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this is just to say
Aug. 30th, 2024 15:10If William Carlos Williams could not only come over and help us out with the plums in the icebox, but the hundred-odd plums that are falling off our neighbors' tree into our yard on a daily basis, and have been for the last several weeks? We'd welcome him. We can't keep up. We really need to buy a net or something for next year, rig up some kind of system to catch them so they don't go splat. We've been retrieving the ones that survive the fall, and cleaning up after the ones that don't, but it's kind of a lot.
Our neighbors have a lovely mature plum tree in their backyard that drops tiny clingstone plums beginning in late July/early August, smaller than ping pong balls. They can be eaten raw, or they can be boiled down into something between a jam, a sauce, and a compote, straining the pits out afterwards. But honestly, running out of ideas. (On toast! with yogurt! Baked into a cake! As a side sauce for roasted meat ...) Probably I should get over being scared of Proper Canning (boiling jars! loud popping noises!) so that we can more safely preserve the jam for later in the year. It would be lovely to eat, say, hamantaschen with hyperlocal plum preserves we made ourselves! But what we've got is both too thin to work for that, yet permanently boiled onto one of the pots. Ah well.
*
Other than the plum-pocalypse, late summer carries on. Choir has begun, and there are intriguing rumors of a more challenging small-group chamber choir to audition for. Repertoire-wise, this year involves ... not a lot of new-to-me music; if I hadn't been sick in April, it would have been a very good year to add on a second choir with more challenging rep. Ah, well. I am delighted that we will have an a cappella piece during the spring concert; I do miss that, being in an orchestral choir.
( content note minor body capability navel gazing re exercise )
Our neighbors have a lovely mature plum tree in their backyard that drops tiny clingstone plums beginning in late July/early August, smaller than ping pong balls. They can be eaten raw, or they can be boiled down into something between a jam, a sauce, and a compote, straining the pits out afterwards. But honestly, running out of ideas. (On toast! with yogurt! Baked into a cake! As a side sauce for roasted meat ...) Probably I should get over being scared of Proper Canning (boiling jars! loud popping noises!) so that we can more safely preserve the jam for later in the year. It would be lovely to eat, say, hamantaschen with hyperlocal plum preserves we made ourselves! But what we've got is both too thin to work for that, yet permanently boiled onto one of the pots. Ah well.
*
Other than the plum-pocalypse, late summer carries on. Choir has begun, and there are intriguing rumors of a more challenging small-group chamber choir to audition for. Repertoire-wise, this year involves ... not a lot of new-to-me music; if I hadn't been sick in April, it would have been a very good year to add on a second choir with more challenging rep. Ah, well. I am delighted that we will have an a cappella piece during the spring concert; I do miss that, being in an orchestral choir.
( content note minor body capability navel gazing re exercise )
