I have been eating.

Truly. I have been thinking about recipes, and making them, and then sitting down somewhere and actually eating them. But my recent move – back to the countryside ’round Paonia, Colorado from the city, has added fullness and textures and people that are being juggled, and huggled, sifted and arranged. I haven’t taken the step by step photos I usually do as I cook to make pretty blog posts, and frankly have been eating pretty simply, of the bounty grown around this valley I’m once again calling home.

The plum tree in the yard shook crazily with droplets today as I ventured out when the rain was letting up. And the orchard gleamed under a low, rain soaked sky. My woodstove hummed with burning cedar wood inside the house. Cozy!

Everything gleamed this morning. Sparkling treasures caught my eye – bright bounty before the seasons shift.

And these chillier nights are making the crab apples blush. I keep a watch out – because crab apple rose jelly is in this fall’s future, and it looks like a great little harvest in the making. I promise, I will share that recipe with you. It’s a treasure.

A few days ago I put up a few jars of grape jelly. Kinda special, when you pick the grapes yourself, and add a few in from a friend.

I used Pomona’s Pectin for the first time, and can recommend it to you! You can use much less sweetener than recipes of old, and that is a great thing. I adapted my old recipe right into what is printed in their handout. Do try it.

A tumble of tomatoes, though not the last from this inherited garden, are waiting to ripen on the sill. My heart is warming, to ripen further, I pray. Here in this community, I hope to fit in, like a vase of flowers, jam on toast, and make a new start with my life that will be rich and can sustain me.

Fall in the garden is rich, and bittersweet. I realize my brain has not quite imprinted everything about my new environs into familiar cubbyholes yet, so sometimes, in the morning especially – I’m hit with brand new sensations, just walking down the steps and looking up. Into these graceful leaves and a wonderful glow.

The round nubbins of moss – see them? – on the century old barn roof, were new finds on this property today. So picturesque –

– they made me really smile, though I have to admit the roof leaks like a sieve.