48 this morning, mostly clear.
It has been another chilly week with gorgeous clear days. Fall certainly arrived with force this year, no dillydallying around like most years. I fully expected a few more 90 degree days given the hot summer. We do need rain badly, however. It is so very dry.
We have been busy as can be the past few weeks, getting furniture pieces finished up for our booths. Larry finished brushhogging for the year and mowed the grass, hopefully for the last time.
We did take a day off to go on a little road trip up to Waterford and Stockport, Ohio. It's a pretty area, and of course we had an ulterior motive: picking up a few things for our booths. We had late lunch/early dinner at the Stockport Mill and really enjoyed sitting by the window and looking out at the old milldam.
I managed to put up some hot wieners and peppers in tomato sauce this week.
I don't care for them but the family loves them. I bought peppers from a little self-serve market outside Beverly, Ohio, since we had such bad luck with our peppers this year. I love these kinds of stands, proof that trust is still alive, at least in some places. I came away with some nice green tomatoes and a watermelon too.
Some of you might remember that I wrote about Beverly some years ago; this quaint small town was the scene of a terrible steamboat explosion, and there is a mass grave of victims of that disaster, a grave I have visited twice before. I do not think I have written the story of the Buckeye Belle steamboat here. I need to do that.
The produce stand.
Later in the week I bargained for more peppers, a bushel of them, from a local produce stand. These I will make into sweet pepper relish, a recipe discovered last year that I love. I bought a box of sweet potatoes too, and those we will store in the workroom where they will be cool and dry and should keep all winter.
I enjoyed an afternoon with my friend Suzy, having lunch and then checking out the new coffee shop in Ripley. The coffee was excellent, but the time with my friend was even better. How often I put off such outings because "I have too much to do"! When do we not have too much to do?
We were gifted with this amazing sunset the night before the remnants of Hurricane Ian were due in our state. What a sight it was, lasting for quite a long time. The next day we drove to the center of our state to meet our oldest son and his wife for lunch. The expected storm turned out to be just rain, and not as much as was predicted. We spent a lovely few hours talking and catching up. This son lives on the other side of West Virginia so we love any opportunity to see him. As president of his local bank, his life can be pretty busy.
In other news, we are still fighting off the deer, and last night they won one battle. They jumped the fence into my smaller veggie garden and ate all the kale and chard, and the leaves off the strawberry plants. So infuriating. I cannot wait to start putting venison in the freezer.
These cool evenings have been perfect for fires in the fireplace. I am enjoying this one as I write.
I actually finished a book this week! Called Hannah's Daughters, by Marianne Fredriksson. Set in Sweden, the story follows three women: Hannah, her daughter Johanna and granddaughter Anna. The peek into Swedish history and culture was fascinating. A well-written and absorbing book. I actually read through the reader's guide questions and authorbinterview at the end, something I don't often do. Now I am reading When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann, a true story about her quest to discover her fatber's past in wartorn Czechoslovakia, a past he never discussed and kept secret from almost everyone who knew him in his new home in Caracas, Venezuela.
And we are watching Dr. Zhivago, a film I watched years ago. I do not think Larry has seen it before, and he is really drawn into the history of Russia at that troubled time of the Revolution. He had just finished watching a miniseries called The Pacific, based on the true stories of men who served in the South Pacific during WWII.
These shorter, coolers days have us slowing down earlier in the evenings now, and I must admit it us nice to have time to read again.
Tomorrow I will post some photos of our booths and projects. For now I think I have bent your ears quite enough!
I had to laugh out loud at the darned deer who ate your veggies...and now you await venison! I hope a good tasting hint of kale will come with a slice or two!
ReplyDeleteI love those roadside stands. Good luck with the deer, they so are persistent and annoying.
ReplyDeleteThis was a nice post to read. I chuckled at your comment about venison in the freezer! Luckily we’ve never had to deal with deer- just rabbits, birds, and squirrels. I’d like to take a road trip soon before we lose all our leaves. - Jenn
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