New Years Eve

Fireworks #1
Originally uploaded by Camera Slayer

Happy New Year, everyone!

Closing Days

This is the larger of the two liquidambar trees in our front yard. When we moved here, there were two of the same age but, several years ago we lost the western tree during a bad windstorm. The tree we replaced it with is also a liquidambar but always loses its leaves in November. This one hangs on into January or February and even then doesn't lose all its leaves until the new spring leaves push them off.





The Lisbon lemon also in the front yard was picked clean about a month ago by an elderly couple with a shopping bag. This is the second year that they have been around here. Last winter I first saw them picking oranges from our next-door neighbor's tree; I didn't say anything because he never picks them anyway. Then we noticed that we no longer had any ripe lemons less than six feet from the ground. Now it was a different story because we do use ours. We've been trying to keep any eye out for them this season, but have not been able to catch them in the act. Actually, I'm not sure what I would say if I did catch them. These lemons are almost ready, so there may be another raid soon.

We had a good bit of rain right around Christmas but since the weekend, it's been cool and clear. The baby tomatoes in the greenhouse haven't started ripening yet.

We still have to paint the hallway but have decided to leave it until after New Year's. Meanwhile, I've started my sewing project for the grandchildren: old-fashioned nightgowns for the girls and a pair of pajamas for OJB. I bought the flannel for the girls a few months ago but the knit for the pajamas came from my stash. Two yards busted! I also cut out a kitchen smock for myself - another 3 yards busted. I haven't done a count of how many yards are in my non-quilt fabric stash, but this doesn't even make a dent.

Today is the start of my second year of retirement. I haven't accomplished much of what I had planned to do but hope to do better in 2009.

Christmas Surprise in the Greenhouse

Last spring I planted seeds for this Jelly Bean grape tomato. They took their time germinating and, by the time they were tall enough to plant in the garden, summer was almost over and we were about to leave for two weeks. I planted one seedling in the raised bed between the two Italian tomatoes and left the other in its pot. When the weather started to get cold, I moved it into the greenhouse but wasn't very faithful about watering it. I noticed the two blossoms last month but, even then, I didn't manage to water it regularly. Today, just a few days after the shortest day of the year, I found these robust fruits in an almost dry pot. I immediately gave it some water and am hoping they will ripen. There are very few leaves on the plant and the fruit are on a foot-long stem, so I don't think I will get any more. But it does give me hope for growing tomatoes in the winter even though the greenhouse is unheated.
Also, this reminds me that in a few weeks it will be time to plant tomato seeds for the 2009 season. I will definitely plant this variety again!

Apple Pie Time

My contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner was dessert: Pumpkin and Apple pies. The Husband used the apple peeler-corer-slicer that KAS and EAS gave him last Christmas. The first few apples were not quite perfectly peeled but, after that, it was a breeze. We had enough apple slices for the pie in about 5 minutes. Clean-up was easy, just a quick rinse and then I let it drip dry.

The spiral peelings look really interesting - like maybe we should steam them to use as a garnish. Needless to say, we just put them in the compost. We'll try something fancy another day. I saw a video on You Tube showing a similar instrument peeling and spiraling a potato but I'm not sure how we would get past the corer.