Oh what beautiful mornings!

The last two mornings have been absolutely wondrous. On Sunday morning I went into work early (because I left early to attend a wedding shower the day before). Pedaling through the cold, clammy fingers of fog before sunrise, I chastised myself for neglecting to put the ear-warmer insert into my helmet for the ride. Luckily I was just going into CBEC, which is a mere 1.5 miles from my house. When I arrived at our ocean-view farmhouse offices I was greeted by a stunning sunrise. I couldn't see it, really, because it was behind the hill, but looking west from the front porch, I caught beautiful colorations on the wispy clouds above the morning ocean.

This morning I had to ride back for my camera almost as soon as I hit the road because the elk in the morning fog as the sun burned it off the meadow was too pretty a picture. They had moved from their cluster near the road by the time I returned, but I was still able to snap a few haunting shots of their silhouettes in the sunlight. Beautiful.

Last weekend (?) I did a slew of canning operations again. I ended up jarring 1 pint of mixed, chopped garden tomatoes, 2 quarts of mulled apple juice, 2 quarts of apple pie filling (with apples from our tree!) and 1 quart of peach pie filling (with peaches from the CSA boxes).

So why the question mark after weekend? I had a split weekend last week, to arrange the schedule for me to work a solid 7 days in a row (8 for me, actually, since my boss is supposedly going to put me on the schedule for Thursday, although I'm still waiting to see that schedule change made official) along with the other two members of one of the two "media teams". We've been making videos to be released on the park's social media websites over the winter. It's fun, and out of the ordinary, but it's starting to feel like a long week and I've still got a few more days to go.

One of my posts features the rather morbid picture below - a long-dead sea lion on the beach. The point of the post is that if we had condors here, they would've opened up the carcass to other scavengers and it would've been long-gone weeks ago. But since we don't... the sea lion just sits on the beach and nobody touches it. Redwood NSP is hoping to help bring the condor back to the area as part of the NPS Centennial. The project would "start" next year, but the birds probably won't be in the air until 2018 or so. Maybe later. Still, it's an exciting prospect, and I'm excited to make people think. Even if it's with a tastefully disgusting photo and a well-written caption. ;)

Anyhow, I've got two more evenings and three more mornings to get everything ready for my trip to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival to visit Jack and then to Sequoia to stay with him for a few days. I'm SO looking forward to it! But I also have SO much to do! So... I'd better get back to doing it. The washing machine is done - time to switch the laundry...

Autumn Equinox

Antler of Plenty

The seasons are changing. In my crazy life, where jobs start and stop and ebb and flow, and I'm somewhat cut off from the usual holidays due to my work schedule, I'm beginning to find that the changing of the seasons make more sense to celebrate. Yesterday I hosted an autumn equinox potluck. The antler of plenty (because we don't have horns in this neck of the woods) was the centerpiece on the table, which turned out to have quite a good spread. I think there were ten folks altogether, and it was great fun and a great group. Just right for our space, I think. I introduced everybody to the Swedish lawn game Kubb ('u' pronounced like 'u' in 'put'), having made a redneck version of the set from a 4x4 and a closet dowel cut down to something close to the proper sizes. ;) It worked out great, and everybody really enjoyed it. A new favorite, some even declared!

Tomorrow is the real Autumnal Equinox and I've been blessed with the day off. I'm not sure how I'll spend it just yet, but I'm thinking I ought to do something special, even if it's just going out for a hike. As the seasons change my life is about to change a lot, too. The garden is slowing down (although the weeds aren't!) and I'll be pulling up and planting a winter spread soon. Jack is back in the frontcountry and we've been talking on a fairly clear phone connection more or less whenever we want. It's done wonders for our relationship as we've been able to really start communicating again after months of each only half-understanding what's going on with the other. Most folks are finishing up their seasons at work. I've been fortunate enough to have been extended part-time (although I'm taking the first weekend off). Part-time means I'll be off several days a week, which will open up a lot of time in my schedule - time that I've yet to come up with a solid plan for filling. I think I ought to do some goal-setting, though, or else nothing will get done... I have made a list of all the various unfinished projects ("nagging tasks") that need doing and I think I will try to knock out one a day during October until I get them all taken care of - hopefully before Jack comes home, that way. I'll think of some more goals and post them here by the end of the month.

Another aspect of the equinox, aside from looking forward to the changes ahead, is reflecting on what's happened in the season prior. I've got a lot to be thankful for. I really liked this job a lot, which is more than I can say for last summer. This summer I wasn't begging for mercy and, while I did get a bit of the usual end-of-season burnout, it wasn't all that bad. I was blessed with good coworkers who had their act together and a boss who encouraged all sorts of interpretive experimentation and actually tried to be engaged in his employees and their interpretive programs. Apart from work, I had an excellent outlet in derby, and I really think that the sport has helped me a lot - in learning to work with the multiple personalities of a team, to not take everything so seriously, to fight back when I need to, and to generally stand up for myself a bit more. Not to mention that the ladies there are awesome. I've had a good year in the garden overall: learned a lot, took notes, put up plenty to help spice up the winter cuisine, and worked on my work ethic a bit. ;) And as much as I complain about the care and keeping of a two-bedroom house when you're all by yourself, I was blessed to be in here, to have such a nice home to come back to, to be able to share that home with many-a couchsurfer, and to have a fella willing to pay part of the rent even though he's not here because at the end of the day it's ours. Whether or not he's actually here, Jack's presence is very much felt in the home we've made, which somehow makes missing him not quite as bad because there's so much of him here.

Now before I start to get all mushy I'll leave off, because I think you get the drift. :)

The autumn equinox is upon us. In another month, Jack will be home, in two months we'll be married, and in three months it'll be winter solstice and time to think ahead and behind again! My how the world turns.

Until next time!

Tomatoes (and a gross picture - be warned!)

They said it couldn't be done. They said that my tomatoes would never ripen on the vine. They didn't expect us to have an unusually warm summer here in Crescent City.

But a morning in the garden today filled this colander with ripe sun sugar tomatoes. Then I topped it off with 5 ripe romas, and 4 ripe heirloom "dark prince" tomatoes. Not to mention a smidgen of beans and peas from my seemingly-resurrected bean and pea plants - having perked up after our recent cold snap.

I canned two cans of tomatoes last week. I found a much quicker "recipe" to can them in the pressure cooker, so I think I'll try to knock out another few cans this morning - a couple roma jars and one dark prince jar. All roads lead to the freezer for the cherry tomatoes. That way Jack can use them for cooking and chili-making and whatever else. The greens are going in my dinner today. :)

I haven't posted in around a month. My apologies. Things got a bit hectic here for awhile. I had a surgery to remove several fibroadenomas from my breasts. I'll include a photo at the bottom of this post - those who don't want to see the little fatties can avoid them, that way. No worries - they're all benign, they were just growing rapidly for no clear reason, so my surgeon and I decided it was time to take them out. This being my first surgery, there was a lot of pre-surgery stress and then there was the feeling pooped out and having no energy that follows while my body heals. Well, things are finally back to normal.

The summer is slowing down at work, derby practices have gone "back to the basics" for the off-season, and I'm reigning the house back into control. And the garden. I realized that I didn't do much weeding at all recently. Not to mention that I need to start prepping for a winter garden - pulling out plants that aren't needed, weeding, and planting winter crops. The fall harvest is coming in. I've got some nice squashes and the little heads of cabbage that come after cutting the main head are getting close to solid again. And then there's those tomatoes...

Anyhow, in honor of the harvest, as well as the upcoming autumnal equinox, I'm hosting an Autumn Equinox Potluck & Party at my house on Monday night. Should be fun. I'm making squash soup and cooking a bird in the crockpot, and invited folks to bring other harvest dishes to share. I made some sourdough bread last night to go with the soup, and I'll probably make the soup tomorrow so that it'll have time to sit and flavor-fy. :)

Well, I've got just two more hours before I have to go to work. I'm giving my last evening program of the season tonight. Hopefully it goes well - hopefully there's actually folks there...

Here comes the gross picture....

Until next time!

They had pretty light covers to look at while you waited in pre-op.

They took out 9 in total; the lower ones are from the left, the upper ones are from the right. The biggest (#9) was from the right. It's the one that started this whole "let's remove them" business.