A Blogging Holiday

Tam and I decided that this week should be a blogging holiday.

As you can see so far I've kept up my end of the deal. . .

We'll see how I do for the rest of my holiday. . .

I'm With Tamara Of Course!

Yes indeed people, I have winged my way to the very sunny (cough, cough) B.C. coast for some much needed sister time.

Since Lisa and Rick are still off lolling around on a fabulous cruise ship, Tam and I have to fend for ourselves for a few days.

We've started off our little adventure with a delectable lunch on the balcony of the Seasons restaurant in Queen Elizabeth park in Vancouver.

Luckily for Tamra and I who get cold in a heat wave, (unless I'm having a hot flash. . .) we sat in front of a fire and were also blessed with heat radiating from a heater up above us. ( And on the off chance that some one might still be cold, the waitresses came around with blankets for any on who needed it!)

We dined on an exquisite chopp salad made up of tender greens, gold beets, hard boiled eggs, garbanzo beans and olives. (which I know sounds strange and maybe even a little weird, but trust me, it was amazing!)

Tam thoroughly enjoyed the carpaccio but I found it too strong for my liking.

We yakked and laughed while gazing out over the rail at this beautiful view. . .

And because it wouldn't be a real adventure without dessert we settled in with a cup of tea by the fire. . .

And this gorgeous french lemon tart.

Sigh. . .

Life is good!

More Clues. . .

Well. . . .

Where In The World Is Rosa???

Anyone? Anyone at all????
Except for Ev. She already knows and that would be cheating.

Stay Tuned. . .

A Few Jars Of Applesauce

Mom and I worked on apple sauce for two days straight.

We got a few jars. . .

Mom can not resist giving Jada food!

Applesauce in my newly painted kitchen.

It was a good year for apples. . .

On Staying Up Late. . .

I'm not sure what's been happening in the last few months when it comes to my bedtime.
Although I am by nature a night owl, getting up at 5:30 in the morning for the last 17 years has meant that I've learned to be sensible and I always aim to be in bed by 10.
Even during the summer when I could go to bed and sleep in late I'm usually up by 6 and still in bed by 11
This summer was different. I stayed up late. And when I say late I'm talking 1:30 -2:00 in the morning.
Much of my preserving seemed to happen in the wee hours of the morning.
Now this wouldn't be so bad if I had gotten back to my sensible, responsible sleep schedule once school started again.
But so far not so good. . .
I've been staying up late night after night which in turn leads to other nights that find me sleeping in my chair during the 6 o'clock news!
Friday night I knew I had to chop up the ten pounds of green tomatoes and four pounds of onions so they would sit over night and be ready to be turned into green pickled tomatoes the next day.
I finished them at 2:30 in the morning. . .
Saturday evening found me tiding up after an afternoon of baking in preparation for finally getting to those tomatoes.
I took the last jar (# 15) out of the canner at 10 that night. Not too bad you would think.. . .
Unfortunately Morgan, Sarah and Jesse were stuck out on a lonely highway hours from home with a flat tire and I just couldn't bring myself to go to bed until they were home safe and sound.
Which happened at 12:45am!
And now here it is 11:15 and I'm still up.
Any body out there have any good ideas on how I might get back to a sensible, responsible bedtime???
No?
Me neither.
Sigh.
Well I had better go to sleep right now because mom's going to be over after my morning run and we are going to be making a canning a lot of apple sauce. . .
During the day!!!

Experimenting

I've been trying to find new ways to preserve food as well as finding ways to use my greenhouse for as many things as possible.

I figured herb drying was a no brainer.

I couldn't figure out why they were taking so long to dry until I left my gloves in there overnight.

When I got my gloves the next morning they were very damp.

It was reasonably hot during the day but we were having cool drizzly nights and the greenhouse kept cooling off and getting very damp.

Hmmmm. . .

It looks like more experimenting in in order. . .