Sunlight on the hillside

I'm in a bit of a funk at the moment. The last several weeks took me away from doing the things I wanted to do and left me doing what I didn't want to do. I retired for a reason and yet I agreed to fill in at the old job. It hasn't left me feeling warm and fuzzy. 

My life has been spent working for others. I got my first part-time job when I was sixteen. I wanted a car and cars cost money, ergo, one works to earn money. I didn't stop working until I turned sixty-five. 

Yes, those years are now paying dividends. I'm not rich, but I have retirement funding. More importantly, I have time to enjoy my home. And what do I do? I say "yes" to filling in while a girl is on maternity leave. Someone should beat me over that. 

Yesterday morning I was reminded of WHY it's important for me to be here tending to my hearth and home. I'm working on a new story and I'm spending a lot of early mornings in my office, which happens to be the sunroom. I glanced out the window in time to see the sunlight hit the hillside. It's in these quick, quiet moments that I know I belong here on the manor. 

I live on the west side of the mountain. To the west of the manor, I can see the pink sky and the small town in the valley. The townies already have full sun, but I'm in the shadow of the mountain. It is on the hillside that I first see bright sunlight. It starts with a sliver of brightness that grows as it makes its way down the hill. It is constant, there in all seasons, present in every day, even on cloudy days when the rays of light slip under the clouds for far too brief a moment. These moments soothe the ache in my soul. 

I did the right thing by agreeing to fill in at the old job. But if they reach out again, the right thing will be to say no. I know this because of the quiet early morning hours and something as simple as the sunlight on the hillside. 

The Lady of The Hideaway

simple country pleasures, sunlight, peaceful mountain, right things, a writer's life, working hard, retirement, sunroom

Don't blink - autumn is over

Just three days ago I was outside taking photos of our lovely, lovely autumn to make a collage to remember 2023. 

And it has been a lovely fall! The colors, the sunlight, the glow in the afternoon - beautiful! I've loved every moment I was able to be outside. 

We all knew it wouldn't last forever, but I lit the first fire in the wood stove in what seemed like the blink of an eye. 

It wasn't a "blink," it was just three days. That's pretty fast for around here. We usually take a long, slow slide out of autumn. Overnight the trees dropped half their remaining leaves. 

I'm reminded of how my grandmother would take me outside as a child and we'd gather up different colored leaves. She'd then iron them between two sheets of wax paper and stick the sealed sheet on the refrigerator to remind us of autumn. I was tempted to do that this year, but I have no one to share it with. 

I'm not particularly sad about getting the wood stove going. I've worked hard over the last eighteen months to "lay in" a supply of firewood. It would have been a complete waste to let those downed trees simply rot away. Yes, if I knew someone with a mill, I could have sold them, but there isn't a sawmill anywhere near here, so they went for firewood. 

I'm not alone in lighting a fire in the stove. The scent of wood smoke is heavy on the breeze this evening. I noted, when Deuce and I were out walking, the cousins have smoke coming from their chimneys, too. 

It may seem like cutting and splitting firewood, and keeping the stove hot is a lot of work, and it is. But it is also one of the simple country pleasures that bless my life. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, woodstove, firewood, simple country pleasures, autumn ending, hard work, sawmill, rural living, country lifestyle, a writer's life

Do it to enjoy now and to build for next season

Very little happens here on the Manor that doesn't take the next season into consideration. Sometimes - most of the time - a current project is all about the future returns. Revamping the area at the gable end of the house was a project like that. I know how I'd like it to look next year, with pots of daylilies and annuals and herbs among the stepping stones, and the Greenstalk at the end full of growing things. 

The last week of August, I scraped back the pea gravel and pulled up the old, rotting landscape cloth, and put down a woven ground cover from Grower's Solutions. It was a lot of hot, sweaty work, but I was very pleased with the results. 

More dirty work was ahead. I repotted all the daylilies. Thank heavens for the John Deere 1023! Carry heavy pots? Not me. I slid them into the bucket and let the tractor do the heavy carrying. And I didn't just repot the plants, I amended the soil to ensure it will be many years before I need to disturb the roots again.

Now that the bigger pots are in place, I can fill in around them with smaller pots that will hold colorful annuals and herbs. Except for the blueberry bush in the center and the Greenstalk by the walk to the patio (just out of the frame), none of the placements were planned. I grabbed a pot from the tractor bucket and plunked it down in an empty hole. It could not have worked out better! I wanted it to be an eclectic mix and it will be. 

I need to spend some time investigating what herbs have the best chance to grow in this location. It gets a lot of sun and the house keeps that area hot. As for annuals, I'll stick with marigolds, zinnias, and begonias. Those are about as maintenance-free as it gets. It's another project that I can strike off my To Do List for this year. Next year, I hope to be able to stand back and enjoy the flowers and herbs. 

Hard work, yes, but well worth it. 

The Lady of The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, To Do Lists, gardens, daylily, seasonal work, John Deere 1023 tractor, herbs, annuals, rural living, simple country pleasures, a writer's life, looking ahead, Greenstalk, Grower's Solutions

Sitting by the fire on a rainy day

Living in the country as I do, I constantly find joy in the simple chores around our little homestead. And a lot of those chores are cyclic. By that, I mean they need to be done at about the same time every year. Burning brush isn't cyclic. No matter if it NEEDS to be, it can't be done until certain criteria are met. 

Having acres of woodland we end up with a lot of brush. Branches and limbs fall to the ground on a regular basis. There is pruning to be done along the lane and along the edges of the yard. Getting whacked in the face while mowing isn't much fun! It can hurt! 

Rose bushes get trimmed, the garden gets weeded, shrubs and bushes die and need cut back in the hope of new growth, and yes, sometimes we help out our city-bound family members and bring branches from their yards to burn. 

I won't light a fire unless it is raining or rained in the night enough to make the ground wet, or unless there is a cover of snow on the ground. This is the way I stay out of trouble. This is how my grandfather taught me to burn, and it makes good sense. 

This past Sunday, we got a wonderful soaking rain. We don't typically do a lot of chores on a Sunday, but I didn't think sitting in my pickup watching the fire would be much work, and it was not. It was actually rather pleasant. 

I took my Kindle and a travel cup full of coffee with me. I stuck a stick in the USB port and cued up my playlist. I left poor Deuce inside with the Lord of the Manor and I had some quality alone-time. 

After a bit, Himself sent a text asking if the fire was burning. I took a picture and sent it to him. It wasn't until I took the picture off my phone that I noticed the Universe had had a little fun with me. Take a look at the photo. The song that played when I took the picture was Fool in the Rain by Led Zeppelin. 

Funny, Universe. Funny.

The Lady of the Hideaway

The Hideaway, Holly Tree Manor, homesteads, simple country pleasures, rural living, burning brush, soaking rain, Chevy trucks, common sense, country traditions, coffee

Lopsided roses

The roses began to bloom a couple of days ago. It's May, so it's time, so that's really not news. The news is they are only blooming on one side. 

What's up with that, you ask. Answer: the deer nibbled off the front side of all three rose bushes. 

The roses are planted along the front porch so the deer can only reach one side. You would think they wouldn't bother roses because of the thorns, but they do. 

Nurturing roses and then having the deer destroy half the bushes is frustrating. We're about to take drastic measures. 

We don't hunt. We have no intention of shooting a deer. We will, however, put a slug in the ground near their feet to scare them away. We hope that if we do that often enough, they'll get the message and stay in the woods. 

Will it work? We'll see. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, roses, whitetail deer, country lifestyle, rural living, a writer's life, deer damage, deer control, gardening, simple country pleasures

Cucumbers 2023

I will freely admit I am not a master gardener, but a novice at best. My grandfather was a Master. Oh, he never went to school or took classes for it, but he knew it. He lived it. His parents and grandparents' survival depended on the crops they raised and "put by" for the next year. He worked the garden right beside them. From my front porch, I can still see the area where they planted and it is about three acres in size. 

I wish I'd been able to learn more from him, but I needed to work a full-time job. After work, there was my first marriage to tend to, not that my efforts there were successful. Now I have time to garden and I'm learning almost from scratch. 

Pop grew cucumbers from time to time, but they weren't a staple in his garden. I recall that my grandmother would tell him she needed to make a batch of pickles (bread and butter) every few years, and he'd plant some cukes. Once the pickles were in the jars, the family got salad cucumbers because my grandparents didn't eat very many of them raw. 

This is the first year I started cucumber seeds inside. Nine seeds sprouted that have been transplanted into buckets in the garden patch. Cucumber is a fruit and is about ninety-five percent water. The seedlings are very tender and can't tolerate colder temperatures the way a tomato plant can. 

I knew I took a big chance getting the cukes outside this early. We're still ahead of our last frost date but my instinct tells me that while the temps are dipping into the mid to high thirties, we won't have frost. Nonetheless, I decided to hedge my gamble and move the cukes and tomatoes into the greenhouse for the next two nights. We had a good rain yesterday and the air is damp. I expect the greenhouse will add a layer of protection from the dampness settling on the leaves overnight. 

Planting early wasn't something my grandfather did, but we have new and improved varieties these days. If my cucumbers wilt due to the cold night, I still have time to direct sow more seed. If that happens, I'll consider it a lesson learned and stick to direct sowing from here on out. 

Live and learn.

The Lady of The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, rural living, country lifestyle, cucumbers, tomatoes, greenhouse, freeze warning, a writer's life, simple country pleasures

It's sneeze season - for me

Sneeze season has arrived as it does every year. I'm not plagued with a lot of infirmities - I actually have just one. I'm cursed by the budding maple tree. 

As I look out any window, I'm confronted by little red buds hanging happily on the tips of the maple tree. And what do those little red buds mean? POLLEN. Tree pollen. It's about to get ugly. 

I've checked my tissue supply and it's adequate to see me until the next trip to Sam's Club. In the spring, I buy tissues in bulk. The fact that the trees are budding early does not bode well for me. My nose will become a faucet at any given moment, an inconvenience that will continue to plague me until green leaves appear. Once the leaves pop, I'm in the clear until the next year.

Sneezing aside, the trees are lovely against a perfect blue sky. Spring is a time of paying attention to what Mother Nature is doing. You have to watch closely or you'll miss some of her marvels. 

I don't want to miss a thing in case I'm not here next year. I try to appreciate each season in case it's my last. It helps me to be grateful for little things. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

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Parting with treasures

My family's Christmas gathering happened this past Saturday night, hosted by my young cousin who lives on the other side of the road. She's part of what I generally refer to as Gen 4.

Gen 1 was my grandparents, Gen 2 my parents, I and my first cousins Gen 3, the children of my first cousins comprise Gen 4, their children are Gen 5, and now we have reached Gen 6. It amazes me to see how once again my family has grown. 

I say "my family" but I am the outlier. The one with no offspring of my own. Was this by choice, design, or fate? It's a difficult question to answer. At the appropriate time in my life, I did nothing to prevent the possibility, and yet here I am. 

It's time to part with some of my grandmother's treasures. Forty years ago she gave me the set pictured. I remember the three-tiered dish laden with cookies and sitting just inside her front door every Christmas season. Everyone, even my father, walked through the door and snatched a cookie before even taking off their coat. The candy dish made an appearance around Easter, filled with jelly beans. I'm not sure I realized the two pieces were a set until she gave them to me. I don't remember seeing them side-by-side until then. 

My young cousin enjoys hosting get-togethers and was therefore the logical choice for the party pieces. I signed up to take cheesecake to the party so I purchased little individually wrapped cheesecake bites and arranged them on the tiers. I made sure to arrive a wee bit early so I could more privately tell her  the set was now hers. I got a big hug from her, too. 

Parting with this treasure from my hoard was easier than I imagined it would be. I suppose that means it's the timing was correct. Back in the days when we hosted parties, I used my grandmother's set and I got a lot of enjoyment from doing so. 

I'll continue to enjoy my grandmother's set, only now it will be on her great-granddaughter's table, not mine. I think that's the way it was always meant to be. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Christmas, family, heirlooms, simple country pleasures, rural living, country lifestyle, generations, party pieces, a writer's life

"The weak winter sun"

The readers among us recognize the phrase, "The weak winter sun...."  It's a descriptive phrase often used because we all have an image of a winter day without a lot of sunshine. We all can relate to it. 

There's a winter storm approaching our area. Tonight, possibly around two to three hours after midnight, the forecasters say we'll get the wintery mix. This will be the first time since I retired I'll be able to avoid icy roads without any guilt. 

The weak winter sun isn't something I complain about. In winter, the earth needs to rest. The trees rest, as do the pines even though they are green. Bushes and shrubs, rest. The holly trees have set berries and the small birds carry those seeds far and wide to sprout in the spring in new places. 

The grass isn't resting yet, preferring the colder temps to rebuild its root system without competition from clover, dandelions, and the like. I know that below the ground, the daffodils and the crocus are preparing. 

I spent some time outside today, reveling in the cold and observing how the air slowly filled with moisture from the approaching storm. By late afternoon the clouds arrived to form a screen between me and the sun. I watched the changes from my perch on my sunroom porch until finally chilled I stepped back inside. I'd hoped to see deer in the meadow, but they were absent. 

Being home, and being able to be a living breathing participant with all the nature around me is a blessing. The weak winter sun is a blessing to the earth, and to me. Spring will come soon enough, but I'm joyful that I was able to see the world just as it is today, and marvel. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

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Christmas on the patio 2022

It's true that some of the best things in life are simple things. Last year we did a little upgrade on the patio, which we have enjoyed immensely. Having extra storage, a large work surface, and an attractive corner added a lot to our "patio time."

We spend a good deal of time on our screened-in patio during the warmer months. We have morning coffee and cocktail hour out there. Some evenings it helps that there is an old television to stream some background music from YouTube. And not having to do battle with mosquitoes is priceless. 

I've been decorating with the seasons along the back of the countertop. I like having that seasonal greeting when folks come to visit. (Only people we don't know go to our front door - we're country!)

Yesterday, I set out the winter greenery. It's not overtly Christmas, so it will be out there until spring. It doesn't matter to me if I'm the only person who really enjoys it because I've learned it's important to please myself with such things. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Christmas décor, simple country pleasures, rural living, patio
 

Christmas cookies - ginger snaps

Having a close friend is a blessing in life, at least until they abandon you and move five states and a thousand miles away. Then baking Christmas cookies together becomes problematic. 

We used to get together every year, either during Thanksgiving weekend or the next to bake. We each had five baggies of cookie dough ready to go and spent a Sunday afternoon slaving by a hot oven. Wine helped us get through. Then we split everything down the middle. I had cookies in the freezer for months. 

One of the cookies C- always brought was Ginger Snaps. It's a good recipe but it's finicky. It's one of those things that can't be doubled, and we never did figure out why. I would occasionally make a batch just for me and Himself, but I hadn't done so for many years until this week. 

These are a good change of pace, but I confess that chocolate chip cookies trump everything else for us. Oatmeal cookies with white chocolate chips and cranberries come in a close second. 

We'll enjoy the ginger snaps for the next week or so, and then there is the possibility I never make them again. Some things are best left in the past. 

_*_*_*_*_*_*_

Ginger Snaps

¾ cup melted Crisco (do not substitute!)
1 cup white sugar
¼ cup Brier Rabbit or dark molasses
1 egg
2 tsp Baking soda
2 cups flour
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp clove
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Liquefy shortening and cool. 
Add sugar, syrup and egg. Beat well.
Add remainder and chill dough over night. 
Form into small balls.
Roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet, then flatten with fork.
Bake on greased sheet at 350 for 8 minutes. 

For best results, do not double this recipe. Make individual batches. 

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Ginger Snap, Christmas Cookies, rural living, simple country pleasures

Simple things

As I begin this blog entry, it's about five-thirty in the morning. Deuce and I have been outside so he could sneak off into the dark woods and do whatever he needed to do.  I could hear the leaves crunching under his paws as he searched for his spot. It was that quiet. Orion hung above me to the south, an early morning companion to warn me of the approaching winter. In the coming months, he'll be with me overhead late at night, telling me that spring is coming. He has always attracted my attention. 

Deuce doesn't linger in the early morning. He likes his creature comforts in much the same way his puppy parents do. He rejoined the lord of the manor in the bedroom while I brewed a cup of coffee and landed at my computer. 

I think there are many things that can be said of these still moments before daybreak. I appreciate my place in creation as I look into the moonlit woods. I am the tender of this place in this time. What it will become after I'm dust, I don't know. I ponder such things just before daybreak. 

Standing at the window in my office, I watched as the driveway lights popped on, one after another in sequence as something approached, finally coming near enough for me to see the young buck. He's headed for the other side of the hill, into the thickets, to rest for a while. We know he and his harem hide out there and so we have no plans to go into that section of the manor and clean out the underbrush. He may rest there undisturbed for as long as he's with us in this life. 

Daybreak is slow, and yet it happens almost in the blink of an eye. One moment the trees are a blackness against the stars, and the next the stars are gone and the trees have individual silhouettes. Shades of gray give way to silver, which in turn gives way to blue hues and eventually, for today, rays of sunshine. 

Watching the woods wake is one of the many simple country pleasures in my life. I wouldn't trade it for love or money.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

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Rainy autumn days

I should be writing or making split pea soup. I should be in the laundry room pairing up socks so I can toss them in the appropriate drawers (his and hers). I should be doing any number of things that need doing, but instead, I've been wasting time. 

It's a rainy, dreary, windy autumn day. The wind is showing me just how far along the trees are in changing color, so I guess it's not all bad. 

The view outside my window is different. With the poplar tree gone, a woodpile has taken its place. Loki has already discovered the squirrels that have taken to sitting on top of the woodpile. He's stalking them, but not having any success, I'm happy to report. 

Yesterday was the complete opposite of today. The sun was bright and the sky was clear and blue. The last blooms of the season, those the deer didn't find, are showing their colors. The deer are more interested in the acorn crop than blooms right now. 

Dreary days like today will become more frequent as the season turns toward winter. I must learn to change with them. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, autumn, winter, changing seasons, woodpile, squirrels, country lifestyle, rural living, simple country pleasures, a writer's life, rain, fall color

Finished - clean and tidy, ready for next season

Yesterday was the day I'd been waiting for! I picked the very last three tomatoes and four peppers of the year! Then I set about tidying the garden coral for next year. 

It was a beautiful morning, too, with temps around the 65F mark. I was outside early so I could work in mostly shade. I put the bucket on the John Deere 1023 and moved the remaining five-gallon grow buckets and grow bags to their storage area. Then I scrubbed the little table, swept the tarp, and then dumped a bucket of hot soapy water on it, and swished the broom around before rinsing.  

You may wonder why I'd want to give the area the hot water and soap treatment, but it's important to keep a garden area clean so as to cut down on pests, mold, and mildew. Besides, it looks a lot better if it's clean and tidy. 

Looking forward to the 2023 growing season, the plan is to do a few things differently. I'm not going to transplant every little seed that sprouts. I had too many tomatoes crammed into too small a space. I was able to make sauces, etc., which I wanted to do, but we have a lot of top-notch local growers in my area. It may be more time effective to purchase a bushel of tomatoes from one of them to do the canning next year. A high tunnel would also allow me to use the garden coral area for what it was installed for - a small pool. 

I also want to grow a few different things that I didn't have room for. I have acreage, but I also have a large deer population. The deer would decimate any unprotected area so I'm keeping my garden small. My ultimate goal is to get a high tunnel that should thwart the deer. It's that or obtain a hunting license, sit on the front porch, and wait for them - not my first choice.

Growing in the garden is not quite complete for 2022. I have red beets growing nicely in a raised bed under a screened frame. That's another first. I had one or two beets grow in a bucket last year, but I may actually get enough to freeze-dry a batch this year. 

It's time for me to go through my seeds and see what I have left to use next year and what I want to order. It's never really too early to stay organized. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, seeds, deer, rural lifestyle, country living, organization, a writer's life, simple country pleasures, home food preservation, hunting, tomatoes, peppers

Strawberry jam

Show me a good sale on frozen foods and it's a pretty good bet I'm going to grab a few bags. A couple of weeks ago, the local grocery had a buy two get one free offer on sliced strawberries - and they were at a sale price to boot! So I got some and tossed them into my already crowded freezer with the intention of making jam as soon as I had time. 

It's time to make time for some of those projects. I've been freezing Roma tomatoes, too, and space in the freezer is now at a premium. This morning I decided to make the strawberry jam. 

I remember as a small child "helping" my maternal great-grandmother make jams and jellies. I'd sit in her kitchen and watch as she turned hot mashed fruit into jelly. When it was time to harvest elderberries, I held the basket for her as she snipped off clusters of ripe berries. Grandma used a jelly bag made from feed sacks to strain the juice from the pulp, and then I got to "help" give the pulp to the chickens. I have so many rose-colored memories of Grandma, and now being older, I realize how hard her life really was compared to our lives today. So much less complicated, too. 

While Grandma had to pick her own strawberries, the process, for me, is easier. I open the bags and empty the contents into a saucepan. My preferred method to make jams and jellies is to follow the Sure Jell pectin recipes. Sure Jell has never let me down and it came through again this morning. Five cups of mashed strawberries, one envelope of Sure Jell, and seven cups of white sugar. Yes, seven cups. It seems like a lot but jams and jellies are consumed in small amounts so I don't angst over it. 

I ended up with nine half-pints of jam, which will probably last two years. We might border the Southland, but we don't serve biscuits at every meal. We go weeks at a stretch without using jam or jelly, but when it's time for some, homemade is the very best! 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, a writer's life, strawberry jam, Sure Jell pectin, home food preservation, home canning, simple country pleasures, rural lifestyle, country living, live simply, family heritage, pantry building

The jungle in the woods

There is a jungle in the woods. My garden corral is growing abundantly! For 2022, I've ended up with four different varieties of tomato, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, peppers, and potatoes.  All of them are growing in containers to maximize space. An in-ground garden isn't possible because of the number of deer we have living in our woods. I have plans to expand a bit, but it will take time, as in time to install a fenced enclosure. I want to design a system that is both expandable and movable, and lightweight enough for me to handle on my own. With the Grand Solar Minimum, I may need to move my operation to an area that gets fewer hours of direct sun. 

One thing I really need to get over is planting every seedling transplant that survives. I have a difficult time discarding any baby plant. The Veranda cherry tomatoes are proof of that.  

The bottom line is that I'm enjoying having a little garden to tend. It's not enough to feed us all year, but having a few fresh things on the table is something we both like. I ended up having only seven cabbage plants survive, but that's seven batches of fresh Cole slaw during the growing season.

I've learned a lot this season. I know why half my cabbage didn't make it. I didn't plant it correctly. Now I know. I also know I didn't get it under netting fast enough, too. 

Enough blogging for now. I need to take a basin and harvest some of the Roma tomatoes and at least four cucumbers. I might have to pull up and discard one of the cauliflowers that has been looking poorly. There's no point to continue to water it if it is dying. 

There's a certain peace in the garden corral, and we all need a little bit of that in our day. Where do you find yours?

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, tomatoes, cauliflower, simple country pleasures, country living, rural lifestyle, Grand Solar Minimum 

A good choice - Veranda cherry tomatoes

Last winter when I was choosing seeds for the 2022 garden, I came across the listing for Veranda cherry tomatoes at Burpee. I specifically wanted a variety of cherry tomatoes that grow well in containers and these certainly fit that requirement. 

Right from the start, the seeds sprouted into healthy little seedlings. There was such good germination I gave away half the seedling transplants to a cousin and a friend. The way these plants produce, I could have given away more! I don't think I lost a plant.

These plants are, as advertised, great for containers. I've been harvesting cherry tomatoes for a couple of weeks and there is no indication of the plants slowing down production. I wanted cherry tomatoes for summer salads, but I've also been tossing them in the freezer bags to add to the mix when the Romas begin to ripen and I'm ready to make tomato sauce. I've freeze-dried several batches, too, along with a couple of cucumbers. We'll see how that works out next winter when I want a fresh tomato and cucumber salad. 

My only "complaint" about this variety is that the compact plant hides a lot of tomatoes beneath its leaves. The vines are very strong and tightly woven so sometimes it's difficult to get to a ripe cherry without crushing it. I've learned to harvest the ones growing underneath before they get too ripe and let them sit on the counter for a day or so. 

I can't go into my little garden space without pulling off one or two fruits and having a snack. Veranda cherry tomatoes are definitely on my list for next season. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, cherry tomatoes, simple country pleasures, rural lifestyle, freeze dry, garden planning, Burpee Seeds, country living, gardening

Purple peppers - surprise!

I grew bell peppers and jalapeno peppers in my 2021 garden, and I had a bumper crop! Just a few weeks ago I pulled out a couple of small bags from the freezer to make Hot Pepper Jelly and there is plenty of peppers left. I'm probably going to freeze-dry them before the summer is over to make room in the freezer.

When I planned my 2022 garden, I had no plans to grow peppers. Then I was out shopping and saw a seed packet of mixed bell peppers for a dollar, and because growing peppers is fun, I got the seeds. 

Fast forward until today and one of those "mixed" pepper plants has purple peppers. Now that is cool!

I certainly didn't expect anything other than green peppers. I thought there'd be enough to have two rounds of stuffed peppers and that would be good for this year. But you know what? I really like these little purple bells. They look really cool chopped up in potato salad. Next year, purple peppers are part of the garden plan. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, purple peppers, vegetables, grow your own food, simple country pleasures, rural lifestyle, container gardening, garden planning

Mom's last houseplant

My mother has been in a care facility for almost seven years. She has Alzheimer's Disease. Her world has become small and peaceful, kept that way by what is, I believe, the very anti-depressant drugs that put her there. There is not any sort of dementia in her family history. It's just her. 

My stepfather died in May of 2019, and in preparing their house to be sold, I brought my mother's last surviving houseplant to my place. I'm not sure how it is someone can kill a cactus - other than sitting it in a basement window and forgetting about it. That's what happened to it. 

I didn't think it would revive but something in me had to try. It's a living link to Mom and I needed it. 

At the time, it was only the large central plant, and that wasn't doing well. The base was pinched and the cactus had fallen over. The dirt in the planter was hard as concrete. I brought it home, set it in the kitchen sink, soaked the dirt, and hoped for the best. 

I tended it for several months, amazed it hadn't died. It had, in fact, perked up with careful watering. Then one day I noticed strange bumps on it and soon realized those bumps were baby cacti! It was not only living but reproducing!

Now several of the baby cacti have shot out roots and it's time to see if they'll continue to grow on their own. I have another planter filled with what is marketed as cactus soil and today is transplant day. 

Everything I know about cacti is here in this blog post. I'm flying blind, but I'm taking the chance to see if they'll grow. 

I'm trying to keep it going, Mom. I hope it works. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Alzheimer's Disease, cactus, houseplants, country living, rural lifestyle, simple country pleasures, traditions, 

I thought it might take longer...

I've been retired for six weeks, and this is the week Lazy came to visit. She's not a welcome guest, but since her visit does coincide with the beginning of the Dog Days of Summer, I can't fault her timing. 

It's too hot to be outside during the middle of the day. If I'm going to do anything, I'd best be done no later than about ten o'clock. That's why it took several mornings to paint the porch ramps. As soon as the sun rose above the trees, I was finished for the day. Seriously. 

To make it worse, the spousal unit and I didn't do anything productive during the afternoon hours, but quiet time spent together likely did us a lot of good. Being together 24/7 is a big change for both of us. Not even during the Covid lockdown of 2020 were we always home together. I escaped every weekday to go get the mail and check to make sure the office was still standing. No one else was in the building so I accomplished a lot - A LOT - in a short amount of time. 

Today I met a co-worker for lunch, which was very nice. We chatted and she caught me up on the latest gossip. It was a pleasant interlude, but I was happy to hop into my car and make my way home. 

So I could be lazy for the rest of the day.

It was raining by the time I got home so that last statement isn't as bad as it seems. I've been working since I got my first part-time job at the tender age of sixteen. That is a long time to be gainfully employed. 

I knew Lazy would arrive. I can indulge her for a few days, but no more. She won't get the better of me. 

Oh, but doing nothing feels as good as I always dreamt it would. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Dog Days of Summer, lazy afternoon, retirement, life changes, black Labrador Retriever, country living, rural lifestyle, coworkers, simple country pleasures