Photos I've taken while out and about in our neighborhood.....
Redbuds, outside our apartment building, ready to bloom, in early April
A kindergarten class, taking a springtime walk during the cherry blossoms.
Dog, cart, and bicycle in front of a blue home along the river
A blue heron in the river
Redbuds in bloom!
The cherry blossoms have almost come to an end, but we are savoring every moment that we can with them. The kids (and I) have wanted to take walks and take pictures every chance we get.
I was able to quickly snap photos of this beautiful elderly woman enjoying the blossoms. When I see elderly Koreans, I can't help but wonder at the difficulties and heartbreak they must have seen in their lifetimes - being conquered by the Japanese, having their country split in half and devestated by the Korean war and the evil of communism, the destruction of their cultural heritage sites, cities, and farmland, and the decades of economic devastation that followed.
The KTX towers.
The Solbridge International Business School Campus (where Brock works) is comprised of this single tall building. I took the photo while the kids were playing on teh playground.
The view from our balcony now that leaves and blossoms are appearing. It was a hazy day, but still lovely.
The cherry blossoms (Sakura in Japanese & Peojggot in Korean) have been the most wonderful surprise. They came earlier than expected, and are much more abundant than we expected. There are cherry trees everywhere. We don't see the huge, ancient cherry trees like we did in Japan, here they are fairly new, young trees, but they line the riverways, fill our parks and playgrounds, and make us very happy.
Sunday after church we went for a walk in the perfect weather, and enjoyed the blossoms.
cherry blossoms and plum blossoms along the river
Sharing the bounteous blossoms
The sweet signs of spring are here.
I took these photos on my walk yesterday ~ the first day of Spring. It was such a treat for my eyes and my spirit.
Plum blossoms ~ Ume in Japanese ~ Maehwa in Korean.
We loved the ume in Japan, letting us know that winter was coming to a close. So happy to find them here in Korea too.
Daejeon has 3 rivers or creeks that flow through it, and they are lined with rubberized walking paths on both sides. It's a lovely way to take a walk.
The magnolias are also starting to bloom! These photos were taken at our apartment complex.
i love to can. and i'll tell you why.
canning has always been a way to save money, be thrifty, and a way to prevent waste - preserving garden produce that would other wise spoil before it was eaten - or, in other words, provident living. and i do love provident living. it seems to be in my genes.
today there are even more reasons to can, at least as i look at it. when i can, i have control over what goes into the jar - so there is no msg, no high fructose corn syrup, no articficial colorings or flavorings, no chemical preservatives. and i control the salt and the sugar content. i love that. and i am generally using my own home grown, organic, non gmo produce - hooray!
there is also a great deal of satisfaction that comes from making a dinner mostly from things i have canned myself - chicken, black beans, salsa for example. and a happy feeling when my kids prefer my applesauce over store-bought, and when they get excited about helping me with the process.
finally, it is a way of making cooking last. i like to do things that last, which is one of the reasons i love to cook and sew. i tend to not feel that way about making a birthday cake, or even a wonderful dinner. i work and work, and then it is eaten and gone. but with canning, i can see the rows of shiney jars on the shelves, and i know it will last...at least longer than tonight's dinner.
....oh, and i almost for got one of the most important reasons - it tastes better than store bought - delicious yumminess!
a sampling of this summer's canning:
roasted tomato sauce, dill pickles, pickled beets, french cut green beans, pickled banana peppers, and mandarin (or sweet & sour) sauce.
i hoped for bumper crops of green beans and tomatoes this summer, and we got them (to be honest, i prayed, and my prayers were answered). we followed the expert gardener in our neighborhood's advice, and never watered our garden once, even though it was hot and dry - not raining for a month and a half. he was right - it gave us an amazing tomato crop. i never imagined i could fill as many jars as i have. i've lost count, but it's much more than 100.
this summer i've canned (asterisk means it's a first time for me to can it):
strawberry jam
dill pickles
*japlepeno jelly - we usually make crabapple jalepeno jelly, which we like even more, but we had huge amounts of jalepenos that were going to go bad, and our crab apples won't ripen until next month.
green beans - 46 quarts, all french cut
beets & pickled beets
tomatoes
*tomato juice with 5 vegetables (V5 juice)
*roasted tomato salsa
*roasted tomato sauce - base for pasta sauce and tomato soup
*sweet & dill pickle relish
*mandarin (sweet & sour) sauce - 21 quartes!
*pickled banana & jalepeno peppers
and i'm looking forward to canning:
green tomato salsa
green enchilada sauce
green tomato ketchup (?)
green toamto chutney (?)
apple juice
applesauce
last fall i looked for ways to use the huge amount of green tomatoes that we had, and now green tomato salsa is our family's favorite salsa we've ever had. it's amazing what you can find on the internet. the friend who recommended the sweet & sour (thank you!) also gave me the green enchilada sauce. i will report. and i am interested in green tomato ketchup and chutney recipes that i've found.
my two absolute favorite new canning recipes from this year are:
1 - roasted tomato sauce - lexi found this and recommened it. i can't say enough good about it - our house smells like an italian restaurant while it roasts with the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and garlic. here's a link:
http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/2009/08/preserving-food-roasted-tomato-sauce.html
(i love this girl's blog!)
2 - mandarin (or sweet & sour) sauce. a friend recommended this, and i am in love. i've made three batches for a total of 21 quarts. and each time i've made a batch, it perfectly filled 7 quart jars (the numer of jars that fill a canner). that never happens. it's the perfect recipe. here's a link:
http://idahofergusonfamily.blogspot.com/2010/09/sweet-and-sour-sauce-for-canning.html
i'm also enjoying this one, because we have a bumper crop of banana peppers. it is a little too sweet for me, next batch i make i will cut the sugar at least in half. but it is easy and fun (and very pretty). i added a few jalepenos into each jar i made. it's a very small recipe. i tripled it and filled 6 pint jars:
http://www.food.com/recipe/sweet-pickled-banana-peppers-17254
if you have favorite canning recipes, i'd love for you to share!
i am so in love with our yard and neighborhood in the spring.....and really all year long, other than january and february. this spring we have planted a dogwood, almond, and white peach trees, more rhubarb, wisteria, summer daffodils, clematis, more asiatic lilies, more peonies, toad lilies, blue pearl polemonium, red coral bells, lily of the valley, more hydrangeas, caladium, and gladiolus.....maybe more? next week a fig tree, kiwi vines, and 2 replacement grapes are coming, which will bring our total number of fruit trees to 16, plus 5 nut trees, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and 4 types of grapes....so excited for them to keep growing and producing!
our crabapple
close-up
our neighbors' redbuds blooming
our early garden starts - tomatoes, peppers, mums, zinnias, scabiosa, foxglove, basil, etc.
we've made big changes in our garden this year, which we are excited about - putting in fencing and raising our beds, finally buying a composter. and i got all of our early planting finished yesterday - lettuce, spinach, snow peas, regular peas, kale, candy onions, green onions, pak choi, potatoes, carrots, and beets.....jus tin time for torrential rainfall. i'm afraid to go out and investigate - afraid all of the little seeds were washed away.
tashi took the littles to the temple grounds for a photo shoot in early april.
i love her photo skills.
redbud ready to bloom
magnolias
the typical state of susie-q's shoes - on the wrong feet.
more redbud
and a photo by mia, show is showing some surprising photo skills.
as far as i'm aware, spring has occured regularly every year of my lifetime, and yet every year i am swept away by the wonder of it. this photo was taken in early march. the large snow fort was complete before the snow started melting. we kept putting off pruning our fruit trees, because the snow was too deep to tromp out into.
mid-march the snow started to recede, and to my utter amazement, crocus and daffodils were pushing their way up through the snow. perhaps i shouldn't have been surprised, but in the deep of winter, my imagination could not stretch far enough to imagine that anything in our yard had survived and would be alive in the spring. dramatic thoughts, i know, but it was a dramatic winter.
crocus - on of the most beautiful sights after an intense winter.
daffodils
and by the end of the month....
it truly is a yearly miracle. we have lived places - phoenix, tokyo - with less dramatic winters, which is nice, but then the miracle of spring is lessened...still appreciated and enjoyed, but not as dramatic. i can't get enough of spring here. i keep finding myself outside throughout the day, wandering around the yard, watching things grow, marveling that they are alive, and breathing in the miracle of spring.
we have blessed with a gloriously beautiful easter weekend. i love the hope, rebirth and new life that easter brings, both spiritually and in nature. easter is at once the most significant, and most overlooked day of the year.
"easter is that most sacred of days when the hearts of devout christians turn to the savior with humble gratitude." .....richard g. scott
our daffodils in the early easter morning light
discovery of the easter baskets
a chocolate bunny just for me!
breakfast: chocolate cinnamon sweet rolls with cream cheese frosting, all made from scratch
hyacinths salvaged from the Temple gardens last spring with daffodils in our front garden.
another snow day, school canceled. everyone was sent home from church in a rush yesterday, because the hills were becoming impassable. we have had so many snow days that they no longer need to be made up, we are into what they call "act of God" territory. we have only completed one or two full weeks of school since christmas vacation. these cozy days with everyone at home have become the new norm.
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