Fall is by far my favorite season. Crisp air, rustling leaves, and (down here) wisps of smoke on the air. I still remember the first time I saw someone burning their leaves...I thought it was an emergency situation. Where I grew up you weren't allowed to have big bonfires in your backyard. Thankfully these days I live in the country and this is acceptable behavior to get rid of unwanted brush and branches. Sitting around a fire, chatting and sharing a cider is the best after work activity ever. I think I have a plan for tonight.
This is my artwork inspiration for this week, one of my favorites by Millais.
The farmers market is also wonderful this time of year; I filled up on squash, red poblano peppers, napa cabbage, crispin apples, and radishes yesterday from my favorite vendor Victory Farm. New culinary adventures of trying apple sauce, pickled peppers (no, not a peck), and kimchi from scratch forthcoming. Maybe even cider, since I saw a fun instructables (do you know this website?...you should) on how to make a press with scrap lumber and a car jack.
I'm also pondering an idea for halloween decor, now that we cleaned the front beds...
Good Morning Emily!
ReplyDeleteI am SO jealous that you can burn leaves. That scent hangs over my childhood memories -- it was the scent of every weekend in the Fall. Wonderful. And always that little edge of danger ... whose car was parked too close to the curbside burnings?
Do you have Muttie's applesauce recipe? If not, it's here --
http://cass-thatoldhouse.blogspot.com/2009/09/heirlooms-apples-and-three-generations.html
and it's really easy and good.
Best way to choose apples for cooking -- use more than one variety. The strengths of one variety will compensate for the weakness of the other. Muttie usually used at least 3 varieties of apple for her pies - - unless she could get old-fashioned Greenings, which are so hard to find now.
Happy Halloween decorating! I put bats on my fireplace yesterday -- confession, got them at Michaels -- but they look right at home as we have REAL bats who kindly eat our mosquitoes outside.
Say Hi to your guy! I'm keeping current on the progress at Chez Doris via phone. She says she's got great consignment shops to take me to when we visit. Woot!
Love, Aunt Cassy
thanks for the applesauce link...muttie's sauce was always divine. AND its a reason to hunt down and purchase one of the nifty vintage food mills!
ReplyDeleteI have two kinds of apples crispin (which was pointed out as good for sauce and cider) and an heirloom local kind from roanoke.
Saw the bats in your parlor...they're great, especially the two napping upside down on the mantel edge!
Hi Emily! As tedious and marriage-wrecking as wallpaper-putting-upping can be, wallpaper-taking-downing is WAY worse.
ReplyDeleteWe had loads of wallpaper upstairs here, and thankfully the painters took it all down, and did the extensive repairs to the walls. What a mess!
If you ever put up wallpaper, put size on the walls first, and you should be able to take it off without too much trouble. We did it 3 times in the Lincoln Park bathroom.
And we're still married.
Amazing.
Love, Aunt Cassy