Canning Time

 Trish and I both grew up helping our mothers with canning in the summertime.  Trish still loves to can to this day, and, this week saw the perfect opportunity.

We were coming home after the LaGrange, Georgia, workshop when we stopped (as usual!) at the N.C. State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh.  The peaches looked great, and, we could buy bulk canning tomatoes as well.  We went on home with treasure.

After both ripened for a couple of days, Trish got to work.  My job was to stay out of the way!

She makes this wonderful peach sauce that is excellent on anything from ice cream to French toast.  This batch made enough to last at least through the winter.

The tomatoes came next.  Then,  taking turns, all the jars went through the processing step.  

After everything was processed and cooled down, we both got to admire Trish’s work.  We will have tomatoes to use and peach sauce to enjoy all winter!  What a good day’s work.

July Fourth Ocracoke Parade

 Ocracoke Fireworks happen in July 2 each year as they are the kickoff to three full days of celebrations. Unfortunately the fireworks show had to be cancelled this year due to a large weather front that moved over the island through the day and evening.  We measured 4.23 inches of rain at our house. The good thing was that we didn’t have to water the flowers for several days after that. (We expect more rain this week as Tropical Storm Chantal makes a visit!)

This made the Ocracoke Fourth of July parade more important than ever.

We decorated our mini-truck (A 1991 Suzuki) and entered it in the parade as a salute to the 249th birthday celebration of the USA.

There are several categories: walking, bicycles, gold carts, wheels (for street legal vehicles), and towed floats.  Though we are small, we are highway legal, so we ended up in the wheels division. (A funny moment came when u was signing us up. They told us to put our number…10…in the windshield on the driver’s side of the vehicle. I told them that, in the little truck, the driver sits on the right.  They then corrected the instructions to the “ left side!”

The practice here is for the parade entry’s to toss candy out to all the watchers along the way. Since Trish’s daughter, Betsie, and her son, five year old Beckham, are with us this week, we set them up in the bed of the truck to be candy throwers.  They threw to the right side and Trish threw to the left. We had four large buckets of wrapped candy and it all disappeared on the route.

Since we were in the parade, we could not get photos of other entries. Our friend and neighbor, Doug Tanner, took photos of us as we passed and so we got a view of how we looked.

You see Trish sitting on the left side where people expect to see her driving.  Sometimes she holds both hands up so the truck seems to be under its own control.

The parade is always lots of fun and we are already thinking about next year…when our country will be 250 years old!

Tomato Time!

 Mostly, Trish and I grow just flowers in our yard.  But, one thing, beyond flowers, we can’t so without: tomatoes!

For the past weeks our plants have been rewarding us with abundance!

We grow several varieties, both determinate and indeterminate, to keep the season starting early and then lasting over a long time.

The Early Girls and producing multitudes of pound sized fruit; perfect for Caprese salads with fresh mozzarella! A lunch time treat.

The Big Boys are even larger: just the right size for a single slice to more than cover the bread for a great sandwich.  We are also having a wonderful crop of Cherokee Purples, so sweet and tasty.

Then, there are the little babies, about half dozen varieties and colors here.  They make a great snack to just pop in your mouth. Each variety has a different flavor that makes them so interesting.

Not counting these little ones, it looks like we will be picking about two dozen today!  What delicious fun.

At The Swag

 This week Trish and I are at The Swag, The Great Country Inn Of The Smokies.  For the past twenty years I have been coming here two weeks each year to tell stories and lead hikes.

The Swag is located outside my home town of Waynesville, North Carolina.  Its property runs right up against the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and is an area where I roamed, camped and hiked when growing up here. There was no inn here in those days, just wild mountain land.

There are twenty total rooms and cabins here.  It is a destination with rooms including three gourmet meals each day and a variety of activities.  My activities are storytelling each afternoon and what they call “walk and talk” at another time each day.

Almost all the rooms have their own fireplaces which are supplied with plenty of wood each day.  There are also gardens and beautiful views everywhere.

If you want to take a really restful break, check out The Swag.

Iris Time!

 We have a lot of reblooming bearded iris plants around the yard.  Reblooming means that these plants bloom twice each year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

Living where we live, they seem to bloom all year.  We had at least some of them in bloom all winter, but now they are coming into full glory.

We have about forty different varieties and each one has its own color pattern identity.  They are gorgeous and smell divine.

The southeast exposure seems best for them.  There the house and garage block the wind a bit and they get full morning sun and beyond.

I have a whole new bed started also this year with twenty-six more varieties.  They are such a joy and do well on the island.

Easter Eggs?

 When Trish and I are at Walt Disney World, we eat at a variety of places all around all the resorts and theme parks.  One of our nights, we were at Citrico’s, which is at the Grand Floridian Resort.

Something was going on in the lobby that was fascinating people.  When we went closer to investigate, we discovered an extensive display of more than two dozen Easter Eggs that had been created by members of the culinary department

Most of these special eggs were more than two feet tall and totally made of edible material.  The beauty and creativity were remarkable.

The more we looked, the more details we saw. I spent about a half hour studying and staring at these amazing creations.

What we both wanted to see was photos of the creators.  Their names were on their eggs,  it, we wanted to meet them or at least see what each if them looked like.  Maybe a suggestion to Disney!

Disney Adventures

 Trish and I are at Walt Disney World for ten days of fun.  We come here every year to rest and eat and sleep and play.

We are in luck at this time of year because we are here right in the middle of the Epcot Flower Festival.

There are flowers in bloom everywhere you look, and some of the most outstanding are the topiary figures all made of living plant material.

Many of the familiar Disney characters are in the gardens as we walk around.  Here are Captain Hook and Tinkerbell right outside the Rose and Crown pub…a good London setting for the two of them.

Even if we rode no rides, the beauty and creativity of the flowers makes it worth being here.  Since we do ride rides, the flowers are an extra bonus.  We love being here during flower festival as it gives us all sorts of ideas about thinks we can try growing at home!