Ahhhhhh, the fruits of the season…

Is there anything better than fresh fruit?  I’ve had enough of watermelon and cantaloupe, I’m even tired of peaches now, I’m ready for the fall fruits.

Veronica just came back from Michigan, dropped off a peck of Golden Delicious Apples for me, and they are AMAZING.  That was dinner tonight, swiss cheese, apples and crackers.  I should have cracked open that bottle of Posey County Red that Ang brought over, it would have been perfect.

So now I’m searching for pears.  If I can find them, I’ll make a batch of Aunt Mae’s Pear Honey, the recipe is ancient, but oh so good.  I’ll dig out the recipe and post it on Jan CAN Cook for all of you.

I’m hoping that this is summer’s last hurrah, temps of 100 degrees are posted for the next couple of days.  Enough of this, it’s time for sweaters and jeans, bonfires and weiner roasts. 

A girl can dream, can’t she?  Even if the hot weather is holding on for dear life, there is a nip in the air in the evening.  I’m just waiting…

Memories of Billy the Rooster

This picture of me was taken when I was about Abby’s age, I was probably about two years old.

We had just moved to the country and Billy was mother’s pet rooster.  Some of my earliest memories are of Billy, he was a gentle soul that mother nurtured from a chick. 

She was an animal lover, always outside animals, though, we never had anything in the house except her canaries.  There were always dogs and cats to play with, chickens, too and the occasional white duck wandering around our yard, and obviously this rooster.

At the risk of sounding like Ma and Pa Kettle, I have to tell you about Billy and how I remember, to this day, him roosting on the back of our couch at night.

Mother was a clean freak, everything was always pristine in our house, but she loved this pet rooster and was afraid a fox would get into the chicken house and kill him, so every night she would spread layers of newspapers on the back of the couch, bring Billy inside and he would roost on the sofa.  I wish I could talk to her about this again, seeing this picture brought back such vivid memories. She must have gotten up at the crack of dawn to let him outside, because no doubt he started crowing when the sun came up.

This must sound odd to you, but remember, it was a simple life, living in our little house on the ditch bank, and it seemed perfectly normal to have a rooster in our living room.  I had an aunt that always had baby pigs on her back porch, I used to feed them with a baby bottle, and I remember going to a great aunt’s house and she had baby chickens underneath her kitchen table, with chicken wire around the table legs so they couldn’t get out.

I know, that’s a bit much, but she was probably doing that to keep them warm. I remember thinking how awful it was, that old woman with all those baby chickens under the table.  But that aunt was a little bat shit crazy, too. She WAS Ma Kettle.

Oh, what a cute couple…

John and Deanna went to a Mystery Dinner Theatre last night and won the prize for “best dressed” couple.

Accessories make the outfit, she said this morning, and nobody does vintage better than Deanna. 

And that guy with her?  Well he looks pretty spiffy, too.