Fall Is In the Air

We have been doing loads of projects and having fun around the house the last few weekends starting with a long Labor Day weekend. The weather has been cooler and so it has been more fun to be outside than it was in August. Even the critters seem to be enjoying it!

My plants have been thriving too...

The "Trifids" have been catching lots of bugs in their pitcher-like mouths and have been multiplying like rabbits.

The two redwood trees I got in the late spring have each grown about a foot (behind the bear)!

Tracy's birthday was last weekend...

and we've done a bike ride or two...

Yep, it's still humid.... see hair.

... but that didn't stop Paul!

He poured his own sweat into making some shelves for the Star Wars room, even learning to use 3 new power tools: the router...

Table saw and lastly a bisquit-joiner (not shown).

He covered the garage and himself from head to toe in sawdust in the process.

... and then collapsed.

Maybe next week I'll show what projects I was working on. For now, it's dinner time. Goodnight!

Cooking Tip from the Sister-in-Law

Straight in off the press -- Alison passed a message along to me through Paul, that if you want to have an easier time chopping rutabaga (or swede, as it's called in England), boil it for a few minutes and then chop it. Gone are my troubles with rutabaga- I love the veg but will cook with it often now that I know how to minimize the trouble of preparing it.

Capitol Visit Part 2

Sunday morning we all decided, after Nate had made us a fancy breakfast, that the zoo was first on the list. The cheetahs were the highlight for me.
Lunch time already? Well it was 3:00 by then and we all had planned a trip to this Indian buffet as priority to fit somewhere in the weekend. So we high-tailed it there after the zoo and were lucky to get there a 1/2 hour before the buffet closed down. We all ate too fast, in hopes of getting seconds, so was it worth it? You betcha!

Laura and Nate dropped us off at the Memorials again, since we didn't have time the day before to finish them, and they headed off to church.

First we went to Lincoln's memorial - a favorite.

We loved that we could see the Washington Monument from between the columns of Lincoln Memorial.

Then we trekked the Mile and half or so to get to the Jefferson Memorial across the lake, but in the process came across the Roosevelt memorial, which was filled of many of his wonderful quotes. Here is just one portion of the large memorial that wandered like a trail through his life.

The Jefferson Memorial was my favorite as far as beauty, although they were all magnificent in the uniqueness of each that represented very distinct and influential heroes.

Jefferson had a cool ponytail tied with a bow, but it didn't show up very good here.

A few hours later we were all hanging out at a bar and grill enjoying the beautiful weather outdoors while sharing appetizers and drinks. We hung out and talked for hours before heading back to go to sleep.

We had to leave Monday morning from Union Station after Nate left for work. We had to ask Laura to take us to Target to buy a blanket for the train trip back because the air on the train is kept at 60 degrees we are convinced.

It was sad to go, but we were not bored on the long trip back with all the entertainment we brought. Between naps I did plenty of spinning on my drop spindle, reading, knitting and movie watching on the laptop, and Paul watched movies.

We had such a fun weekend, and although it felt like it went fast, it was the perfect combination of sightseeing and relaxation, with nothing over-powering or taxing in effort. We came home feeling so refreshed and had so much fun spending time with the cousins. I am sorry to see them go, but I'm sure they will have the greatest life experiences traveling abroad.

A few days after coming home I made a huge pasta casserole using the basil Laura sent home from her herb garden. Nothing like fresh basil!! Thanks, Laura and Nate, for such a great weekend-- We will miss you!!

Capitol Visit

Whew! Been a busy month with work - no traveling, but report-writing mania that took over my body and soul (so it seemed). So, no blogging or picture-taking until last weekend. It was great timing: Paul and I needed a break from work, and my cousin invited us up for a visit, so we got away for an extended weekend to visit my cousin Laura and her husband Nate in Washington D.C. They are getting ready to move, and we wanted to see them before they left the east coast.

Last Friday, we got up at 4:00 and drove to the Light Rail on the outskirts of Charlotte because we have seen the Amtrak station in Uptown, and didn't want to leave our car there for the four days. It was a good choice! We took the Light Rail into Uptown, and then caught the bus to the Amtrak station. This did take a coordinated effort to figure out what time we needed to catch the bus, which route and how to work it. We got it down, thanks to a very patient bus driver. Once we got on the train, it was smooth sailing and we had plenty to do: movies to watch on our laptop, knitting, books to read and we even spent time talking to each other, despite all the media devices. We arrived in D.C about 10 hours later, quite refreshed after all the naps.

First thing we did when Laura and Nate picked us up was eat dinner and head to the county fair to see if Laura won a prize for her oatmeal cookies she submitted. They were very good cookies and figured the judges must have erred.

We were pretty tired after that and headed to "Bedfordshire" as Paul calls it, waking up at a decent time to hit the sites the next morning. We started the day by going to Market Lunch for breakfast- a fun experience where good food is served at a price: "No Saving Seats". It was a free for all once you got your food- you had to hurry and sit down on the bench. Paul had his tea and sat down to save me a seat while I rounded up condiments on our tray and put syrup on the pancakes. By the time (30 seconds later) that I got to where I thought Paul was sitting, he had already been whisked away by the bus boy, who said that tea does not count as having your food, and he must vacate until he has his food. While stressful, it was worth it and worth the half hour wait in line to order your food.

We wandered around the outdoor market after that and spent some time in Capitol Books- a very intriguing used book store that was loaded literally from top to floor with books. It was an old house so there were books in the "bathroom" books in the sink, books in every bedroom and even lining the stairs.

We all went to a museum and to the White House and then Laura and Nate had a wedding to go to, so Paul and I continued to wander around to see the Capitol....

And to the national botanic garden...

...And then the fog and rain set in so we high-tailed it into the National Air and Space Museum so Paul could check out all the planes and space craft. It was pretty interesting, even for me.

By the end of the day, the rain had cleared out all but the most stalwart of tourists and so we got to see the Declaration of Independence with hardly any wait at all. It was wonderful to see the most important documents of our nation in person.

Then the sun peaked out, just to say goodnight as we made it to the Washington Memorial.

More to come on the next day... later! I'm heading to bed. Goodnight everyone.

Blueberries Canned!

Success! Monday night I rushed home from work after stopping to buy 5 lbs. of sugar, logged onto the Internet to check out how to can blueberries and called my friend Shauna to have her on stand-by to answer any "help me" questions. Shauna and her mother-in-law are Queens of Canning (I nearly said "Queens of the Can" but that wouldn't be accurate nor flattering).

I was going to can my blueberry pie filling, but there were technicality issues with using tapioca or cornstarch as the thickening agent. I didn't want to mess with any technicality issues on my first experience, thinking it's best to keep it simple. pickyourown.org

Here is a simplified version of what I had to do, but please check out knowledgeable websites if you want to do this at home. There are a lot of safety precautions associated with canning.

1) First, I had to clean all the bottles and lids in hot soapy water.
2) Next, I sorted, cleaned and removed any stems of 2 gallons of blueberries (took a millennium). 3) Then I calculated my sugar and water ratio for the syrup using the handy dandy table on the pick-your-own website (for 7 quarts, I did 12 cups of water to 2.5 cups of sugar-light syrup).
4) Began heating the syrup to near boiling.
5) Added my 2 TBSP lemon juice to each of the jars.
6) Packed in the berries and heated the jars in very warm water so that when I poured the hot syrup into the jars, they didn't crack.
7) Tighten the lids semi-tight, but not very tight
8) Steamed the jars on a fruit steamer for 20 minutes (once the steam built up to full steam)
9) Remove jars and tighten lids tight, tight.
10) Shauna says that her mother-in-law says that flipping the jars upside-down afterwards is the trick to getting them to seal properly. It worked! None "popped" open as they are known to do sometimes.

Here are the blueberries with the syrup and lemon juice ready for steaming..

...on the steamer..
... and flipped to prevent popping, cooling overnight.

Note: don't uses any nice towels for this. Since the lids are not ultra tight on the steamer, the juice ran all down the jars and all into the steamer tray, so that when I took them out I got blueberry juice all over this nice white towel.

Blueberry Delight

The last few weekends have been so enjoyable. I think my relief at having a job and feeling more restful with a few months of no work travel has made me feel progressively happier. Paul and I have spent more enjoyable, quality time together rather than just chores.

Today we had early plans to meet up with some folks from my church at a somewhat local blueberry farm 45 minutes away on the backroads. Everyone came equipped with hungry tummies and busy hands ready to do the picking. Paul and I picked a gallon of blueberries each and had a great time with the group, chatting and eating and picking.


I had bought some mason jars last week in anticipation of bottling the berries to supply our blueberry pie cravings for the year, and I was suprised to see our 2 gallons, which should have been 8 quarts, actually turn into 9 quarts! Somehow our buckets must have been bigger than 2 gallons. I think that 9 pies is definitly enough for the year. Shauna is bringing me her steamer to church tomorrow and gave me some instructions on how to bottle fruit, so I'll be giving it a shot this week.

Last weekend we putzed around in the yard and worked on our own projects. Paul continued designing his Darth Vader costume.

And I worked on sewing the lining onto the backs of our curtain fabric.

Oh, yeah- and some embroidery too. I'm trying to build my embroidery portfolio one item at a time.

Tomorrow evening we have plans to go with Tracy to Jamie's house, and he's taking us all out on his boat for a ride around Lake Wylie.

A Blessed Weekend

This 4th of July weekend was an especially reflective weekend for me. As it is, it is one of my favorite holidays because it means so much to me that we are a free country. Watching the fireworks and seeing our flag always makes me so thankful to be where we are and for the sacrifices of many. It is also a subject of kidding between Paul and I because he likes to say that I feel I have an advantage over him as I am from the country that is proud to have kicked his country out!

This weekend I thought about many additional things that I'm thankful for, including my new job that I just started last week. I am one of the lucky few who finished a job on Friday and got to start my new job on the following Monday. With so many looking for jobs right now, it made me feel so thankful and also so sad. Saying that, the last few weeks were very stressful as we finished the house repairs, I was wrapping up my work at one company and the next week starting the stress of a new office culture that is drastically different from where I came from. I happened to run into one couple last week in my neighborhood as I was on a walk crying to vent some stress. They asked if I was doing good, and I was honest, saying I'm a bit stressed with my new job. The neighbor said, in a kind way, "you are lucky to have found one." I felt immediately ashamed, for I had forgotten that John had lost his job 6 months ago and has had no luck. How could I forget?

My weeken also involved having some good quality conversations with Paul and some time enjoying being at home together. He did the American thing for 4th of July and had a good 'ol BBQ for us.

And I honored his country tradition (in apology for kicking his country out) and made tea and scones for breakfast.We planted our newly arrived California Coast Redwood "Big Red III." If you recall, Big Red I died on transit to NC and Big Red II died last fall in the early frost and freezing temps we had.
At the same time, we ordered a Dawn Redwood, my favorite conifer in the world. I was stopped in my tracks when I saw one for the first time in all its splendor at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens. Actually Dawn Redwoods, once thought to be extinct, have a very intersting history. They are such an old species, perhaps the oldest living conifer, that this species is actually in the fossil record. A small grove was discovered to be still in existence in China in the early 1900s I believe, and it has since been in cultivation. Don't quote me on this, though. They are unique to the conifer family because they are deciduous rather than evergreen, losing their "leaves" in the winter, and growing in new spring-green colored leaves in the spring.

We also finally Scotch Guarded the couches. We've had them for a year, but found that even a drop of water stains this fabric, so we have hardly sat on 'em, waiting for the opportune time to protect the fabric. It's a bear to get these out the door so I wore my respirator and did it inside.


We also finally buckled down and picked a fabric for the bedroom drapes. We had fabric picked out for about a year, but waited so long it's being discontinued and the price has soared up. So we picked a different one that we both liked (amazing) and bought it there and then (4th of July sale).

We had to put our heads together to see how we could get the 4 panels cut out of fabric and get the design to match up on all 4 panels. We got the last of the fabric on the bolt and weren't sure if it was going to be enough, so the store let us buy it with the allowance for us to bring it back (uncut) if we found we didn't have enough once we measured it out. In the end we had 4" left over! See top fabric, to the right of the blue tape.

Wow that was close!