Summer's end

The past few days, I've been involved with beets, potatoes and closing down the swimming pool.  I finally made it to the garden to begin the harvest. I know, I stated several days ago that I was going to begin, but somehow, the pull of the sewing room was too strong!  Anyway, yesterday, I washed all the potatoes and even cooked some of them into our dinner dish--organically grown potatoes, fresh from the garden, are soooo good!

And I washed up the beets and got about 20 bags of them in the freezer. While I was dicing up the cooked beets, I had to take a few tastes, you know. Those bits that are too small or too oddly shaped. By the time I was finished getting them into the freezer, I'd had my fill of beets for the day.  This year I diced all of them, thinking that I can throw a few cubes in my salads all winter long. I love beets in a green salad with a little Feta or blue cheese on top.  Yum!

Today is a cleaning day.  I offered to open my home for a monthly "Handwork Group."  I announced this at guild earlier in the month. The idea is to bring some hand stitching--quilting, embroidery, knitting, whatever--and have an evening of stitching and companionship.  I love working on my quilts but it is a rather solitary hobby. When the guild offers a Saturday SewIn, I go if I possibly can. I enjoy the company of fellow quilters so much, so I decided to offer another opportunity to get together. I believe there will be 5 of us here tomorrow night so I have to get the house cleaned up and tomorrow I'll be baking a cake--Provencal Apple Spice Cake--that will be just right for a snack at this time of the year.

Oh, and I have another big bag of green beans that have to be put into the freezer as well.  And the laundry has to get done. And I have to get an oil change in the car.  Don's on the golf course.

'Nuff said.

Next day:  I wrote the above yesterday but didn't post it, thinking I'd add some pics. Obviously, that didn't  happen.  So to update,  I got most of the cleaning done and the beans are in the freezer. The car got it's oil change--2 hours! What's with that??--and the laundry is finished. Don had a good time golfing with his buds.

Today, I finish the little bit of cleaning that's left and make a quick run to the store so I can bake the cake for tonight. And then I have to tidy up the sewing room and make sure my hand stitching project is ready to go tonight.

So, here's the obligatory photo--a vase of zinnias I picked in the garden the other day.