Cool beans!

Cool beans!

Tim worked on these the other night.  They are asparagus beans, which grow 14-18 inches long.  He added a bundle of thai basil and a gorgeous clove of garlic from a local farmers market. (He grew the basil and beans)  I passed through the kitchen when he was prepring the herbs and they were simply lovely -  but I had my hands full at the moment and was on my way to ...something and it never occured to me to take a picture. 

Over the weekend he made strawberry jam and a first, smallish batch of apricot.  Monday night I helped with a large batch of apricot jam.  We had time to chat while we stirred and watched our respective pots of apricots - a companionable way to pass an evening.

With an unexpected free week, having finished my schoolwork early, I've made a start on my list of things to squeeze into the break.  (classes start again 23 August)
My hair has been trimmed.  Cleaning has commenced.  There is a Clep scheduled for Friday.
The bed in the spare room has various piles started with things that will make the trip with me on Saturday, and a list of things I need to pick up while in Fort Dodge.  Naphtali's recent post reminded me to charge some batteries, not that there will be anything as interesting as the streets of NYC to shoot this weekend, but one should be prepared, n'est ce pas?

Fini!

This can all be put away. .. 

because this says I'm done:

Ilona, I'm not going to bother returning your paper because I can fit my comments in here. First, you're one of the few students who I can waive the final draft requirements. Making you re-submit and me reread serves neither of us well at this point. Your consistent excellent work earns you an "A" in the class.

Just Thinking

While the rest of my family thinks about making pickles, (honestly, that was the Tim's plan last night)(you can take it up with Jacob) I am quietly making a list of things I want to do/get done during the three (very) short weeks between class sessions.  My assignments for the library class have all been turned in - it's done.  I have a research paper to finish writing today - it sounds good to say I'm about halfway done - but I may be optimistic on that....Anyway I have until 11:59 tonight and we'll just have to see how it all goes today.  Technically this is a rough draft, but practically we were told that this should be a finished product due to the time constraints etc for the instructor.  I have to admit I'm not terribly impressed with this guy; emails go unanswered, assignments aren't returned in a timely manner, comments are pretty vague...I'll be glad when this is finished.

Back to the list:

A hair cut - I mean trim - is on the list, as is a trip to visit my mother and sister.  I want to finish making a curtain for one bedroom, work on weeding my flower beds, read, clean, sort through my fall clothes, take a clep test, and freeze some corn.  No doubt the list will grow...

(BTW, Tim made apricot jam yesterday)

birthday greetings

Happy Birthday, Naphtali!!
Here's hoping the day and its events bring you joy.

flotsam and jetsam

We had a busy weekend.  My assignments were turned in early Friday afternoon, I didn't have to work Saturday, it was actually nice enough to work outside - and so we did.  Weeding and tending and planning and plenty more waiting to be done.  My half price - half dead hydrangea from last season is looking wonderful.  We turned the air conditioner off for a couple days - it went back on this morning.

Friday morning I rode my bike down the hill to town and ran a few errands.  When I got back about 10:30 I was hot, thirsty and surprisingly hungry.  But  I realized it had already been over 4 hours since I'd had my bowl of cereal....

Tim fixed an amazing shrimp stir fry with asparagus beans, peppers and thai basil from our garden.  Cucumbers have been doing well.

There are 2 weeks of classes left in this session.  I will be writing a paper over the next few days, rough draft to be submitted on Friday.  In preparation I've been reading Theodore Roszak's "The making of an Elder Culture," which I have found fascinating.  Roszak first applied the term counter culture to the baby boomers and this book looks at how they (we) have handled aging.  It's given me much to think about....