13 February 2025
Today is my brother’s 82nd birthday. I got to wish him a happy birthday by phone this morning and he said he appreciated my call to the more handsome, more intelligent and more modest brother.
Today is tv delivery day. I’ve received numerous telephone calls, texts and emails from Costco all this week reminding me that today is the day. Just in case I forget. Delivery is scheduled between 3-5 pm. They put the boxes in my bedroom against the east wall and I can wait until February 18th for installation.
I’ll take a look at what comes with the mounting bracket and see if it works with my wall and if so, I may install it myself with a little (lot) of help from John. My walls are plaster and simple anchors may work. I’ll know more later today.
I managed 1.2 miles today. Yesterday was a wasted day so I was glad to feel a little better today. By the end of the walk it was getting pretty warm. Summer seems to have arrived a few months early.
On my walk, my favorite yard had just planted some Sweet William.
It’s a member of the Caryophyllaceae family better known as the Pink family or Carnation family. It’s native to the alpine regions of Europe and I have to think this is a variety developed for growth in South Florida’s climate unless someone is selling a plant guaranteed to die in this heat.
I also found most of the blooms gone on my orange tree and replaced by baby oranges.
This originally was a sweet orange grafted onto the root stock of a sour orange. I cut it down after it died back but it came back from the root stock as a sour orange. From the looks of it, I’ll be making a lot of orange marmalade as gifts.
I’m not a big fan of marmalade but I have to admit what I make is pretty good. I include parts of the peel which helps set the marmalade since the peels contain a lot of pectin.
Most of what I learned about canning came from my Aunt Sue. She was a canning pro in the summer months when the garden came in. Somethings (acidic produce) had to be canned in a pressure cooker. Those not acidic could simply be done on a large pot on the stove. I really enjoyed helping her in the kitchen and learning. I still remember the lids popping to produce the seal. When I make marmalade, the sound of the lids popping and sealing is very nostalgic.
Aunt Sue would can just about anything. My favorite was her chow chow. I need to ask Minnie Jean if she got the recipe for that. I’ve never had anything like that. If it could be canned, Aunt Sue canned it.
I realize you all are sitting on pins and needles to hear about the exciting television deliver by you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
