ST4S – It’s Monday Already

This was supposed to be the second installment of “Some Thing (4) Sunday”, but…

Yep, it’s Monday already.

That’s okay.  I can still write this post.  I still have my ROW80 check-in to make, I still have fun things to write about… and I’m still awake.  (That last part might not be a good reason.  At least, it is true.)

So what is the ‘thing’ that I was going to bring to the table today?

Apples…

Why?  (mostly because we went to the Greenville  Town Park this evening and picked apples from the old trees that grow there).

The park used to belong to the Vanderbuilt family (I have written about the park before here).  Indeed, many of the old barns still serve for the local food pantry, storage, and even a shelter for kids to play in.

And there are fruit trees.  Several varieties of apples and pears and even some actually tasty crab apples (I know I tried some this evening).   This year it seems that all sorts of fruiting plants have produced bumper crops.  Earlier in the year we had peaches upon peaches.  The grapes in our yard I posted about last week.  Now there are apples everywhere.

Or so it seems.

Most of the fruit I harvested this evening is unattractive.  The huge tree over where the old playground used to be is covered with apple scab, flyspeck and sooty blotch.  Only the scab is a  problem for personal use.  The other two fungi usually either wash right off or at the very least do nothing to humans.

Thanks to this evening’s trip, I now have two large grocery bags of apples and golf ball-sized Bartlet pears to trim down and prep in the morning (not bad for not having planned this venture, and not having any equipment with us).  Apple sauce, apple butter….  Even an apple crisp or two is in the works.  I even found a recipe for a quick and yummy looking apple butter made with crab apples that I hope to make with some of the fruit from the tree out front of our house.  The tree is suffering from Cedar Apple Rust, but there is a lot of fruit on it.  Since one of the best ways to prevent a continued infection is supposedly to keep fallen fruit from accumulating on the ground…  why not use the good stuff?

I’ll let you know how it turns out.  If it goes well, I might try some of the recipes that a nice person gathered (about half-way down the page) in this Chow Hound forum.

 ROW80 check-in

Hmm, kind of in a holding pattern here.  I’m squeaking out my five sentences, but only just.  Reading is about the same…  I’m almost done, however with the series I’ve been plowing through.  I’ll see if writing picks up after that.

It would be nice, after all, to have something plotted out for the upcoming NaNoWriMo.  I think a lot of what is holding me up from getting more than five sentences done is the fact that I’ve basically run through all my “notes” (I can’t call what I had prepared an outline given that it wasn’t that organized).  Now I’m back to pantsing the story except for the major plot points I want to hit, and I keep heading down dead ends that I need to rework.

Since this ROWnd is almost over, I’m going to deal with hometending (cleaning, canning and winterizing) and leave the things as they are.   Next ROWnd, I’ll start with a week or two of notes and organization of the remainder of Swan Song before attempting any increase in word count.  After all, it is still progress, and it makes a lot more sense than scrambling for the last few days.

As for my ROW80 Fitness goals?  More activity…  more walks, more free weights…  and unfortunately more sitting.  I’ve got to learn how to read and walk… and how to not spend three hours reading up on various apple diseases because my intended walk in the park became a “shopping run”.  (Alberta Ross wrote a wonderful post on discipline last week.  I totally get where she’s coming from.)  😀

How about you?  Any progress?  Any challenges?

Related Articles:

• Photos: Greenville Town Park (andyarthur.org)

Photo credits:

• Apples at Vosseslag – De Haan, Belgium (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
• Apple scab on a crabapple, lesions are visible on the leaves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
• English: Diagram showing the cyclis life of cedar apple rust. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)