Outside My Window ~ 9.16.2012

Outside my window…is a cloudy but mild evening at about 68°F at 9:00.  We had a slight chance for rain this evening with a forecast low of 61°F.  Our high today was a beautiful 75°F with the sun ducking in and out of clouds all day.  There is a local pollen alert for our area ~ high in weeds and grass….which kind of sucks because my allergies have really been bothering me since the end of last month, first of this month.  Fall can be a hard month on me as far as allergies go.  It looks like we have a decent week coming up with the exception of Monday ~ a chance for rain ~ and Tuesday ~ scattered thunderstorms and wind with a potential for severe storms.  The rest of the week is forecast to be mild….I do enjoy the mild temperatures that accompany the Fall season.  And speaking of Fall, the actual turning of the season will occur this coming weekend ~ the photo will be changing for outside my window.

I am thinking…I totally rocked the fig preserves I made today!  🙂  I did it Nina ~ I followed the steps just like you said…and I did it!  I celebrated each little pop of the lids.  I found some figs at Costco a few days ago and decided to give it a try….three jars.  This is the first time I have successfully “canned” anything and my success has my mind reeling with thoughts of what other delicacy can I preserve in a jar to enjoy later.  I remember visiting my grandmother’s house and her pantry shelves would be lined with canned goodness…and later when I lived out of state and would come home to see my family, my mother would have canned goodness in her cabinets.  It is kind of like making soap….I had all the ingredients for some time but it was doing it for the first time that made me hesitate.  Once I got past the first time, it was easy….the same with canning I suppose.  I wonder what I was so afraid of all this time.

I am glad…that cooler weather coming will kill some of the mosquitoes our wet summer has created.  I walked out in my backyard yesterday, fully intending on doing a major clean up when after 5 minutes and I had been sufficiently bitten, I gave up.  Must be all my sweetness because they ate me up!  I determined a major clean up was not going to happen until a good cold snap eliminated some of those pests.  We have had mosquito spraying both from the air and on the ground this summer.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a mosquito truck spraying the neighborhood but we had one drive through not so long ago.  The recent flooding didn’t help the situation either….they are vicious.

I am going…to make some more soap in the very near future ~ perhaps next weekend.  I made my first bar in 2008 and  haven’t purchased a bar since then.  I can give you all the details behind the chemistry and why it is better for you, but instead I will say that once you use a bar of handcrafted soap, you won’t want to use anything else again.  🙂

From my kitchen…three pints of fig preserves….a small bit of leftover carrot cake I made for my mother’s birthday dinner today….leftover twice baked potatoes and green bean casserole from my mother’s dinner that I have ready to take for my lunch tomorrow.  I should have a few recipes coming up fairly soon….I have been trying a few new things but I want to tweak them a bit and make them one more time before sharing.

I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks….the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One on television ~ free HBO/Cinemax weekend on Fios….Turbo snoring on the couch.

Recap of last week…includes a remembrance to those that died on September 11, 2001 with the poem, From the 104th Floor, by Leda Rodis….my ticket I won in the campus lottery to go see the Dalai Lama on October 10th at William and Mary Hall….and two of my true loves ~ red runts and my Canon camera and lenses.  🙂

Plans for the week include…working from home on Tuesday….putting together storyboards for two photo sessions I have coming up in the next couple of weeks….continuing my daily walk/runs with Turbo.  The dog is not only a tremendous amount of company for me but I love how I feel since I have started walking him at least two miles each day ~ sometimes more.  We mix a bit of running in here and there but I’m still training him on that ~ he loves to run and can go quite a bit faster than I can so instead of running together he is more or less pulling me along…not so much fun that way.

One of life’s little pleasures…stopping by to see my mom after work tomorrow and giving her a birthday hug and kiss.

From my camera…a couple of shots from this past weekend…