of the tablet weaving yarn box. It was rather a challenge to figure out how to best create and attach her new hairdo, but tacky glue seemed to do the trick, and now she, and I, are much more satisfied. 

In other news, have started on making a miniature jack-o-lantern pumpkin, and two small candy buckets from spun cotton, yet another experiment. My hypothesis is to make an armature from yarn balls, covered in tape, with the idea that after the cotton has dried and hardened, the yarn and tape can be pulled out, leaving what will be a hopefully sturdy shell, suitable for painting, and to be used as part of the miniature Halloween party. Also, hawthorne berries look a lot like miniature apples.

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Well crap! Roof leaked in the workroom last night. We had almost an inch and a half of rain and wind. I guess the onetime leak last year was not a fluke after all. Gah! I shall try and give Mr Dawson a call, and see if it may be possible for him to come and slather the likely spot with some kind of patch. This is not a good time  either financially or seasonally to try and replace the roof!

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beauty in the time of isolation:

Ten pounds of organic San Marzano tomatoes. Locally grown, toted home from the farmer's market in my bicycle panniers, and destined to become sauce. Yum. I ate one on a sandwich yesterday, because this type of tomato is my favorite.

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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	pears dehydrated	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 - For some unknown reason, while I was out riding my bike Saturday, before it got too warm and too weird out there, and before the rain arrived, my intuition told me to go check out Fred Meyers, and see if they had canning jar lids?!?... I masked up and headed over there. Much to my surprise, there were a few boxes of wide mouth lids on the shelf, next to the sections of all the other canning products all marked off with "sorry, out of stock" labels. I was in and out of the store like a dose of salts, but delighted to bring home another four dozen new Kerr lids. Now the tomatoes I bought have all the accoutrements to be properly preserved.