Summer Tomatoes

Once again this Summer we put up some tomato sauce. The jars of sauce we put up last Summer lasted until just this last week. It's amazing to have the fresh taste of Summer tomatoes during the long cold months of Winter.

I gather up my favorite canning book...

A daughter to help...

with her Baby Bump too...

p.s. It's a GIRL 

Fresh picked and washed tomatoes...

dice them into quarters...

(removing the core and any bad spots)

Cook the diced tomatoes down for about 10-15 minutes...

peel off the skins and process in a food processor...

be careful the tomatoes are HOT

simmer down until reduced by about half...

(the reducing takes a good deal of time)

having hot sterilized jars (I run my jars through the dishwasher on a hot wash with a sanitizing rinse)

add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (don't use fresh squeezed lemons, it has to be the bottled type, it raises the acidity level to maintain proper pH levels, the lemon juice does not change the flavor of the tomatoes)

into the bottom of each quart jar and ladle in your reduced tomato sauce...

Put your quart jars of sauce into a boiling water bath for 40 minutes...

 there you have it- Tomato Sauce...

Summer in a jar...

until next year.

Canning tomatoes is a bit labor intensive. I set up a make shift outdoor kitchen under a shade tree, and the process takes the better part of the day.  

We have more tomatoes in the garden and I may, or may not, process another batch this Summer. 

I really enjoy the time working on the sauce, but more importantly I enjoy spending the time with family, creating memories and stories to share together. When I close my eyes and think of Summer I want to remember sitting under that shade tree on a Summer day chatting, working away, and being together. 

It's all part of

'Preserving a Past to be Proud of'

The Girasole Lady

Garden Spiders

I have two Garden spiders in the little garden, I let them be.
Their webs are in quiet spots in the garden, and not in my way.

When I was about 10 years old I read the book "Charlotte's Web". I loved the story and it became one of my favorite books. 

"You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.” 
― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

Garden Spiders are a guest in the garden, they eat pest and insects that are disease carrying and crop destroying,  they will eat almost anything that they can catch in their web.  
They just need to be left alone. 

The Girasole Lady

All The Days Of Summer

Indian Summer last a long time here in Northern California.

In Summer... all the days feel the same.

Caveman works at a job that requires him to work 7 days a week from around July 4th to late September.
Yes- even Sundays. I love when people ask me 'even Sundays?', yes- even Sundays, as it is one of the days of the week. This year the long days of overtime started in early Spring, and were 12 hours days, but since July they have been 8 hours days.

Since I left my 'office job' last year, the days of Summer are just days, no weekends or week days. Half the time I never know if it's a Tuesday or a Saturday, as it makes no difference one way or the other. I can't say that is a bad thing, it's just the way it is.

In addition to keeping a tidy and organized home, I keep up with all the watering and outside chores myself. I work harder physically than I ever did sitting at a desk in my office chair all day, I love that most about my stay at home job.

I love that when I am done with chores, time permitting, I am able to sew, craft, or bake.

Being home full time is a privilege, and certainly one I do not take for granted. 

There was a time, not so long ago, for many years, that this wasn't an option for me, for us.  

This is a personal choice, and it works for our life together.

 I love most that Caveman allows me this opportunity to take care of our life here at home, inside and outside.

 I'm not so sure he was convinced, when I decided to leave my previous job, that having me home full time was going to make all that much of a difference, but I can tell you it certainly has. As for Caveman, well, he is sincerely happier having me home, meals are cooked, shopping, cleaning, and laundry is done, occasionally a pie is baked and ready for him when he comes home. Call me old fashioned (don't worry, for me there is no higher compliment), but having something for Caveman to eat at the end of his work day is the least I can do to show my appreciation for his financial contribution to this life we live together. Sure, there are times it gets crazy, maybe the gran-babies have been here all day, I was out in town for most of the day, or I was involved in a sewing or crafting frenzy, and dinner wasn't planned for the evening. Caveman is OK with that too, some evenings dinner is as simple as grabbing some cucumbers, tomatoes, corn from the garden, and serving it with some bread.

There is a peace and contentment in our home that surpasses anything money could ever buy.
 I've been asked, 'Do you have children at home.?' No, not now, we are 'empty nesters', but we have 'us'. I love being a wife and a Grammy at home, yes- even on Sundays.

The Girasole Lady

Labor Day Weekend

 Typically Labor Day involves visiting family, specifically my sister usually comes up from the Bay Area for the holiday weekend, but this year it was quiet. My sister and I spent a lot of time together this Summer, so we each spent the holiday weekend at our respective  homes. 

Saturday Beth and I headed out for a Vintage road trip to Loomis to visit the shops in the  High Hand Fruit Sheds.   

Oh my goodness, there was the most beautiful nursery there, it was like walking around an amazing park-like garden. Beth picked up a few plants for her garden. 

Inside the Fruit Sheds was just as charming. 

We grabbed lunch to-go at the Conservatory Deli, 

yummy chicken salad sandwiches with homemade potato chips 

I picked up this picture at The Vintage Bricoleur  

It is called 'Golden Hours'.

 ♥ I love it ♥

I hung it above my entertainment center in my living room. 

I rarely purchased pictures/art for the walls of my home. I have lots of 'homemade' art hanging, cross stitch pictures, shelves to hold trinkets, painted signs, and such like things. 

We were a little limited on time for this trip, but intend to make another one in the near future. We made it home just in time to meet up with Tonya and Kristina, and head up to Chico for some fun fabric hunting. I came home empty handed of fabric, but we also stopped in at the Plant Barn , yes Beth needed MORE garden plants, and I picked up this vintage medicine cabinet front that I will be using as a mirror in the guest bathroom. I've been collecting several items for the 'bathroom re-do', ya the one I haven't even started yet! 

By the way I never realized how hard it would be to take a picture of a mirror. I had to sit way to the side, to avoid seeing myself in the mirror. The reflection is of my couch and foot stool- (another item that needs to be worked on).

Sunday was spent at home canning up more pickles and another blackberry pie. 

What is it about blackberry pie that is so reminiscent of Summer? 

The heat, the sweetness, the soft reminder of the days of my childhood. 

The childhood ranch, where I grew up, had blackberry vines down at the creeks, and we would go out with Mom and pick the berries, careful of the thorns, bees and the occasional water snake, wearing long sleeves for protection, and eating them faster than we could pick them. I would watch as she baked the pie, admiring its beauty and just waiting for that first mouthwatering taste when dessert finally arrived.  In the years to follow into my adulthood, picking the prized berries out by the river in the Rock Piles, here in my now home-town. 

Pie always wins, 

over cakes, cookies, ice cream or candy.

The Girasole Lady

Blue Moon

Last night was the Blue Moon.

It was a beautiful sight. 

I wanted to do a blog post, but I was too tired.

I sat at my computer and struggled to find the energy and the words to write, but it just wasn't happening.

Today is a busy day. 

A vintage road trip this morning

and fabric shopping this afternoon.

More later...

The Girasole Lady