New Cat

The fall colors are beginning to appear nearly leaf by leaf here along the Front Range. While we live on the edge of our small town, to the south of us the farmers have begun cutting corn. Soon those fields will be amber with corn stock. The onion harvest is on, too. The large farm trucks loaded with onions on the way to storage rumble down the highway leaving a trail of dried onion skins floating in the breeze. The roadside will be dotted with those huge awesome blossom onions that get shipped out of state to restaurants. We can buy them locally and let me tell you they are painfully stout to chop. 

And so the rhythm of life continues. The days are warm, sunny, quiet and peaceful. 

Meet The Cat. He is a wild cat that showed up here some months ago, a shadowy figure that we would see hunting mice out the in the pasture. He'd roam the yard, not daring to venture too close. The Head Gardner began to talk to him, call to him: Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. He looked bedraggled and thin, sickly. The HG began putting feed out for him, but the neighbor cats ate it. Now we feed him on the patio. He comes every morning and every evening asking to be fed with a sweet kitty meow. The HG wants to make friends and has barely touched him. And it looks like he will be a permanent member of the family here. We need to catch him to take him to the vet to shots and a little bit of a surgery. He will wear out his welcome as he seems to want fight with Mo and the cats next door. 

Remember the "Shout Heard Around the Yard" post earlier this summer: "I have Grapes"? Well here is our meager grape harvest:

They must be Concords with seeds, a bit sour, and not enough to do much with. But I have my own grapes. I hope we can repeat the yield next summer.

I wanted to share the apple jelly with you one more time before I stored it. The apples lent a pale yellow, cloudy juice but with very good apple flavor. I added half a cup of cinnamon red hots, a childhood favorite treat. I did add sugar too and pectin. The granddaughters loved the jelly and thought it would be good on their cream cheese and jelly bagels. I thinks so, too.

The jalapenos nearly gassed me, too, when I chopped them. I was a bit wiser this year to wear plastic gloves. Their fumes clogged up my throat, causing a coughing fit. This jelly is not as clarified as it was last year and it seemed to thicken rather than to jell as last year's did, so it is not a pretty clear green jelly. I used Truvia baking blend, a blend of the sweetner and sugar, trying to cut down the amount of sugar. I decided that the compromised color and texture are not worth the less sugar route. We will only be eating a bit at time. Next year: sugar.

And so the sun sets on another day at the Garden Spot. I have a counter full of tomatoes in various stages or ripeness. Each day when I go out to feed, I tromp through the fallen tomato vines picking the ripe and nearly ripe ones. I think I will can or freeze spaghetti sauce. Never done that before, but I am game.

I am glad that you took the time stop by. I love your comments. Thank you. See you next time.