apples and clay

I changed my blog around a bit. I felt like I really needed it in order to feel inspired.  What I like about this format is that I can really see my pictures from the last few years in minutes.  I may not keep it this way but for now the change feels good, you know?  Have you ever just sat for an hour going down memory lane on your blog?  You can also view my blog in other ways by using the tabs on the top left of the homepage.

So, what have we been up to lately?  Two words could sum it all up. Apples and clay.  Or if I wanted to expand on that a bit it would include tomatoes and daily art.  Oh yeah and soccer and homeschooling too. I've been busy in a good way.  Just like every fall is for me, trying to wrap up the garden and starting a new school year can be chaos.

Our tomatoes.  They were abundant this year.  I've spent many a day roasting tomatoes two trays at a time, cooking them down, seasoning and canning them.  It's become second nature to me, this canning thing.  Two days ago, when the weather started turning, I pulled the rest of the tomatoes and our last volunteer cantaloupe in anticipation of our first frost which never happened.  But, it will soon.  We got our first snow in the mountains.

Oh, my apples.  Our trees were so full this summer that we had to prop them up so the branches wouldn't break off.  The lack of late frost was a bonanza this year all around town.  We have Pippin and Jonathan apples in our yard but these red beauties, came from a 75 year old tree in town.  The owner said that they probably didn't taste that good because the tree was so old and we could pick them.  They are the most crispy, sweet apples and a nice change from what we have coming out of our ears already.  Why is it that  I can go crazy over more apples when I have ten bags sitting all over the kitchen?  It's totally irrational but I think we'll be enjoying apple crisp for dinner this winter.  We will be gorging on apple sauce and apple rings like nobody's business too.  Joy.

 Daily art.  We've discovered the big, heavy weight paper is the best for everyday art.  First, it can be taken anywhere and the pencils won't poke through.  Second, it's big enough to draw large dragons, ninjas or castles.  Eli asked the other day to bring out the fermented pickles so he could draw them.  The two boys drew the jar of pickles (while Amelia was reading of course) and then ate them.

We've been tinkering with clay lately.  It's strange how we know certain things about ourselves.  For instance, I knew from a young age that when I grew up I wanted to drive a VW Bug.  I did and I also married a guy who drove a VW bug.  Funny how that is.  Well, I've also known that I wanted to work with clay.  A few years ago someone just gave us an old kiln.  I didn't even tell them how much I loved hand thrown ceramics.  My husband just recently got some work done on the kiln and we did a test run.  I'm so excited.

  Happy Fall to you and yours!