A Day Out

Last Saturday, Wally joined Ward and me when we went to the Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Fair in neighboring West Virginia. I have a long history with arts and crafts fairs in WV. Since 1963, there has been a huge fair in the area I grew up in every 4th of July. The event lasts four days and has hundreds of juried artisans, music, craft demonstrations, and many different kinds of food. The biggest food draw is the grilled chicken and corn dinner by the FFA (Future Farmers of America). I have spent many hot days visiting that fair. So when I found out that not far from here, there was a fall version of the festival in Jefferson County, WV, I was excited. 

The weather was pleasant, with temperatures in the 70s. Perfect for spending a day outside walking around. We wandered around from display to display (there were over 200 craftspeople), appreciating the amazing work some of these artisans were doing and taking notes from a few of them on things we might try in the future. My picture-taking was kind of random, but below are a few of the things we saw.

Everything in this booth was made from gourds.
I have some gourds that a friend grew that I could use like this.
I took note of some of the designs. 

There were many artists with many different painting styles, along with some stunning photography.

All of these candles were made from old bottles.

These shawls were made from alpaca wool sheared from the crafter's herd.

Chainsaw carving

There were many woodworkers. I liked these measuring cups and spoons.

These tables were made from old boxes and recycled parts. We have a couple of old wooden boxes that I am looking at differently now.

These stuffed animals and puppets were a lot of fun. The person at this display has been every year since the fair started 46 years ago. She makes the trip up from Alabama.

These leather workers have been in business since 1971, and I have gotten two purses from them over the years. I took advantage of my lifetime guarantee and took them one with a broken zipper to repair. I should get it back in a week. 

You may wonder if I bought anything. Well, yes, I did - a couple of Christmas presents. I don't think the recipients read here, but in case they do, I won't tell you what they are.

Now to get ready for our next adventure. Wally and Theo will be joining Ward and me for a little vacation to the Finger Lakes area of New York. It's been years since we've traveled together and I'm looking forward to it. I may report in during the trip or in a week or two when we get back.

Until next time...

Fall Has Come

 Fall officially arrived Thursday, and the weather coordinated with the calendar for once. A cold front came through on Thursday and brought blustery, rainy weather followed by a big temperature drop. Today is going to be sunny with a high of 70 F. Perfect. 

Fall is starting to show itself in other ways, too.

Sunrises seem to be more vivid this time of year, or at least they happen when I'm more likely to see them. This was at 6:30 this morning. (As always, the picture did not copy the splendor I saw.)

 I looked out yesterday and saw my neighbor's maple tree starting to change colors. This tree is always the first in the neighborhood to change. Also, notice the green grass. When the temperatures cool off, the grass is really happy and grows. And grows. We are back to cutting the grass 2x/week, like in the spring.

We got our first apples from a local orchard, and they taste heavenly. Unfortunately, our own apple tree is not doing so well. We had high hopes this year because the tree had more than a couple of apples on it. We have been waiting for them to ripen. However, when I checked yesterday, most of them had rotted on the tree while still green. So today, we plan to salvage what we can, ripe or not. 

The beautyberries are turning purple, waiting for the birds who love them.

The turnip and radishes are growing well. We should have some eating size in a few weeks. If you look closely at the picture, you can also see a cherry tomato that has revived with a bit of rain and cooler temps. It is doing what cherry tomatoes do best - try to take over everywhere.

The anemones are in full bloom. This year these bloomed about a month ahead of last year when they didn't start blooming until October.

And now we're off to another fun fall thing- an arts and crafts festival. If I remember to take pictures, I'll show you some of those next time.

Until next time...

More About Figs

As you know, our fig tree is finally producing this year, and I am slowly learning about them.

I got the fig tree five years ago from a customer who came into the library with figs for the staff along with several fig plants to give out. (BTW, it's nice living in a small community where people share things freely.) Someone said to me, "You like to grow things. Take this." I took one to be polite, but I wasn't that interested in figs. However, I took the seedling home and put it in a small pot. I watered it occasionally, not knowing what to expect. It got 3 leaves that first year which promptly fell off. I thought that might be from poor care but learned that figs are deciduous, so it was doing what came naturally. 

I entered figs in the community fair this year.

After spending a couple of years indoors, I moved it outside for the summer and took it back in for the winter. Each year, the plant grew a few more leaves and a branch or two. And then we finally got two figs. That was pretty exciting. After that, we repotted the tree into a big planter and left it outside all year. We placed it next to the house and it seemed to thrive. It grew a little bigger and increased its crop to 6 figs. This year, it finally came into its own. There are figs all over the plant, and now it's taller than our house. So we are beginning in earnest to learn about figs. We are experimenting and have eaten them fresh, made jam, and made fig bars. We haven't yet branched out to using the leaves although I know there are many uses for them.

Theo informed me the other day, that natural figs are pollinated by a fig wasp that crawls into the fig and lays eggs. When the larvae are born, they crawl out of that fig into another one pollinating along the way. In the meantime, the mother dies and is absorbed by the fig. However, cultivated figs have been developed that don't need this particular wasp to produce figs because it turns out that the figs are the flowers of the plant.  They bloom inwardly instead of outwardly. If you don't want seeds from the plant, pollination is not necessary. (BTW, Theo always seems to know a lot of trivia like that. Maybe he should be on Jeopardy someday.)

I did a quick check of Wikipedia and it seems that Theo was right. I also learned that figs were one of the first plants cultivated by humans. Eve used a fig leaf in the Bible so if you take that story literally, it says that figs have been around since the beginning of time. Also, figs have more naturally occurring varieties than any other tree crop. By looking at pictures, I determined that we have a Brown Turkey variety. It has a milder flavor than most figs and is not quite as sweet. I really wouldn't know because I've not tasted any other varieties except whatever they put in Fig Newtons. :)

I liked these better than Fig Newtons although
the recipe said they were like Fig Newtons.

Our tree has definitely outgrown its pot, and we plan to transplant it this fall. We have a place picked out that will not be as protected as where it is now, so I'm not sure how it is going to do. Figs are native to the Mediterranean and don't like cold weather. However, Brown Turkey is one of the hardier varieties. It should survive in our climate but may die back from freeze damage each year. There are several suggestions on ways to protect the plant during the winter, but we're leaving it alone so we'll see how it survives both the cold and the transplanting. 

Do you grow figs? Any tips?

Until next time...

Making Memories

First, let me say that I am going to complain about something that has no consequence and is not a problem. But it bugs me anyway.

Every time someone says that they are going to make memories by doing something or being somewhere, it sounds wrong to me. It sounds like they are thinking more about the future than the present. Of course, we all plan for a Big Trip, Big Birthday, etc. that we hope will be memorable, but making memories has crept into everywhere and every day. As we all know, memories, especially good ones, can come from the most mundane things. As I have been writing about a different topic every week for StoryWorth, this has become even more evident. For example, when writing about the kitchen from my youth, I remembered fondly soaking the labels off of cans and making puzzles out of them. This all came from my imagination and was not a special setup from my parents. They didn't need to give me a grand kitchen or special toys to make a memory for me.

I think the widespread use of the phrase make memories is a fairly recent phenomenon. I don't know, but I think it has stemmed from the explosion of social media sites to share things. This has changed the way we do things. For example, I remember a trip to Disney World where many people were spending so much time taking pictures that they didn't see or enjoy what they were supposedly experiencing. They spent much of their time ignoring what they had paid a lot of money to see. The mindset of how something will look on social media has crept into everyday life to the point that we need to manipulate every situation as one that will make memories. 

I would like to say that I am totally immune to the social media explosion, but I'm not, as evidenced by this blog. I usually try to take a few pictures when we're on an outing, but I like to think that I am following one of my favorite sayings, "Everything in moderation." This brings me to the point that I have found what is comfortable to me in balancing the present and future (and recording it), and I should let everyone else find their comfort zone and not worry about it. But the phrase, making memories still bugs me.