Getting Ready To Make Jelly

I have handwashed the jars and will boil them in the canning kettle while making the jelly.  The juice has been waiting patiently in the fridge for me to get "my act together".  I remember from the last time, with a rambunctious puppy in the kitchen, that things go very slowly and then there is a great deal of "hurry up".  It is also very messy.  Sugary messes are difficult to clean off the hot stove top.  I want to do a proper job this time and have jelled jelly.  The first time the jelly was perfect.  The second, not so good.  Or it could be the other way round.  One set of jelly was a bit runny in the jar.  Still tasty but not thick enough.

Yesterday we got one rose planted, some things cleared out of the garden.  Kale still tastes delicious to me and Chard still tastes like dirt.  Such a beautiful crop and I don't think I will be eating it.  Friends recommend steaming or quick frying it with tons of garlic.  I don't eat garlic because it makes the people who do eat it, stink.  It streams forth from your skin pores.  Polluting the spaces around me when "these people" stand anywhere near me.  I always wish I had a gas mask to wear.  So, no heavily seasoned garlic chard.  Which probably tastes like garlic dirt anyway.  I would hate to smell like that.

I also spent quite a bit of time raking big fat acorns off a small section of the front lawn.  And the driveway.  G swept the piles together and loaded up the garden cart.  We dumped them along the side of the driveway, in a small ditch.  Where they will sprout into a thousand little oak trees.  I have a garden bed selected to weed this afternoon.  After jelly.  And more acorns to rake out front.

I was reading a blog that was discussing the value of the way you spend your time.  Is what you do worth the time you spend doing it?  I can honestly say that I do good things at my job for one, possibly two hours, out of an entire work day.  The rest of the time is spent standing around doing nothing of value. I think there are things I could possibly find to do (like tidying up plants) and I do that to some degree, but usually I get interrupted and then forget to go back to the task.  If I stopped working I would miss those few bits of time well spent but not the remainder.  It doesn't seem like a good enough reason to work there.  Already, I am dreading my return to work on Thursday.

G has misplaced the Jeep keys and we haven't been lucky enough to find them yet.  They are here at home, I hope.  He drove home.  But he did walk the dog in the woods and could have had then tucked into a pocket and they could have fallen out along the walk.  House key included.  Last time he lost something, it was the checkbook and I found it under the ironing board.  Don't ask.  He also noticed a tree in the yard and wondered where it came from.  He bought and planted the tree a few years ago, which is what I told him.  Refuses to believe me.

On a more positive note, the ornamental grass we dug out of the perennial bed, because it was spreading everywhere, and threw out into the woods?  It is now colonizing the woods and looks quite charming out there.  Far away from the perennial bed.  I mentioned to G that the remainder of the overgrown Iris side of the bed would also be a charming addition to the woods.  Perhaps the chunks of Iris can also be thrown out into the woods to plant themselves??  I tossed Sweet Annie out into the back meadow to do what it wants out there and not in my vegetable garden.  The tall plants are full of seeds. G also hopes to run the rototiller out along the edges of the cut lawn and sprinkle wild flowers seeds.  But first he needs to find the Jeep keys.

And I need to go haul the canning kettle into the house and fill it with water and boil the jars and start measuring juice, pectin and sugar.  And hope I have enough lids.