Last Day of September

How can it be the end of September already?  But as I look outside, I definitely see signs of fall--leaves turning color, that blue, blue sky of late September, early October.   Such beautiful days we've been having! Perfect, as a matter of fact.  

Now that I've finished the peaches, I've taken a few "lazy days" and relaxed with some reading and knitting. I'm still working on the brown tweed socks of last spring and discovered that somehow I made the first one too short in the foot area.  Never mind.  I'll see if I can rip back and go again.  If not, I'll just reknit the whole thing.  Mindless, relaxing work.  Sounds good.

Here's a few picture of our house ready for the season. 

I love the fall additions to the hearth.

My favorite corner.

We took a big plunge last week and met with a contractor to do some much needed work on two of our bathrooms.  The lovely (not!) green tub, the last vestige of that awful color in the downstairs bath, will be replaced with a walk-in shower and the upstairs guest bathtub will get a beautiful new surround.  I'm so excited!  He said they would get to it in six to eight weeks, so all should be done by Christmas.  

Meanwhile, we are also toying with raising the sunken living room to the level of the rest of the main floor.  Our advancing years are making us ponder work that could enable us to stay here more years and that step down was a real headache for my parents.  Mom crashed twice when she forgot to step down. 

It's pumpkin season!!  Let the leaves fall and the wind blow and candy corn rule!  ♥ 

Everything Is Just Peachy

Literally!  A week or so ago an old buddy of Dan's called to ask if he would come look at his tamarack trees which he grows for seed.  Some of them seemed to be in distress.  So last Friday, a week ago, Dan headed down to check things out.  He mentioned that Rich said he'd send back some peaches for me.  Yes!  Years ago I got all my peaches from Rich and they were just the best. Each August for the last few years I've thought I would get down to his orchard and get some, but alas, it never seemed to happen.

When Dan got home, he asked me to come look in his truck.  He opened the back door and there sat four huge boxes of peaches!  Four!  And a gunny sack with twenty-two ears of corn!  Oh my goodness! I called Ann and asked if she'd like some of each and she was happy to say yes.  

Saturday morning right after breakfast I went to work on a peach pie.  It's my absolute favorite.  The peaches were gorgeous and huge.  I hopped into the shower and by the time I was out, Ann and Keaton had arrived to claim their bounty.  We worked it out and I was thrilled when she agreed to take two boxes and a bunch of the corn.   She went home to begin canning and I began to freeze some.  By the time Tuesday was over, we'd totalled up twenty-one quarts canned (Ann), twenty-two containers frozen (me), two peach pies (me), many eaten out of hand (both houses), and twenty jars of jam (me).   

Here are a couple of pictures of our bounty.

And the corn?  It was absolutely the best I've ever tasted.  We had it three nights in a row and Ann's family had it two nights.  So sweet and delicious.  Mmmm...  ♥

 

The Times . . .

. . . they are moving along . . . slowly.   Such a strange, strange year.  The virus, staying at home, people getting all het up over politics, and now smoke.  The west seems to be on fire although thankfully most of it isn't near us. My dad spent years and years in forest fire control and in all those years, never did he have fires that grew like they seem to now.  I don't know if it was because he was good at his job (he was) or because the forests were in better shape than they are now.  At any rate, we've been smoked in for almost a week and it's definitely added to the strangeness of 2020.  Actually, it's been eerie.  But somewhere up there the sun is shining!! 

I signed back up with Ancestry.com.  I think I left about the time my parents passed, so it's been three years or so and there's so much more information available.  I've had a great time finding information about my mom's side of the family.  Because Grandpa came from Norway, those records weren't available except for a high price, but thanks to a sale, I got an international pass included at the same price as the U.S. pass usually goes for.   So much information, much of it recently added I'm sure.  I was having a ball as I clicked and saved.  Most holes in Mom's family tree have now been filled in.  Wish she was still here so I could show her.  

Now I'm rationing my time on the computer and starting to put out our fall decorations.  I started with the front porch and am now working on the living room and dining room.  You wouldn't believe the dust I'm encountering as I move things.  All the harvest dust and particles in the smoke!  I recommend buying Swiffer stock!  Ha!  At any rate, it's fun to get out things that have been put away since last November.  I love the continuity of the changing seasons and decor year after year.  

Very little is happening in my sewing room.  I'm so linear that I seem to be able to only work on one thing at a time.  I did turn the collar on a favorite workshirt of Dan's and prepare the backing for the Peace on Earth quilt this week.  One of these days the mood will strike and I'll load it on the long arm and get it quilted.  

And that's what's happening at the Resort!  ♥

Vanilla

We made a Costco run yesterday and as long as we were there, we decided to throw anything we thought we might need in the near future into the cart.  I am a baker and vanilla goes into almost everything I make.  It made sense to grab another bottle, and as I did, I marveled over the price.  Marveled may not be the right word.  My reaction was along the lines of, "Whoa!"  Dan came up as I was putting the bottle in the cart and said, "Why don't you get two."  And I answered that spending fifty dollars on two bottles of vanilla seemed a little much. His eyebrows shot up! 

Last night as we finished putting things away, the subject of vanilla came up again so I decided to google why the price was so high.  It was interesting reading!  This article by Business Insider is two years old but it covers a number of the reasons as well as explaining the growth process of the vanilla bean. 

Who knew vanilla, at least at that time and probably still, was worth more by weight than silver?  

I feel fortunate that I can afford the real thing.  I know my mom was not a fan of imitation vanilla, and so far I've been able to avoid having to use it.  Maybe I need to branch out in my choice of extracts, though.  I do have almond, lemon, orange, butter, and peppermint in my cupboard.  Oh, and maple!  ♥