Red Plum Jam

It seems like everybody is canning stuff this fall.  I think a lot of people have time for gardening and tending to fruit, due to Covid giving us all more stay-at-home days.

One of our neighbours is an elderly gentleman (who has actually been in the neighbourhood longer than we have, which is saying something) who I have given jam and cookies in the past.  He has reciprocated with cookies and other goodies, but this is the first time he has brought fruit to us!

Look at this big box of lovely ripe plums!

Since I had never made jam with red plums before, I had to search for a recipe on the internet and in my canning books.  I didn't find one that suited me, so I cobbled together this one from a couple of recipes.

5 cups sliced red plums

3 cups white sugar

1/2 cup water

Pretty basic, huh?

Combine in a big pot (I used a dutch oven) and heat over high heat until boiling, then reduce heat and continue to cook, stirring often, for about 30 minutes.

If your fruit is not so ripe as this, you can probably shorten the time (since there is more pectin in less-ripe fruit).  Just do a gel check after about 20 minutes, to be sure.

When it looks like this, it should be ready!

I always use a water bath to jar my jams and jellies, so they won't spoil.

Ten minutes is long enough to make a good seal.

This jam has simple ingredients and is easy to make.  Iain seems to find it his new favourite!

Foxy

Today marks 15 years since I lost this guy.  I miss him.  I looked at my blog today and realized I had never mentioned him - but at one time he was a big part of my life.

Foxy came to live with me when I had an apartment on Renfrew's main street, and I already had two cats at that time.  He was the same colour as one I had (Coco) and the young lady who brought him to my door thought that one of my boys had escaped.  I looked at him in her arms, sighed, and said "No, he's not mine, but I'll look after him."  And our friendship was born.

He was about six months old when he came to live with me.  I don't know where he spent the first six months of his life, but whoever he was with lost a great cat.

Foxy could jump - and he had incredible agility.  He liked to sit atop a six-foot tall narrow cabinet I had in the hallway, and he reached the top by first leaping onto a stair bannister (about 3 feet up) and then leapt the rest of the way from there.  The stairs had a large post at one end, which was a shallow pyramid shape, and he would lie on that and turn his head upside down to look at me.

Iain likes to remember the time Foxy somehow managed to get onto the porch roof, and sat outside the second story window looking in.  Since we wanted to go to work we couldn't wait for him to find his way back down, so Iain had to climb up and get him.  Foxy accepted Iain as important to me, but wouldn't allow him to come between us:  if Iain's arm was around me in bed, Foxy would calmly pull at it until Iain moved it, so Foxy could take his usual spot cuddled next to me.  He almost always slept with me, and as he got older he would curl up under the covers next to me.

In the morning when I read the paper, he would settle into my lap while I finished my coffee.  He started and ended every day with me.  And he was a bit of a "guard-cat"; I can remember him hearing someone at the door, and a growl escaping his throat as he listened for an intruder.

He was an excellent hunter.  One time when we were at the cottage, he escaped outside; gone for no more than five minutes, he came back with a chipmunk in his mouth.  Another time, Iain and I came home to find him lying on the lawn, looking rather majestic, and when we called to him we heard a "scree-scree" noise.  He quickly pawed at whatever he was holding down, so we went to investigate.  It was a bat, which we made him let go (at least we were able to save the little guy).

Foxy was 21 when he left us.  He was healthy for all but a day or two at the end (except for the time he decided to leap from a chair back onto the wood stove - that required a visit or two to the vet).  He was a loving little guy, always acting like I was his mom; when he came to the door, I didn't really need or want another cat, but I feel like he was sent to me as a gift.  I was lucky.

How are we all surviving COVID-19, hmm?

2020 is basically a Chinese curse:  interesting times.

We've been doing quite well.  Iain is one of the blessed ones who can work from home.  We're really enjoying our time together, and I am not anxious to have him return to regular workdays.  Nor is he.

The Mourning Doves have been nesting in our neighbour's downspout.  And in ours.  Lots of little doves around our place, now.  We have feeders and a very popular bird bath in our backyard, so when Iain's workday is done we can retreat there to enjoy a bit of nature.

This spring has been hard for many others.  Our neighbour has fallen victim to advanced Alzheimer's.  A nephew's wife has been fighting for her life in hospital for months.  We are so very blessed to have only minor problems.

One of those problems is car trouble.  Both the truck and my dear old Camry ("It's only 21, it's too young to die!") have gone the way of the junkyard.  We are, for the time being at least, a one-car family.

The truck seems to have been given a reprieve by some enterprising soul who wants to fix it up - we've seen it at a couple of places in town.  It's the perfect vehicle for someone who has the time and ability to work on it - just needs a lot of rust fixes, and the electrical is somewhat dicey.  And I hope they don't want to drive it in -30°C weather; it likes to slip into 4WD low and stay there for a time.  It's nice to think it will be around for a while, though.

This being a COVID spring, we were unable to have the yard sale we had planned.  I've been selling some stuff on Facebook (the only use I make of that platform nowadays), and giving some away there as well.  The dining room was packed with junk, and now it's merely sprinkled with junk - a huge improvement!

Spring is here, finally!

Song Sparrow!

A favourite sign of spring.

And we made a quick trip to the lake.

Staying home

Well, here we are, in the middle of a pandemic.  Not much fun.

From our kitties to you:  stay safe and warm, and ride it out.

It's A New Year!

Well, here we are in a new year!  Christmas kept me pretty busy, with baking and cleaning and shopping and wrapping and decorating.  I enjoy it, but it's nice to get back to normal, too.

The birds have been visiting our feeders.  It's especially nice to see the Cardinals!

Jezebel is still with us - getting scrawnier by the day, but enjoying herself nevertheless.

When she looks out the window, I wonder how much she sees anymore - she can detect movement, though.  When we had her at the cottage, she saw when the squirrel came to the feeder.  However, this is how she spent most of her cottage time:

Cabinet Shuffle

And here it is:

The finished project!

As you can see, there's lots of storage in it!  And it has a nice country-cupboard look to it that sets it apart from the other white cupboards in our kitchen.

I still haven't figured out what to put on top of it - it needs a plant or something decorative.

This was a fair bit of work:  because I used alkyd paint the coats needed to dry a day before I could apply another coat, and the painting ended up stretching over a couple of weeks as a result.  Painting inside cupboards is a real pain, too, literally:  my back was killing me every night.

Expense-wise, it wasn't bad.  I probably spent between $175 and $200 all in.  To buy a new cabinet like this would be about $400 or so (and assembly required), so I feel pretty good about it.

It's nice to change up the kitchen a bit.  The grey paint on the walls is new as well - it was green, but I was tired of the colour.  We had it redone in 2001, so it has needed a little work.  It could use more, but that's all it's getting for now.

No more projects until the new year!

Retirement Sucks!

Just kidding, it's freakin' awesome!  My worst day retired is still way better than a good day at the office.

So here's the thing about retirement, though:  you have to set your own schedule.  This is something I am struggling with; I want to be a good girl and do my housework on a regular basis (like I had to do when I was working), but when the days stretch out before you seemingly endlessly with few hard commitments, it's easy to say you'll do it tomorrow, as you become distracted by things like blogs.  Hmmm.  You see the problem.

Anyway, the fact that there is a warm kitty curled up on my legs is what I am blaming my current laziness on.  Bad kitty, Jezebel!  But don't move.

The freedom of retirement means I can take on projects I never would have gotten to do while working.  For instance, when we had some windows replaced this fall, and the work messed up the walls a bit, I decided to repaint the kitchen!  I will post pictures soon, but the kitchen is still in upheaval because I started a project in August that is only now almost finished:  purchasing and painting an old china cabinet.

In its original home.

I bought it from a nice young woman on Facebook (yeah, I know, I said I wouldn't go there anymore).  It looks pretty good in this photo (the only pre-paint one I have), but it had been exposed to some weather and was a bit rough.  What I needed was more storage space, and this is going to help out a lot.

Once I'm finished I'll post a completed pic.  Soon!

So What If Blogging Is Unpopular?

The thing about blogging these days seems to be that people aren't doing it.  It has fallen out of favour - one is supposed to use Facebook, or Twitter, or TikTok (?), but no one wants to read anyone's blog anymore, it seems.

I used to follow a lot of blogs, and every last one of them is sitting unused, or has been shut down.  Every one.

I feel kind of bad that I haven't been following them (too busy with other useless pursuits, to be honest), and that's probably why they have fallen away.  One that I used to like was "SalliesART"; a nice lady who was a devout catholic and who had a lovely little black cat named Suki.  She used to like to do artwork based on icons and other catholic images.  Now, her blog is gone and I guess she probably is, too.  She wasn't very well, and I'm guessing her health took a downturn when I was not paying attention - not checking up on the old blogs.  I hate the fact that her blog is just *gone* - all those fun stories about her cat, her pretty artwork, her loving references to her family - all gone.

My friend Wendy, who I really got to know mostly through her blog, passed away suddenly in 2010, and a few years later her blog was closed down.  I was sorry to see it go, as it was a link with my past as well as hers.  But all things fade and disappear, and we are as ephemeral as these pages.

So, I have decided, that I will buck the trend and keep my blog going - for as long as I can.  My retired state gives me a bit more freedom to post.

And I'm staying away from Facebook - people there are friggin' crazy.

And, here I am again...

Well, it's about time for my yearly missive.  It just occurred to me that I haven't had anything to say here in a long time, but there are several reasons for that.

First off, I'm trying to be a bit more careful about what I say online.  I've pretty much sworn off Facebook (the premiere site for arguing with friends and relatives), and I've occasionally embarrassed myself on Twitter (the premiere site for arguing with strangers), so I now tend to read other people's opinions, write a snarky answer, and delete without posting.

Honestly, there is just too much garbage on Facebook - where people read memes and think they've read a news article.  And although Twitter is a good place to get breaking news, it becomes an echo chamber once you mute or block all the rude/racist/ignorant Twits.

If you ever need proof of the bell-curve of human intelligence, go on social media.  Try a thread from a CBC news post or tweet - it's all there.

Secondly, you can see by what I've written above that it's really hard for me to keep my opinions to myself.  I start typing and they come rushing out of my fingertips.  So simply not writing anything seems the safer way to go.

And lastly, the big reason:  I've been in a semi-funk for the last couple of years.  It's a low-level depression, as far as I can tell.  A couple of things happened in close succession that changed my world significantly, and I haven't recovered; or maybe I have just changed.

Anyway, I have another big change on the horizon, and this one I am looking forward to:  I'm retiring!  In four months - according to days.to, which I link to on my iPad - I have 119 days of full-time employment left, and as much as I like my job and love my co-workers, I'll be glad to be done.

So, I may start posting here more often.  Or not.  We'll see....

Out and about, East

Victoria Park in Truro is lovely place to get a bit of exercise and see some birds and beautiful plants and trees and water...all the things that a park should have.  The stairs to the treetops are daunting, but after a rest halfway up I did enjoy the view.

Just a pretty flowering vine.

One of the pretty views.

 If you are in Truro, definitely stop at The Shillelagh - not a fancy spot, but VERY TASTY!

I love that the paper placemats are made by "The Placemat Guys"

Another wonderful place to dine out east, this time in Prince Edward Island, is The Blue Mussel Café in North Rustico.  Go on a nice day and sit outside and enjoy a great meal.

Lots of local brews.



We were so lucky to be there when they were involved in the "Best of Sea" competition.  The chowder was incredible, and made with mussels that came out of the ocean about 4 hours before we ate it.  You can't get much fresher than that!

I was struck by how very house-proud everyone in PEI seems to be.  Almost everywhere we went, properties were very well kept.

One must mention Cows Creamery. Very good ice cream, and very attractive logo.

I don't really do life lists, but if I did, one item would have been to see where L.M. Montgomery lived.  I was not a big "Anne" girl, though I of course read the books.  My girl was "Pat of Silver Bush".

A beautiful landscape.  I wonder how much like this it was when she was there.

We stopped at Cavendish Beach, so Iain and I could dip our toes in the Atlantic.  It was a bit chilly to do anything more than that!