My Day Saturday

I started off my Saturday with making Zucchini, Apple and Ginger Jam.  I will post the recipe in another posting.  What a lot of prep time.  The zucchini or marrow as we know it in England was grown in my garden and what do you do with them.  I have found two great things, Jam and Chutney.

The aroma as it cooked was so good, it came from the ginger and added lemon juice.  The apples and lemon juice help it to set, the pectin.  There is no added water in this recipe the zucchini has water enough in it, in fact I cooked it ten minutes longer than the recipe stated.

I mashed it with a potato masher, it gave it more pulp, but left in enough bits for my liking.  I had wanted to get this done all week.  It felt good to be in my kitchen and have the time to make the jam.

Four place mats found at the thrift for $1.50, nice condition.

 
For lunch a tomato, basil and sage, all from the garden, along with Caerphilly cheese, from my mail cheese service, Trader Joe's bread, this is one of my favourite breads and Hellman's mayo.

Just layer those basil and sage leafs in, a little salt, lots of pepper, I like pepper, a lovely summer lunch.  Well almost autumn now.  The tomatoes are still all coming in, everything was a bit later this year.

Delicious along with a glass of moscato rose.

Mr B. surprised me getting home early from work, so we took advantage of this and headed out to Valley Forge Park here

I grabbed my art basket, we took coffee, grabbed a milk shake for Mr B and an ice cream for me and headed on out, just to relax read and I did a little painting.  It was a lovely day, gone is the humidity of summer and the sky was a wonderful blue.  Just to sit and do something I love.

This is where the Revolutionary Army encamped during the winter of 1777 to 1778.   The men wintered over in these cabins they made, George Washington stayed in quite a nice little house, we did not get to that.

I took a little walk up to the monument.

Valley Forge is a National Park, then you have State Parks, County Parks and Borough or Municipality Parks, that also pretty much represents how government is broken down over here.  By the way we pay taxes to everyone of those.

Milkweed here

I think this tree was hit by lightening.

 This bird of prey sat for a long while on the tree, I think it is a hawk.

Look at the inside of a milkweed pod, this is truly amazing,

The fibrous tissue reminded my of that movie "Invasion of The Body Snatchers."

Look at the beauty of the seeds packed inside ready to disperse.  The top silk is so soft, it feels like the softest fur on our Himalayan cat Tinkerbell.  The design is exquisite.

Our day comes to an end as the sun sinks.

Christy