Tuesday, October 20, 2026

 It was all very misty and autumny this morning. Although husband and I are still feeling the effects of whatever virus/flu we've had, I managed to get out and cut back some phlox and peonies yesterday. My pile of cut back perennials and shrubs is getting to be huge, hidden back behind a split rail "wall" that also hides the burn barrel. 

The chicken run is filling with feathers as they continue to molt. If I'm lucky, I get one egg from nine hens. I have been putting in some supply teaching days and love it when I get a job at the little French immersion school in a town close by. I don't speak completely in French, but throw in some basic phrases and words here and there. The teachers know they likely won't get a completely French speaking supply teacher if they are going to be away, so they leave English plans. But the students there are lovely and it's such as small, close-knit school. 

We had a little Thanksgiving with just our two kids and their significant others. We had a small turkey and a ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (a favourite of son's), carrots, and stuffing. I made an apple pie and pumpkin dump cake for dessert and a pumpkin pie was contributed to round things out. 

It was mother-in-law's 89th birthday yesterday. She has dementia and has been living in an nursing home for a while now. My husband went to visit her with some treats and she actually agreed to going for a little drive. (Most times she doesn't want to leave her "home"). So he drove her to our place and we had tea and she got to pet the cat (he did his job well as greeter cat). It was a nice day with her although I don't think she had any clue who I was, but that's o.k.

The autumn leaves here in our part of Ontario are blowing down now. We went for a drive on a warmish day about a week ago and noted that the leaves just weren't quite up to snuff this year. Not sure what causes better colours, but our own maples in our yard have been slow to go as red as they usually do. What we do have, is a ridiculous amount of box elder bugs! They are a medium sized red and black bug that congregates on the sides of buildings. I don't think they are particularly harmful but they present as a creepy infestation. They occasionally get in the house, but generally they stay outside. I know this is a cyclical thing and recall a similar year when there were just tons of them. Do you have them where you live?

Issues with Blogger

 I can’t be the only one who has realized this but I sometimes like to put it out there and see if others want to add anything. My reading list has been stalled for about 5 days and I can only see fellow blogger’s posts that they wrote a few days ago. However if I click on one of their posts, I can then access their other more recent posts. I have no idea why the reading list is stuck like that but likely it’s not just me. If you’ve figured out a way to solve this, please let me know. 

( Of course, it’s also a conundrum in that people won’t be able to see this post in their reading lists due to this issue…)

Cucumber Abundance Solution

 For the past few years I have basically not bothered with planting cucumbers or pumpkins due to the scourge - cucumber beetle! They decimated my plants and I tried every defense with no success. I had been planting my zucchini under row covers and hand pollinating them just to get enough. 

This year, however, I threw caution to the wind and with the insane busyness of preparing for our daughter’s wedding on the property, I planted my zucchini and also three cucumber plants hoping for the best.

The gardening gods smiled down on me and I had zero cucumber beetles this summer ( NO idea why). The amount of zucchini harvested was and continues to be crazy, and yes, those three cucumber plants also produced abundantly. 

Many of our suppers have included the simple side of cucumbers cut up with coarse salt but there are still many. Of course they get discovered in amongst the vines at a bigger size than one would want for pickling cucumbers. But I pulled out my very old canning book, 

The book still has its original price tag on it - $3.99. I’ve decided to make mustard pickles, perfect for bigger cucumbers (peeled and seeded). 

I have jars boiling in the canner and all of my ingredients set out… I’ll take pictures of the finished product later. 

The sauce with a diced red pepper from my garden.

The cut up cucumbers and onions in the sauce (yes, they look like apples!).

Here are the pint jars in their beautiful, golden glory in their place of honour, atop Joanne's tea towel. Many of you will know who that is. 

If you are curious, or industrious, here is the recipe out of the book.

This time around, it made seven pints. The kitchen smells amazing. 

Have you canned anything this season? 

Final Day of August

 If you are familiar with me, you know this is a time of year that makes me antsy, anxious, hopeful, all those emotions because for more than 30 years I was gearing up for another school year. Of course, I’m “retired “ now but still doing occasional teaching on my own terms but old habits die hard. 

I do love this time of year, regardless, with the sound of crickets and blue jays, the abundance of garden produce, and remaining colours in the flower beds. Here are some stellar examples. 

Today is very rainy so I am making a batch of my traditional chili sauce that my mother always made. It is not made with chili peppers of any sort and is not in the least hot tasting. Instead it is tomatoes, onion, vinegar, sugar, salt, all spice, and cinnamon. It is cooked until thick and then canned in small jars to be kept for the months to come. It is delicious with sausage or roast pork.

Aug 24, 2026 - Muffins

 For the love of God, no more zucchinis! I have 2 on my countertop, 3 in the other fridge, and one and a half in the kitchen fridge. I just grated one and have a dozen muffins in the stove and a different recipe on the counter waiting to go in when the others are done. 

The first picture is a plain zucchini muffin made with half apple sauce and half oil. The second picture are muffins with more spices in them like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. 

I don’t know if I’ve shared this handy hint before, but if you want big puffy muffins like you see in the stores or a coffee shop, preheat your oven to at least 400 degrees ( could even be 425) and put your muffins in for 5 or 6 minutes, then turn your oven down to the actual temperature the recipe calls for, for the remaining time. It works beautifully! 

Rainy, cool, and autumnal here in midwestern Ontario today. Perfect for the smell of cinnamon! 

A Peck of Pickled Peppers

 When I purchased pepper plants from the Amish greenhouse earlier in the summer, I thought "Hungarian Wax Sweet" meant I was buying sweet peppers. Nope. Hungarian Wax Sweet are kind of hot, not like a bell pepper at all. So what does a girl do when confronted with hot peppers? She goes onto the interwebs and finds a recipe for pickling with the label "Hungarian Wax Sweet" attached to it. 

Here is what they look like on the plant:

They are nice, long yellow peppers that turn red if you ignore them.

Here's what they look like cut up into rings, swimming around in some vinegar, onion, and garlic:

My canning supplies just stay in the kitchen at this time of year, so I got some water boiling and put my empty jars in. For the first time EVER I am using wide mouth jars. 

And then after giving myself a spicy steam facial, I ended up with these:

It made 4 half-pint jars. I'm not a huge hot pepper person, but my son and daughter are, so they can enjoy these. 

I'm waiting on my tomatoes. They seem to be taking a little longer to turn red this summer. I've blanched and frozen many green and yellow beans which are always nice in the cold winter months. I have also made quite a few zucchini muffins, which I then froze. 

And now to wrap up my mid August post, here is a happy row of zinnias. I only just started planting zinnias in my vegetable garden last year and they made me so happy, I did it again this year.

Centerpieces

 I thought I would share something that I thought was absolutely stunning and added so much to the ambiance of my daughter’s wedding. 

If you know any young people embarking on a wedding, they likely have all kinds of images saved on their phones and carefully crafted Pinterest pages with lots of ideas for their particular colours and “ theme” of their special day. 

Our daughter wanted classic style, and her colours were whites, greens, gold, and a bit of pale pink. 

She and her fiancé at the time travelled to a town where a man was selling small concrete urns that he made himself. His wife told him he had to sell lots of his stock before he could make anything new- haha! So they were able to purchase quite a few for a good price. 

The day before the wedding, we embarked upon a system of creating the table centrepieces by soaking florist sponge ( oasis) in warm water and then jamming it into the bottom of each urn with plastic underneath so water didn’t leak out onto the tables. 

Daughter is far more exacting and detailed than I, so I decided my jobs would be preparing the urns, and running around the property cutting various sizes of hydrangea flowers and keeping them in water. 

Then my daughter created the beautiful floral displays using white hydrangeas, ivory roses, pale pink roses, and white carnations. They turned out so well and have stayed beautiful for days. They were kept in a cooler trailer that was rented for the occasion ( to keep drinks and some food cold) over night and were taken out in time to decorate the round tables at which the guests were seated for the meal, speeches, and the dance afterwards. Here are some pictures.

For those of us who were married a long time ago, what were your colours or flowers? Do you remember your centrepieces? Did you even have centrepieces?