Random Thoughts

It's fall!

You'd never know it by the thermometer here this month, it's still reaching 90 everyday.

Soup...My body always knows when it's fall, it starts calling out for homemade veggie soup and chili. Not many things taste better than the first big pot of homemade vegetable beef soup. I have always saved leftover veggies in the freezer. By the end of summer I always have quite a few small plastic containers of corn, green beans, peas, etc. These veggies always get put into the first batch of soup. I like to make a big pot of soup. It's always tastes good when you first make it, but even better after it has spent the night in the refrigerator and is reheated the next day.

Nostalgia...The other thing about fall is that after all these years I still get "school sick". I always loved going back to school each fall. I got to do that more than most people because I taught for many years. I enjoyed shopping for school clothes...especially new corduroy slacks and sweaters. And school supplies...the smell of new crayons is great. Taking my daughters to college was always a treat, both of them attended small colleges with pretty campuses. Denison's setting on a hilltop in Ohio was especially beautiful in the fall. And the drive along Kentucky's parkways to Transylvania is always colorful in the fall and the spring. I guess I just miss the excitement of a new beginning. What was the teacher going to be like? Who would be in my class? Just something about this time of year make me think of old classmates and teachers.

Turtle Update...Yesterday the turtle volunteer coordinator and I went to the beach to dig up my 2 remaining turtle nests. These nests were laid in late July and had been covered with 2-3 feet of additional sand during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. After 75 days if the nests haven't hatched we have to dig them up to evaluate them. One of the nest had over 130 unhatched eggs and the other had 90. It is sad to think that these eggs should have been little sea turtles swimming in the gulf. I plan to be a turtle watcher again next season. I have learned a lot about sea turtles, enjoyed walking on the beach at sunrise and talked to lots of vacationers about turtles.

Pear Honey...One of the clients we deliver Meals on Wheels to has a pear tree. She insisted that we pick some pears. I really don't like to eat pears but I remembered people in Kentucky making something called pear honey. I searched the internet for recipes and found one that sounded good. We decided to make it...4 lbs of pears, 4 lbs of sugar, 1 lb of honey, 1 large can crushed pineapple and a whole lemon. Pear honey is cooked like jam or jelly but not quite as thick. It is delicious on English muffins. We took a jar to the lady who had given us the pears. She loved it and told us she has it hidden in her refrigerator so no one else will find it and eat it. She gave me more pears yesterday so I think we will have to make more pear honey.