*cough* *cough* Oof, so much dust! *tap* *tap* Is thing on?
Well hello. It’s been awhile. I did not intend to take a break, but goodness, things have been a bit overwhelming. I am well and James is well. We have neither of us caught COVID. But there was so much that something had to give. There is still so much, but it does not appear that it will be changing anytime soon, so perhaps I might be able to wiggle in a blog post now and then.
When the blogging stopped I actually dusted off my journal and started journaling regularly again. I have kept a journal since I was eleven and when I started blogging so many years ago the journal kind of got let go. Sure, I’d write in it now and then but for the most part months would go by. Now I’m writing once or twice a week and it feels really good to be doing that again. I am determined not to let it slip away.
As you can imagine, I have been busy in the garden. Since James was furloughed and I was working from home in the spring, there was so much more time and nothing was rushed. It was the most sedate spring in the garden I have ever had. The weather even cooperated for the most part to allow us to get everything planted in a timely fashion. It was truly glorious. And for the last two months we’ve been reaping the benefits.
I’ve been getting better about saving seeds year-to-year, especially shelling peas. A couple years ago I had one pea plant that was more prolific than all the others for longer than all the others. I didn’t eat a single pea off that plant, but saved every one to re-plant the following year. And then from that batch I saved the ones that did the best, and so on. This year all the careful saving really showed. We had lots of great big peas that did well even in an early heatwave. And, of course, again, I let the peas that did the best go to seed to save for next year. It is so hard to not eat the biggest, plumpest peas!
Now it’s green bean time and I am doing the same with the green beans. I have bush beans that have already gone through their first big production and I left beans on several strong plants to go to seed. The pole beans are starting in now and the same goes for them. This year I also intend to save zucchini seeds. That will be easier since I can eat the zucchini! The lettuce has bolted too and I will be saving seeds there as well.
It was a banner year for rhubarb and raspberries. The freezer is packed full. The black currants were not greatly prolific, but they did get big and fat this year and ended up in my oatmeal a few mornings. The red currants did wonderfully and James just made two pints of jam over the weekend. The elderberry is enormous and so heavy everything sagged down onto the ground. We’ve propped it up as best we can but it still isn’t great. Those won’t be ripe for another few weeks yet, but oh, I can hardly wait! I am also keeping my eye on the rose hips, determined to pick them this year and give them a try as a jam.
The crabapple has also done really well this year and the little apples are beginning to get ripe. We’ve picked some of them but there are a lot more on the tree we will have to fight the squirrels for. Hoping we are able to rescue enough for ourselves to make jam. Can you tell we like jam at my house? Actually, it has taken me so long to write this that I picked all the crabapples this morning and James is cooking them down in the crockpot as I type. Next time I manage to post I will have a jam photo.
The potatoes–Irish cobbler–have been dug too. We like growing them but we are not sure that it is worth the effort for the amount we actually get. So James and I will be having a discussion come November about whether it is worthwhile ordering some for planting next spring or whether we want to try something else instead.
The Dashwoods loved me and James being home for so long in the spring and early
summer. They got to be out in their garden all day everyday. They love that the elderberry is so wide and spreading. It gives them great shade and protection. They like to wallow down in the dirt beneath it to stay cool on hot and humid days. It’s so thick with low leaves and branches that you would never know they were there. When I would walk out to check on them I’d called, Dashwoods! And they’d come streaming out from beneath it with hopeful looks on their faces, treats! The pandemic means nothing to them. Sometimes I think it would be lovely to be so blissfully unaware.
Waldo liked us being home too. He would pretty much sleep on the corner of my desk all day while I worked. He also enjoyed Zoom bombing meetings I was in. Thankfully, other people had pets who liked to join meetings too. I think the animals provided a wonderful lightheartedness to everything because it gave everyone something to talk about other than work and the pandemic.
I have been back at the library every day since early July and James has been back at work since the end of June. It’s nice to see and talk with people who are not on my computer screen and also a little anxiety producing in some situations. Aside from work we pretty much go nowhere but the grocery store, the farmers market and the bike shop–essential services!
So much more has been happening but if I keep going on this post will be a book that doesn’t get published until next year. This will do for now. More again soon. Really!
It’s great to see you back. I’m so glad that James was able to make some jam. Our raspberries are over now so this week I made blackberry/bramble jam. I make so much jam I end up giving a lot away, it’s very popular. I’m envious of your crabapple crop and it was good to see a couple of the Dashwoods.
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Thanks Katrina! It’s a fine balance I’m after, let’s see if I can make it work! I don’t have enough bramble jam to give away, but it is shaping up to be a big apple year so we are anticipating lots of apple sauce, apple butter, and jelly. My neighbor loves the apple butter we make and he is already dropping hints 😀
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I’m so glad to know you’re both doing well. Your garden and the stores put by are so inspiring!
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Thanks Valorie! I love putting up stuff from the garden and opening a jar in the middle of winter and remembering summer 🙂
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It is good to see that you are blogging. I am glad to hear that you and your husband are doing well. My family and I are also well. I am still working from home.
I remember when you would post about your garden and I would comment that we were gardening too. This year we have been so busy that we play have not gardened at all.
Stay healthy and safe.
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Thanks Brian Joseph! I am happy to hear you and your family are well! Sorry to hear though that you have been too busy to do any gardening this year. I will think good garden thoughts for you for next year!
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We are still home with our pets. I am teaching online this fall, even though the class is mostly sophomores and my college is planning on having freshman and sophomores (only) on campus in the fall. My daughter, a grad student at UNC Chapel Hill, is required to teach in person and every day she tells me about another “cluster” of cases in another dorm. She has set up her class so that the first in person day is Aug. 25 (classes started Aug. 10) so we’re both kind of hoping that the university shuts down before then. I’m worried about higher education, though, and education in general. And the post office. So much to worry about. Better to be a chicken.
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I am glad you can teach online Jeanne. How scary for your daughter though. I heard during the week that UNC has gone all online after a week. I didn’t hear though if it was all the campuses or a specific one. I hope your daughter is able to stay safe and healthy! You are right, there is so much to worry about right now, there always has been really, but the pandemic has just made it more intense and harder to ignore. On a side note, I am reading Providence! 🙂
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So nice to see you back on the blog! I’m glad to hear you are doing well. Impressed with your seed-saving. I have done a few- I saved lettuce seed many years ago and still have some- they are very prolific. This year I am growing from my own pole bean seed, and am saving from collard greens and sweet peas. I haven’t done enough seed-saving years in a row yet to see tangible benefits like you have. We have a crabapple tree too, but ours makes very small crabapples- a bit smaller than cherries- and I have never bothered to collect them for use. Ours is a flowering variety grown mostly for show, I think. Have you been reading much… ?
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Thanks Jeane! Sounds like you are doing some good seed saving yourself! Once you get started it gets easier from year to year. My crabapples are about the size of a gold ball, so not very big, but big enough and wonderfully tart! I bet you could use your little ones to make jam/jelly. Cook them whole, mash and then strain. I have been reading lots! Several books by Terry Tempest Williams, a bunch of books with unlikeable but fascinating narrators, poetry, history. Good stuff! Are you one Goodreads?
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No, regret to say I’m not on Goodreads. I do go there often to look at reviews, but so far only cross-post from my blog onto LibraryThing. . . .
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Hey friend, it’s great to see you! I love hearing about your and the Dashwoods’ adventures, and I hope that being back to work is more positive than stressful, overall. I’m still working remotely and feeling kind of weirdly suspended in time — part of me feels like we’re never going to be back to “normal.”
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Hi Jenny! Time has felt weird even after I stopped working from home. And I agree, normal is never going to be the same as it was. Take care!
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Sweet chickens! Mine are happy too, although we have some skunk invaders in the neighborhood making everyone nervous. I have picked up paper journaling again too.. it feels good. Things are strange, but when are they not? This is just a very intense version of strange…Glad you and James are doing well!
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Oh no, I hope the skunks aren’t persistently aggressive! There is something very comforting in paper journaling especially in these times. I hope you aren yours are doing well!
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Hey welcome back! And glad to see you and your husband are well, as with all your tenants in the backyard. You have such a fruitful garden, Stefanie, you’re self-sufficient for food supplies and have no fear for a lockdown (hope not, but just in case).
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Thanks Arti! My garden is fruitful but it is definitely not enough to be self-sufficient. But it is enough to supplement and also to freeze/preserve so come winter we have a little reminder of summer. 🙂
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So happy to see a post from you and hear you both are doing well and just keeping busy. I love all the garden details and I would love to come over and try out the jam. Who doesn’t love jam! We’ve been working from home since March and at first I thought I’d have so much more time for books, etc. but it seems I’m reading less. Just so busy with work. Ah well. Looking forward to more photos from your garden. Stay safe & well!
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Thanks Iliana! Any time you are in the neighborhood you are welcome to come by and try some jam. I will probably give you eggs too 🙂
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Welcome back, Stefanie! I loved that image of the Dashwoods running up, all innocent and hopeful, knowing nothing of the pandemic. Generally I believe in being informed about the world, but this year I’ve sometimes wished I could switch it all off. It’s a good time to be a chicken 🙂
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Thanks Andrew! I have found this year there is a fine line between being informed and having too much information. I pretty much only allow myself to check news twice a day otherwise it gets to be too much for my sanity.
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Stefanie!!! Where o where have you been?? I missed you!! But I am so glad to hear you and James are doing well! I started journaling again last year as things got tough and I am trying to balance the electronic as well the written word! I also started gardening this year with a lot of vigor though most experiments have been a disaster but I think I am getting some hang of it and am growing my own herbs!! All these months I kept thinking of you and your garden posts, which have inspired me to get going!! So good to hear from you ….please stay safe and post soon!!
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Hi cirtnecce! Another person who has begun journaling not long ago. Seems like it is the thing to do when we feel stressed. I know it helps me slow down and calm down and think through things. I am so happy to hear you have been gardening! Don’t worry about the disasters! It is how one learns. I always have at least one disaster every year and if I were to make them all into a list it would be very long! Hooray for your successful herbs! I am so excited for you!
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Nice to see you back! I’m glad you’ve both been keeping well and that the critters all enjoyed the increased family time. Now…how do you KNOW that Marianne was heading in to lay an egg…are you just guessing? Or does she have a pattern that you’ve been able to decipher? I assume that, in most instances, she is a bird of mystery. (Congrats on returning to journalling. There are times when only the pen-across-paper will do.)
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Thanks buriedinprint! How do I know Marianne was going in to lay an egg? Well, they don’t really hangout in the coop unless it is cold, windy, or they are sitting on a nesting box. Since it was neither cold nor windy and Marianne likes to be out and about where interesting things might happen, I assumed she was heading in to sit on a nest to lay an egg. 🙂
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Oh I missed this one too! I’m sorry to say that my life changed so dramatically during your four month layoff that I didn’t really notice. Indeed I didn’t notice what anyone was doing as I barely read blogs through May, June and July.
Love all your garden and Dashwood Stones. Glad James’s furlough wasn’t too long. Now will read your latest post.
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LOL no worries whispering gums! I haven’t been doing a lot of blog visiting either, there has just been too much. But it doesn’t seem like it will be going away anytime soon so I figured it was time to get myself sorted out as best I could!
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