Sunday, October 27, 2013

Apple Picking Time!

Photo George D. Marron

This is our guard turkey.  She was watching us pick apples in the orchard yesterday.   Notice the suspicion in her eye.She's eyeing us up, who are those people, what are they doing by my trees, with my fruit? When we turned our backs, she'd charge after us.

Yesterday, My son George and his adorable children came out to the farm. It was a great time.  We picked a lot of apples: Romes, Paula Reds, Winter Banana, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Cortland, Northern Spy.  My Grandson Jack  is an exceptional worker.  We both stayed out and kept picking the Romes (pink applesauce!). It was a cold, blustery day. Jack was using the ladder and able to get a lot of the Winter Bananas, which I am so happy about.  They look gorgeous.Then we headed inside where the rest of the crew was making pizza. We ate and drank cider and Brigid and Little George loved up  our cats, Carmelita and Charlie (The cats were in heaven!).

We picked a lot of remaining veggies in our garden.  (Garden is nearly all picked, but there are still some hearty veggies still growing). Because we so close to the lake we haven't had a hard frost yet. (Thankfully).

So George's van was packed with 2 boxes of apples, brussel sprouts, fennel, beets, kale, collards, red cabbage,  cauliflower, peppers (green and hot) for Brian who loves to make salsa, and he makes a great salsa, tomatoes,(mostly yellow large sized cherries), and then we stuffed the children in! The apples are delicious and we have an exceptional apple parer and corer.  The kids kept eating apples all afternoon, peeling and eating the accordion-sliced  apple, one slice after another. So sweet!

Fall is the best time of year!


******

Let's see, update on my challenge of 31X31.  I think I have written 20 poems.  A bit behind.
But still grateful for accomplishing this.


Re/verse published my poem "Pumpernickel,"which was originally published in Tar River Review.
 http://littleeaglereverse.blogspot.com

Poems recently accepted and forthcoming in: Tar River Poetry, When Women Waken, Avocet, Northern Cardinal Review, Poetry Haiku (UK), First Literary Review-East, In Glided Frame (anthology;
Flash Fiction World Contest (UK).

 

 

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Mid-October, Glorious Weekend

Photo by K.Iuppa, Fall 2013

This is a 3 day weekend, beginning with Friday.  Went to my two year eye exam.  My eyesight has improved!  Time for new glasses.  Peter had his eye exam earlier in the week, so we're both shopping.  I haven't bought new glasses in ages, and they are so, so expensive.  I was stunned.  We spent quite a few hours today pricing out glasses. This experience is close to buying a new car, with circles and arrows and wheedling and dealing on the price.
We're still shopping. . .

Came home and I spent approximately three hours putting up carrots.  Tomorrow, we're going to pull  our potatoes. We're nearly done with the gardens.  Still have kale and collard greens to harvest.  No frost yet, but the night's are getting cooler.  I'm going to put up applesauce tomorrow too.
 
There is so much to do.  . . .

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Cauliflower as Moon . . .

Photo by K. Iuppa
Grown by M J Iuppa and Peter Tonery

A very good year for cauliflower . . .


This sunday morning's rain gurgling in the gutters.  All the windows gloomy.  I'm in the study sitting by the blue  glow of the computer screen.

So far so good with the poetry challenge.  Yesterday, before dinner, I took a long walk at Hamlin Beach with Peter.  The trees are starting to turn.  The lake was churning and had that smell of autumn. People fishing on the jetty.  Dogs of all sizes walking their people.

It felt good to take in those Lake ions.  Breathe in deeply and let go.  September was so, so busy with events that I was either coordinating or involved in. Accomplished a lot in the 30 days of September. Now the first week of October has tip-toed in. . .  and I have more arts events on the horizon.  I'm feeling a little beat up from the pace I'm keeping, but everything has been such a success that my heart is glad.

Oh, I hear thunder in the distance, out over the lake. This rain may last.  This may be a good day to putter and get things done.  What's ahead?  Another week of teaching and meetings. Maybe today would be a great day to make an apple pie.  Our apples this year are exceptional.


 “True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.”
Henry James, Roderick Hudson

 


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

October is Orange. The Color of Laughter. Now.

October 1st. The whirlwind that was September ended quietly yesterday.  Able to accomplish a lot in one day, which seems to be my momentum for the past six weeks.  I have had a to-do list that has been  the measure of chin to wrist times 3 since mid-August.  Now my done list unfurls, day by day, and the semester settles into its rhythm.

This is the month I attempt 31 X 31, not jars of tomato sauce, but poems.  October is a magical month for me.  I like the subtle  and not-so-subtle changes. And so, I will embark on a challenge that will allow me to take advantage of the early morning darkness.  I awoke this morning around 3 a.m. and decided to spend some time on my writing's ghostly garden.   I took up one of my own writing prompts recently dispensed  in my creative writing classes, and was surprised by the results.  A keeper, I think.  Now 30 more days.  Here's to hitting the jackpot by 10/31/2013.


photo by K. Iuppa "Almost, Full Moon"




The week of the past full moon was challenging.  The energy set loose seemed to vibrate.   A lot of  lives influx.  Surreal incidents.  My sister Karen involved in a car crash with Walter.  Stopped on the side of the road on a hill, a car came over the rise too fast.  Another foot and both Karen and Walter would have been taken from this world.  Unsettling thought.  A shudder passes through me.   Both vehicles totaled.

Karen is a little beat up.  She rocked around like a milk bottle.  The seatbelt worked, but hurt her chest.
Like her daughter Lucy, I don't want Karen to duck out on me.  Everyone over last Monday night and the recounting of the accident.   We had a noisy meal.  The conversation went up and down in volume, and what could have been annoying opinions and maybe actually were the making of a petard and the bridge was about to blow, I was really listening.  Grateful that everyone's mouth was moving.

I'm thankful for my family.