Whew!

Somehow, I survived the week.

I capped off today by riding my bike on a Target errand and promptly collapsed at home for the night, because that’s just what time is like around here right now.

Before the weekend is over, I have to read 2 books and help get the apartment presentable assuming we might have guests at some point this coming week. This is how the summer goes by in a blur.

In the winter, we hunker down and never do anything. This summer, every weekend has involved running to the farmer’s market or some elaborate kitchen shenanigans, which certainly keeps the days entertaining but it leaves little time for the loafing to whiche I’ve become accustomed.

A few weeks ago, someone at one of my dad’s baseball games was talking about how she would take another COVID summer again. I feel guilty for knowing exactly what she meant. Instead of running around everywhere with a million things to do, we were just at home, and somehow, that was fine. Socially though, that sort of lifestyle just isn’t sustainable. You end up missing too many things, and the disconnect is unpleasant, or at least that’s my opinion on that sort of thing.

For as busy as it makes things, I do enjoy the kitchen shenanigans. Earlier this summer, we canned peaches and made peach ginger sauce. Before that, we got a bunch of strawberries and made jam (it’s more like jam on top, jelly on the bottom). I would make a million more strawberry things, since it’s my favorite fruit. I think the last requirement of the year will be tracking down a loaded crabapple tree and harvesting a bunch of those. I’m really looking forward to having apple jelly again. And loading up a steam juicer with a bunch of fruit is going to make that a cinch.

I was hoping we would be able to can some tomatoes (we have 4 plants on our balcony) but we just lost most of the fruit to blossom rot. So, I’m hoping the next round will be hardier and actually turn red, since they still need the heat, and it’s been very cool this week.

If I end up with enough tomatoes that we have to actually process them in order to use them all, I might have my own parade around the apartment complex to celebrate. (I’m trying to think of something really outlandish to tempt fate into giving me a bountiful tomato harvest… Because that’s how those things work, right?)