Mon Bouquet du Jour

I do not like to leave my Garden

My last rose bouquet from my garden.

This past growing season was much too short.

We will have a frost while we are away.

The Sugarhat Cabbage will get sweeter.

We'll make Sauerkraut when we get back.

The potatoes need a light frost to set their skins

and so will the Lakota Squash.

We have a new Rooster (friends gave him to us, he was supposed to be a hen chicken)...he is the silliest looking Rooster we have ever had.  Not even our pretty hens liked him at first.  But he sports a very nice crow, not too loud and not too early in the morning. 

And he is friendly.

I hope that:

Our house sitters, from the big city, won't mind the rooster crowing at 4 o'clock in the morning,

Stanley, our old gentleman cat, will not bring mice and voles to the front door,

That the chickens will not go into a molt, I have promised our friends fresh chicken eggs every morning,

That the Charolais bull and his girls will not decide that the "grass is greener on the other side"

That the frost will be light so our house guests can enjoy the bounty of the garden and flowers to bring into the house.

This will be an easy trip for us.  We fly non stop to Paris. A car will be waiting for us.  We will head for the Champagne Region, then the Alsace, then Germany and Austria and then, finally, to my second most favorite place in the World, Italy. 

You wonder what my most favorite place is in the world? 

The Great United States of America, of course. 

My dear Blogging Friends, you have been so generous with your lovely comments and good wishes. 

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Wish I could take all of you with me.

Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen. 

Gina 

Abundance

Someone, please stop me!

Last week I couldn't stop painting.

This week I can't stop canning.

Our garden is overflowing with produce.

Some of it will have to wait till we get back from Europe.

Our champagne grapes have produced my very special

Champagne Grape Jelly.

We have a bumper crop this year.

The rest will have to become "Spätlese"

Paris, Soprabolzano, Deruta and all places in between are calling.

We will be there in a few days.

Gina

Once again, another Artist Studio Tour

The kiln has cooled, the last piece is out.

All is well

Now I can celebrate, along with the rest of our little town.

Visitors come from far and wide
http://ginaceramics.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-time-flies-another-studio-tour.html

I have been painting every day, my kiln has worked overtime.

Hope the weather will be as beautiful tomorrow as it has been for the past few days. The en plain air competition is also being held this week.

I will be setting up shop under the canopy of our  Summit Ash trees.



I don't know what it is about this time of year. There is a new Charolais Bull in our pasture.  This one is even younger and bigger than our last one. 

credit:superstock


  The Bull decided to leave his girls and check out his competition. We had to move him, 2 o'clock in the morning, to a distant pasture. 
He was only 50 feet from me and I should have taken a picture, but again I was too scared to think of my camera. 
You might recall another Charolais bull incident a couple of years ago and on the day of the Artist Studio Tour.

http://ginaceramics.blogspot.com/2009/09/artist-studio-tour-and-charolais-bull.html






Possibly it has nothing to do with the weather.

 Maybe it's because the nights are full with the maddening scent of my very odoriferous Sweet Peas.


Have a great weekend my dear Blogging Friends
and wish me luck!

Gina

I'm supposed to be painting for the Artist Studio Tour

But my Garden keeps calling

Our tomatoes are ripe

The gooseberries, the red currants, the rhubarb, the cherries, the strawberries and more, all have been harvested and preserved in one way or another.
Oh yes, I forgot the pickles and the beets.  They were all taken care of, as well.

Now the tomatoes are ripe and need attention.  And here is the hero of the day, our friend  Steven, attorney extraordinaire and fine French chef, has saved us hours upon hours of work.

I have a very complicated gizmo.  It even has a motor, which I never used.  I like cranking things by hand. It separates tomatoes from their seeds and skins, and, it is very messy.

But Steven uses a blender.  I didn't believe that it would work.  But hallelujah, it does.  It saved us hours of work and the clean up was a breeze.

But you need one of these. 
This one I inherited from Gene's mother.
I didn't know what an important piece of machinery it was until I started to get real serious about canning. 

 Even Gene doesn't mind helping.  After all, this gadget is over 80 years old and it really works.  After chopping up the tomatoes in the blender you then simply strain through this fabulous gadget (please tell me the name of this thing).

We were finished in less than 1/2 an hour.  We opened a bottle of champagne and watched life on the pond and the blue skies of San Pete County.

Wishing you a perfect weekend, my dear blogging friends

Gina   

Mon Bouquet du Jour

Para usted de mi jardin



From our Garden

Gather a variety, whatever looks interesting.

When working with heavy vegetables and fruit, a little extra support is necessary.

Florist picks with attached wires come in handy.

Florist tubes, filled with water, hold flowers a little longer.

Rub a little olive oil onto eggplants, prevents them from drying out.

Stop by your Florist or craft store for all of the above items; you'll be glad you did when it comes time to design your holiday arrangements.

It only takes a few minutes to put together when you have everything at hand.

Even the lowly turnip.

Our garden is bursting with produce.  In between painting sessions I'm canning whatever is ripe in our garden.

I'm still painting for the "Artist Studio Tour", September 10th.  

Thank you, my dear friends.  I am reading all of your sweet comments.  Please know that I appreciate you more than you will ever know. 

Have a great weekend my dear Blogging Friends.

Gina