...but still, I am DONE with summer. I don't think we've had over 15 minutes of rain in the past 5 or 6 weeks, and September has been August-hot. The forecast today is 92. Tomorrow, 92. Wednesday, 92. It's pretty miserable, but I'm trying to console myself with assurances of the inevitable cool-down coming up. I ordered a dump truck-load of compost last week...
...that I will use to improve existing flower beds and carve out some new beds along a walking path to the driveway - once the weather cools. The weather has also brought about the early maturing (and in some cases, over-maturation) of the apples on our tree. A friend came over last week with an apple picker and helped me gather them all up. I think we got, from just one tree, between 30 - 50 pounds of apples!
There's just one thing to make when you have an overabundance of apples, and that's pie. I've got a few recipes...the overindulgent one, which involves sauteeing the diced apples in half a stick of butter...the 'healthy' one that relies on the natural sweetness of the apples to carry the flavor...open face, rustic galette, crumb-topped...the list goes on. But I'm really pleased with the new recipe I tried, which was Smitten Kitchen's Even More Perfect Apple Pie. I used her extra-flaky crust recipe instead of my old standby and we were blown away by the result! There are nearly FIVE POUNDS of apples in this one pie. Needless to say, it was fairly tall.
But it baked up beautifully.
The only thing I might do differently is sautee the apples beforehand to soften them up. Some of these still had a little 'bite' to them, and I prefer a totally mushy apple. It was a great way to celebrate the season, even if it was 90 degrees when I baked it!
Other signs of the advancing season - the front of our house is wreathed in spider webs daily. I usually sweep them off, but they're back the next day. We also have quite a few katydids on our windows and siding.
It's a bit of a mystery. They mainly eat leaves/grass, and only rarely small insects like aphids. I can understand why spiders build their nests around our porch lights, but it's unlikely that the katydids are interested in the moths and other small insects that are drawn there. I like seeing them, though, so I don't mind if they come around for a visit!
Claudia continues to bring minor drama to the front porch, too, with her vole deliveries. Sometimes they are alive, and drag their lifeless legs behind them in an effort to escape her batting and teasing.
It's a little disconcerting. Over a two-day period last week, she brought in FIVE voles, all alive, albeit briefly. I appreciate her generosity, but I'd rather not see this portion of her meal!
In other news, I managed to finish the top of a table runner. It's summer-themed, and uses some of my favorite fabric colors - turquoise, red, white, and navy. Here's a picture of it, taken before I evened up the edges.
It was a frustrating project, because I had to fight so much with my sewing machine to get nice 1/4" seams. It struggled over more than two layers of fabric and distorted the join. I finally broke down and bought a Janome 8200. My old sewing machine had a few inches of "throat space," the space to the right of the needle where the quilt is pushed through while you work. The new machine has 11", which was the maximum I could find with a mid-price machine.
It's got 250 stitch patterns (including an alphabet!), automatic thread-cutter, some kind of auto-feed, and a fancy computer screen. I've slowly begun the arduous task of going through the manual and learning the details. I haven't really quilted in almost 2 years, so I'm really excited to get going. I think the cats are going to be upset to learn that their various nap spots are going to be utilized for a different purpose, though.
Have a great week!
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