I’ll start at the end. Rabbits. I have lots of rabbits this year due to a combination of a mild winter and lazy fox. I know there are fox around as I see them very occasionally, especially in the spring. This year I had three sightings, which is more than usual. They just aren’t doing their job on the rabbit population, however. Rabbits seem to love my lawn. I suspect it’s because it isn’t really a grass lawn. It has lots of thyme, mint and other goodies mixed in. Smells lovely when I mow. Yes, it needs mowing right now, but that’s another tale. My rabbits are more curious than afraid of me, but usually they scamper off if I’m too close. The other day, as I was taking my morning walk around the property, a rabbit darted across my path and then stopped. I also stopped. He, or maybe she, was about four or five feet away – just sitting and watching me. I watched him. He watched me. He didn’t hunker down or lower his ears, just sat there. After a minute or two, I decided I had work to do and walked on. He ducked under a low hanging branch and I’m sure kept watching me. Cheeky little fellow.
I love fresh corn and I used to freeze some every year. For various reason, I haven’t done any for several years and this year I was determined I would get some. I hadn’t done anything about it, but happened to notice some U-Pick advertised in the local paper. I decided I just had to do it, so I went to the farm and talked to the owner. She said the ad was really a mistake as the corn was pretty much over, too tough, but there were some people still picking and I could try it if I wanted to. I had to try and I’ve found the more mature corn freezes better. The very first crop has wonderful taste, but tends to be small kernelled and turn to mush when frozen. I spoke to the others who were picking and they assured me that the corn was still good and juicy. It looked a bit old, but at $1.50 a dozen, I decided to take a chance and get four dozen ears. After getting home, I set up all the equipment, shucked the corn, parboiled it and started cutting it off the cob. The farmer was so right. Definitely past its “sell-by” date. Oh, well, maybe I can make a lot of corn soup this winter.
On a better note, more tomatoes. I rarely grow large tomatoes as they always seem to get eaten, have bugs or rot. I stick to the cherry tomatoes and have great luck with them. I always put in a couple of plants of the larger variety for the few tomatoes that do make it. This year is, of course, is different. I have a huge (well, huge for me) crop of large yellow tomatoes. So out comes all the canning equipment and off I go. I have put up a batch of the yellow tomatoes, a mixed batch of red & yellow and still to come a batch of over-sized cherry tomatoes.
What does this have to do with books or marbling? Nothing, except it keeps me from playing with my toys. I did get out the marbling trays this weekend, but that will be another blog.
