Stuff Happening and a belated blog-hop post

The marsh the day after... 

I can’t believe we are well into January and I haven’t posted a thing…  I was planning on a post on the 3^rd to advertise Chrys Fey’s new book, but was without power much of that day and the island was closed off as the bridges were way too icy.  We’d had a nice base of ice overnight followed by snow.  The snow made me happy but we never had enough for me to dig my backcountry skis out and then to try to find some wax… 

I was gone the week after Christmas to North Carolina and arrived back in Georgia in time to fix a New Year’s Day feast consisting of turnip greens and beans cooked in the hambone left over from the Christmas ham.  It was good food and the turnip greens were from my garden. 

Mint Jelly

There is a community garden here where you can rent space in a deer and wild pig protected area.  This time of the year, I’m getting lots of turnips and rutabaga and a few beets (they’re not doing as well).  Soon I will began harvesting cabbage and onions.  I am looking for a large crock to fix sauerkraut.   At the house, I raise a few herbs such as mint that could take over the garden.  Knowing that the freezing weather was approaching, I did cut back the mint and made four jars of mint jelly.  Now I need some lamb!

a few of my 30 cabbage plants and onions planted in between 

Two days after the snow I was with friends for a funeral up in Beaufort, South Carolina, at the National Cemetery there.  It is a beautiful spot, made more so by the snow.  Seeing the graves, the Christmas wreaths, palm trees and snow all in the same scene was a bit unique. I do like how all the headstones are the same and how a general can be buried next to a private. The cemetery also have a large number of Civil War graves including a section with each grave marker identifying them as with the U. S. C. T. (United States Colored Troops).  Many of those buried here died in the events highlighted in the movie "Glory." 

Currently, I’m enjoying two wonderful books: Candice Millard’s Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill and Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. This is the second book I’ve read by Millard and she writes history as if it was a novel.  Years ago I reviewed her book, The River ofDoubt, which is about Teddy Roosevelt’s trip into the Amazon in 1914.  I have read a number of Stegner’s books and have reviewed The Big Rock Candy Mountain  (one of my all-time favorite novels) and Crossing to Safety.

Chrys Fey's new disaster series book is about fire…  With her background in disasters, I’m expecting to see Chrys star as next year’s Mayhem in the Allstate commercials.  Her question for us is what ridiculous thing we would save if our house was on fire (beyond things like your kids or pets).  I have thought about this a lot.  I am not sure that I would save anything ridiculous, but I expect it would be a quilt made by my grandmother or, if I couldn’t get back in the house as that is on a quilt stand in my bedroom, I might just grab the needlepoint she did which hangs in the dining room.  I am still amazed that the backing to this needlepoint is a cloth grain bag.  She did this needlepoint as a young girl in the late 1920s or early 30s. 

Now go check out Chrys book!  Have a good weekend. I hope the sun is shinning where you are, here we are seeming to have a lot of gray days... 

Savannah River looking toward the ports on a gray day