(morning writing, critter watch, cooking, garden, preservation, health)

[elainegrey]

health

EEEEEEEE. The cicada are here. I love the genus name, magicicada. I'm trying to focus on the magic part and not dwell on the OMG bugs part. Also i am participating in cicada safari and wondering how many is too many entries in iNaturalist

I am better from the cold, still on alert for coughing. Just fought off a cough with a cough drop -- i would love smaller drops.

I spent yesterday afternoon pickling onion scapes. Basically, one 12 jar for every hour... and a 3/4 quart jar filled. I water-bath processed the 12 oz jars and 5 of the 6 took. Christine offered encouragement that i would have "passed the class." I find myself worrying about air caught in the scapes. I want to give these as Yule gifts, although i'll be gifting the jar that didn't seal to my sister in law when i see her today (if she'll take it). For once i'd like to finish something without feeling the critical judgements from myself. I also underestimated how quick the whole thing would be, so there's that. Let's see, yay:

• i got scapes "in time" as they are opening up
• i noticed the black aphid infestation so i can treat it today with diatomaceous earth (also need to dust around the strawberry plot).
• i now know how to use my old stockpot with the basket from the instant pot as a water bath canner. (Will need two more racks  and then could do 15 4 oz jelly jars)
• i've written up my notes about the pickling brine in my kitchen notebook so presumably can use again.

I have to remember that fussing with food takes time, and with experience, improvement.

Other things:

• I did have enough just-ripe strawberries that Christine cut them up and sugared them in the morning for a lovely topping for an angel food cake in the evening. Very decadent. First fruit of the year. I suspect that it's going to be a bounty year. So many mulberries. Blueberries look great. Apples! And possibly a breba crop of figs.
• Christine is composing music for my eclipse video.
• After being cranky about my nexdock's track pad i remembered it's a touch screen - -and that worked brilliantly. The deer are hanging out in the meadow and compiling all the images into a video is fussy work (and i really don't know if its meaningful? but data collection -- what if i want to figure out if i can identify the deer, what if...) Anyhow, better! preservation, health