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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Throwbacks and Lolling...



     Throwback Thursday, also known as ‘tbt.’  Do you know how long it took me to figure that one out? Not sure when it finally hit me, but I have to say that for a long time I wondered why so many were prefacing their comments by blowing raspberries—thbttttt! True, there’s an extra ‘h’ in there, but for want of a better explanation… well, you get the point. I imagined there might be a lot spittle on monitors and SmartPhones!
     And while we’re on the matter of euphemisms, there’s the ‘lmao’—laughing-my-oops-off and ‘roflmao’—rolling on the floor laughing my oops off.
     Hmm.  Well, being the lady that I am, I have to say that both caused a blush of embarrassment, but I have to admit it’s been awhile since I laughed so hard that I rolled onto the floor! And for sure I wouldn't tell you if I did! The mental picture alone is enough to, well almost have me rolling on the floor, but really, it’s too much work to get back up again.
     Then there’s ‘lol.’  I went around thinking, for quite awhile, that a lot of folks were lol-ing around after  finishing their FB comments, and simply didn’t know how to spell the word—loll. You know, loll, as in slouching about in lazy ease. Goodness! Did they really need to tell us about it?
     Well, I’m a better educated Gramma now and, if I'm to believe FaceBook, I guess there’s a whole lot of laughing-out-loud going on in living rooms and offices around the nation, in cars too. And, if I’m to take the other abbreviations seriously, it seems there’s a whole lot of people falling off their chairs and rolling around the floor as well!  Who knew?
     Me, I try to keep my guffawing to myself for the most part, at least when I’m reading. It’s a form of laziness really; I don’t like to have to explain my chuckles to someone passing by.
     Now what was it I was going to say about Throwback Thursday? Hmm. Beats me. lol

Monday, August 24, 2015

Tomatoes and Cedar Berries!



Tomatoes! Big ones, little ones, fully ripe and not-quite-there yet—my kitchen looked like a small market this morning with gazoodles of them lined up from window sill to counter back. So today was stewed tomato day. Blanching, peeling, slicing and simmering, yup, the house smelled like a pizzeria! And after all of that pot-clanking, juice-squirting steaminess, there are now 6 pretty red and green pints of stewed tomatoes cooling by the stove. Whew! Just six?! Felt like a much bigger production than that!
Fivelina was busy at Walnut Woodstove today too. Her big stew pot was bubbling away and the aroma of cedar berry jam wafted down from her tiny kitchen, right into BackPorch. She was out at the clothesline pulling in the days’ laundry from Bittersweet Line when she saw me nibbling my sandwich at lunch.
“Lovely day for drying clothes, Ma’am…” she commented pleasantly.
“Yes it is, Fivelina. I’m glad some of that humidity is fading.” I agreed.  “I smell something wonderful coming from your kitchen today, what are you making?”  And that’s when she told me about Cedar Berry Jam.
“It’s wonderful on corn-cakes in the winter, Ma’am…” she touted, “…and the children are particularly fond of it.”
“How do you preserve it?” I asked.
“Oh, in my acorn shell canisters of course. The boys have been collecting beeswax for me all summer, from some of the old hives that are no longer active. I melt it down and pour a layer over the top of the finished jam and it preserves it beautifully all season. Of course it’s so cold in the winter pantry, nothing could spoil in there then, but I do like to have the jars well sealed just the same.”
Who would guess? Cedar Berry Jam. And we had a bumper crop of them this year in FrontYard at Hare Hollow. And here I was waiting for the cedar wax wings to come and clear them out, but MouseHouse members have been making good use of them too.
Smart lady, that Fivelina and industrious too!
The mouselings start school next week, so they’ve been busy straightening their rooms and getting things ready for the new season.
Miss Winklesnout has the school room scrubbed and polished, every desk and bench, and the piece of slate she uses as a blackboard—clean as a whistle!
Tina, the little village orphan, (see Sept.23, 2014 entry) is doing well and Miss Winklesnout loves having a little girl of her own. She is a wonderful helper to the school marm, and seems to be getting along quite well overall… or so it would seem.
I wonder…