My Leaf Obsession

I admit it, I have a leaf problem. I've become obsessed by them. After spending much of my life living in Los Angeles where autumn is some what ho-hum at best, I now find myself overcome with the beauty of autumn in the Pacific Northwest and Portland, OR in particular. In spring and summer, I am in love with the glorious colors and varieties of the flowers and other plants around me. Now, that fall is here, I  am again in love but with the visual feast that this season offers. Though taking images of the trees in their fiery, fall finest is what we think of when having an image of this time of year, I prefer to look down and see the fallen beauty at my feet. It is everywhere, if only we would look down and appreciate it.

Apple Season

Autumn is here and that means apples. Lots of apples. Dan and I headed out the weekend before last to the Hood River Valley area known as the Fruit Loop. It's a gorgeous part of the state that is filled with farms and farm stands, plus wineries (that's a whole other post). The Saturday that we visited was part of the annual Pear Celebration weekend. And, we did indulge in pears. But, I was focused on apples. Why? Because I wanted to make more apple preserves. It's not a fancy recipe, just one from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. However, it is a really tasty recipe that Dan and I discovered a couple of years ago when some friends gifted us about 10 lbs. of Gravenstein apples. We needed to do something with all of them and there are only so many crisps and pies that you can make and eat before they go bad. Plus, we did not have enough room to properly store them for any length of time. So, since we had just started learning to can, we decided to make preserves. Much to our delight, this recipe turned out to be a keeper. It is not a preserve that is great on toast. But, it is fantastic with pork and even better with cheese. Wonderful to add to a cheese board when you have guests over. Needless to say, we picked up a few pounds of Gravenstein apples and I made a batch of preserves earlier this week. Last year, we made a batch of this preserve with some Tokyo Rose apples. It was good but not as good as with the Gravensteins. We might give another variety of apples a try for second batch just see which we like better. It is fun to experiment with the different varieties of apples. 

Our next project involving apples is making hard cider. More on that to come...

Blackberry Jam

It's canning time. Dan and I, finally, made our first batch of jam this past Sunday from some gorgeous  blackberries that we got at our local farmers market. Unfortunately, we're a bit late this year with our jam making.  So, we are going to try and catch-up over the next few weekends. The berries have been unbelievable and we are hoping for one more batch of blackberry jam and then at least one batch of raspberry...if we're lucky. Oh, and let's not forget peach. Gotta have some peach jam to bright up a cold, rainy northwest winter day.

Goodbye Winter...Hello Spring

Amazingly enough, I have some how made it through my first Portland winter in over 25 years. I did not breakdown in tears and I don't think I bitched too much about the rain and cold. I have a new found appreciation for wool socks and gloves plus the importance of layers that goes beyond the typical fashion approach. 

Spring is slowly starting to make her presence felt though we did have receive a light dusting of snow just a couple of evenings ago. The snow was very pretty but I am happy to see it go. And, there are supposed to be a few dry days ahead of us. If we're lucky, we may even get a few sunbreaks. I am looking forward to the weather getting warmer and being able to shed a layer or two.

Movin' On Up...North

I just couldn't resist a reference to The Jeffersons in the title for this post. Sorry. However, to get back to the actual point of the post, Dan and I are indeed moving up north to the beautiful Pacific Northwest. To be more specific, we are going to Portland, Oregon. Yes, it will be quiet a change from Los Angeles in many, many ways. However, it is a change that we are excitedly looking forward to. 

Well, the packing part is not so exciting. Actually, it's a bit of a nightmare and extremely stressful. Dan and I trying to purge and pack at the same time. It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate. We are doing our best to get rid of some of this stuff...even a bunch of our beloved books. But, we are keeping most of our gardening tools, decor, etc. since we have been blessed with finding a home with a small backyard. So, I will be writing a lot in the future about our adventures in gardening in a much damper climate and learning to cook with an electric range (Ugh!). But now, the clock is ticking and we have exactly one week before the movers show up to load our possessions into a van for the drive north. So, I should probably get back to packing.