Sign of the Times

 It has come to this. Sure-Jell has stopped including directions inside the box. At first I thought they gave no warning, but I realized that instead of “Quick & Easy Recipes Inside,” the box now says, “Quick & Easy Recipes Online.” While I applaud the manufacturers for saving paper and keeping costs down, I have some serious cognitive dissonance about this. Looking up instructions online is the antithesis of making your own jam. Jam making is a symbol of old-fashioned self-reliance, food security, resilience against the collapse of civilization. Women have done it for centuries to save fruit for the winter. These days, the assumption is that only little old ladies make jam. Young people don’t know how. Is it fair to think that little old ladies on fixed incomes have internet access? (I realize with chagrin that in 1950, someone my age (64) would be a little old lady.) Bottom line: if you decide to go off the grid, be sure to download the Sure-Jell recipes before you disconnect your internet. Alternatively, you could extract your own pectin from apples or citrus fruit. How do I know that? I Googled it.

Old Sure-Jell, top; new Sure-Jell, bottom

There are three other differences on the box: 1) the top banner is powder blue instead of red; 2) “for Homemade Jams & Jellies” has switched from the right to the left, and 3) the date of origin of Sure-Jell has been pushed back 7 years, from 1934 to 1927. Not sure how that last one happened.

If you are old like me, you might remember when the Peanuts comic strip featured Snoopy pretending to be a vulture. This week Banjo learned how to jump to the top of the bookshelf from my desk. Here he is in vulture pose.

Banjo, the bookshelf vulture

Bingo is coping with the chillier temperatures by crawling under Terry’s blanket.

Bingo's cozy spot

Sometimes they curl up in parallel. So cute!

Matching kitty croisants

Egg production continues to increase. This is a photo of the first time we got six eggs in one day. The pullet eggs are on the right. We still have not gotten more than one brown pullet egg on the same day, but I think they must all be laying by now.

Our first six-egg day with the new pullets. 3 Pullet eggs, right; three hen eggs, left

The giant primrose by the compost bin is living in its head. We had a couple of warm days last week, and it decided that winter is not coming after all! It is blooming its heart out.

Evening primrose living in its head--winter is so NOT coming!

On Sunday, October 22, a doe appeared at the far end of the field. Deer seem to have excellent eyesight. It happens more often than chance that they lift their head and stair as soon as I move to the window with my camera. 

Doe in the morning sun, staring at me.

We stared at each other for some time, then she went back to eating. 

Back to business

I was glad to have a nice nature moment to cheer me up on my mother’s birthday. She would have been 93.