Ripening

It's hard to believe that Labor Day is almost here, signaling that summer is coming to an end. I have some bitterness toward this since like most summers, I feel like it was just so short! This year, however, I believe there is some truth to it. Our winter lasted longer than usual, flowers came up late, and grass didn't need to be cut. I did get my garden in around the same time I did last year...right before Memorial Day. Last year, I had tomatoes like you wouldn't believe. So this year I scaled back by one plant, and grew from seed all one type of tomato. I grew them inside and transplanted them at a healthy size. I read that this tomato that I picked (can't recall the kind) was excellent for canning. They all would come in around the same time so that canning could all be done in large amounts rather than a little here little there. Since this is my first attempt at canning, I am looking forward to it!

I really should start keeping a garden diary, because I am pretty sure that by end of August I had tons of tomatoes last year. This year....none. They are there on the vine, and they look great, just one problem - they are all green! Just this week did we notice a few tinting to red. Maybe this is my motivational push to diary the garden! As we continue to try new vegetables, new types, and different styles of gardening, I'd better get my act together.

I am happy to report that the zucchini are done for the year and provided us with much good eatin' for winter. The Green Beans are still pushing some new ones out, but their flavor is becoming less desirable. I think it was just too hot for them the last few weeks. I'm surprised they even hung on this long! The broccoli is faithfully regenerating itself and giving us a little more now and again.

I'm not sure if I will do broccoli again next year. Seems like they take a lot of space for not a lot given back. We will easily eat through the broccoli I've been able to freeze. Maybe next year I will do eggplant or another type of squash in its place.

The good news about summer coming to an end is that my favorite season, fall, is on it's way!! That means time to harvest apples (going to try some dehydrating this year) and that yummy acorn squash will be in the stores soon. It also means soon I will be counting down to our annual anniversary trip!

I'm hoping that in the next week these stubborn tomotes will ripen up. I'm looking forward to the canning and recipes I've found. More updates on that when I start! -L

Red Wing Continued...

Our weekend in Red Wing was a short 2-nights, 3 days.    On day two we did some of the best vacation exploring that we could have done.  We also had more physical activity in 12 hours than cumulatively in the last 30 days!  The morning started out by going to a State Park just 1/2 mile down the road.  We checked in at the ranger office and then followed her suggestion to head up to the bluff were there was a beautiful overlook and some trails.  We spent some time at the overlook which was indeed beautiful and then took a brief walk on the bluff trail.  Since we were on the trail for some time and we were going down down down on steps, we decided it to be best to turn around and head back up before we went too far down.  After we reached the top we drove back down to an area not in the park, but just down the road.  It was called the boardwalk, you can see why in the picture.  It was so cool.  It was about a mile out to the cove it took us too and it was a pretty cool walk!  There were cool frogs, unknown wildflowers, and some beautiful, huge trees! When we got to the cove, it was a light colored sandy beach with a slight tide coming in.  There were several boats out on Lake Pepin, be we were the only ones on the beach.  It was fun!  We took the mile hike back and then headed into Red Wing.  

We were a bit disappointed by the shopping and dining choices in Red Wing.  The shops all had tourist prices on their product, and the dining areas were all kitschy overpriced cafe and coffee shops.  We decided to eat at a pub - hey, we are from Wisconsin!  The food was good and hit the spot after all our activity in the morning.  At the Staghead - I enjoyed an excellent burger topped with Gorgonzola cheese and with a tasty chipotle sauce on it.  Tim and his mom 

enjoy a local bottled beer with their meal.  After eating, we went to the old Pottery Place, where Red Wing Pottery was made.  It was renovated into guess what?  Shops.  Mostly antique shops, and a shoe store.  We found a fun retro cookie jar for $7 at the antique shop and then we moved on to the Red Wing pottery shop.  We watched while some of the potters made product to be sold in the store.  They had some very nice stuff! By the end of all this shopping we were ready to relax.  We went down by the waterfront where the historic train station was and many boats were going up and down the river.  We found a shady spot and relaxed.  Later that afternoon we enjoyed "Pork in the Park" by the church and then headed back to the rental house for more adventure.

After we relaxed for a short time, we went for yet another adventure on the bikes!  This time we went a different direction and ended up by a cemetery.  We spent a little time looking at some of the gravestones in the new part of the cemetery.  Then we decided to move.  Although we though the cemetery was small, we hadn't yet found out that it went back into a whole other stretch of cemetery, which was very historic.  We winded back to the oldest part which had a sectioned off area.  There was a historic plaque that described the people buried there as the settlers of Old Frontenac.  Many of the gravestones in the area had birthdates from the early 1800's.  It was so cool.  My imagination ran wild thinking about what the people were like, what kind of clothes they wore, what they did to survive.  

We left and headed back to the home.  That night we also encountered 3 deer that we watched for some time and also went on the swings by the nearby park.  It was a blast!  

On this vacation I learned how fun it can be to explore - off the beaten path!  More importantly, sometimes you can find the coolest things...if you are just willing to go on a whim.  I doubt I would have been able to find many of these experiences we h

ad by searching the internet, or looking at a library book.  It was a great vacation!  Thanks for reading what I have to share. -L

Red Wing, MN

Hello everyone!  I apologize for the delay between posts, I have missed posting greatly, but like it often can, life got in the way!  There just has been too much to do in early August and then last Friday - Sunday we were in Red Wing, Minnesota.  We went out there with Tim's Mom for the 150th Anniversary of the church/school she used to teach at.  My Mom, bless her heart, came to our home and watched our three dogs for the weekend.  

Red Wing, MN is a historic town, best known for Red Wing Pottery and Red Wing shoes (that's a lot of things to be famous for this size of town!).  As we normally do, we found a vacation rental home.  We very much enjoy staying at vacation homes over hotels.  First, it's much easier to do with dogs (which we didn't bring this time) but also it tends to be more relaxing, homey, and sometimes more cost effective since you can buy grocery rather than eat out all the time like you might have to if you stay at a hotel.  There are countless benefits, but my favorite is being in a home rather than a large, noisy hotel.

The vacation home was in a historic village called Frontenac,  about 10 miles south of Red Wing.  Frontenac has all gravel roads,

 historic homes, and is on the high bluffs overlooking Lake Pepin (part of the Mississippi River).  Some of the homes closer to the bluff have been there since the 1800's.  One had an amazing old stone fence around the property.  On the first night we stayed home to have dinner.   We also discovered there were some bicycles in the small shed outside.  There were 2 adult bikes and 2 larger kid bikes.  Since we were 3 adults, we faced a bit of a

 predicament.  It didn't take long to determine that Tim's Mom would be on the kid bike!  Since this was a fairly odd site to see, I was laughing so hard!  After we all tested out our bikes, we it the road and found our way around a portion of the town.  Since you wouldn't drive through the town to get anywhere, there wasn't any traffic except for a golf cart.  We made our way to the bluff where we discovered a beautiful view.  We viewed Lake Pepin from the bluff, looking all the way across to the Wisconsin bluff across the way.  It was a beautiful sight.  It was the first of many beautiful sights we had that weekend.  On Saturday, we did the best exploring...the off-the-beaten-path type.  I'll share more about that next post. Above is a picture from the bluff.  Here is a photo of the living room of our vacation rental.  So comfy! Enjoy!  To be Continued. -L