Seredipity Saturday
Posted: September 4, 2010 Filed under: Adventures in Cooking, Adventures in Life, canning & freezing, Domesticity, Earth, food, garden, Harvest, Healthful Living Plan, home, nature, Photography, pond, Summer, Walking | Tags: bees, flowers, peppers, rain, salsa, tomatoes, wildflowers 8 Comments
(This afternoon’s view of the pond from above the wildflower meadow.)
In between making salsa and chopping up sweet peppers for freezing, I took a short stroll out by the pond to see what’s happening out there lately. We had a cold front move through last night, bringing a little of the rain we so badly need. A couple of days of gentle showers would be nice but we’ll take what we can get.
The temperature has cooled down considerably. We had to break out the blankets last night. It’s not yet cold enough to turn the heat on, thank goodness. But too cold to sleep with the windows open.
It has been breezy and downright blustery at times. The wind did its usual howling, moaning, groaning song throughout the night.
Some of the leaves on the trees have turned yellow and red. Some of the leaves have been falling. I think that is due, in part, to the lack of rain. Driving around the area earlier today, we noticed that the corn and soybean fields are looking pretty dry and brown.
Some of the flowers are going or have gone to seed. Others — the goldenrod and asters, for instance — are just starting to bloom.
And the bees are still out and about, doing their dance around and on the flowers. No sign of any butterflies today, and I still have not seen so much as one monarch this year. That puzzles me greatly.
I’d better get back upstairs and continue my work on the salsa. It’s looking and tasting pretty good so far. Although I am grateful for the abundant harvest this year, I will be happy to be finished with all the prepping, canning, and freezing.
Which reminds me…
Joanne asked me why we call it “canning” here in the U.S. I found a discussion of the subject here. Since there were a couple of different explanations (meaning no one really knows?), I decided it was best just to give you the link so you can read all about it. One of these days — perhaps when the weather is cold and gray and there are no more vegetables to preserve — I am going to see what I can find about the history of preserving food. I think it would be a fascinating subject to study for a little while.
Life in the Bogs 
Who would think that a forum would have sprung up, to discuss bottling versus canning? And it all began with the same question I had, from a fellow Aussie! Now I don’t feel so embarrassed.
Our weather has been blustery this weekend too ~ warm and blustery and we’re throwing the blankets off!
Beautiful wildflower pics. I’ve been paying particular attention…we simply don’t have wildflowers growing around here the way you seem to have over there, even though we live in a country area. Strange.
Joanne: I don’t think you should have felt embarrassed at all! I have often wondered the same thing even though I grew up hearing it called (and calling it) “canning.” It never made much sense to me either, seeing as how it all goes into jars, not cans. I’ve had an English friends ask as well, but it was one of those things asked in passing and then forgotten before either of us thought to explore it further.
I always found the way our seasons are opposites fascinating. And enjoyable as it is nice to hear about warm weather when we’re freezing and cold weather when we have sweltering heat here.
I must confess that our “wildflower” might be a bit of a misnomer when it comes to our wildflower meadow. When we bought the house and property we had to have new septic system installed (no other sewage system out here). The new system included a new leach field. That meant a large swath of ground was dug up and needed to be seeded with grass or something or we could just let it go wild. We decided this was a good time to try out a native wildflower seed mix since the digging and stirring up of the soil was done so all we had to do was mix the seeds with some sand and scatter it. I remember writing somewhere about scattering the seeds as we made it into a family occasion so we would all have some part in the flowers that we hoped would bloom.
Over the years the flowers have changed. The birds love the meadow and they bring in seeds from other places and leave them in with their deposits. We let the meadows go to seed so the wildlife around us will have food to eat during the winter. It’s better than a bird feeder. 🙂
That sounds really beautful Robin! Do you have any wide shots of the meadow in full bloom?
I do, Karma. I think tomorrow I’ll do a “request” post so I can put up the photos of the baby killdeers and I’ll see if I can find those shots of the meadow in full bloom during the first years when it was really flowering.
Not too cold for sleeping with windows open although the temps have dropped a bit here. I love sleeping with them open until it is practically time for winter winds to blow through, even if just a little bit. Cool night air helps me sleep – except for last night when it smelled terribly skunky outside! P-U!
I usually feel the same way, Karma, but last night was surprisingly cold.
When I was a kid I would sleep with my windows open even when it snowed outside because I was always so hot. But blustery, cold winds always made me shut them.
that bee is quite incredible
i don’t think our bees look like that
so velvety and furry
Kel: Not all of our bees are that furry. I think that’s a bumblebee which is furrier than the honey bee.