Suspended Fruit

I know green beans are technically a vegetable.
This year I planted French climbers that didn't really yield until early this month.  The pods are 8 to 10 inches long and won't be contained in a pint jar.  As the jars were cooling, the tips of the beans hung suspended like ballerina toes and I had to snap a shot.
The dill bean recipe is from Marlene Crofoot, and is a basic vinegar, water, salt brine with a clove a garlic and a sprinkle of hot red pepper flakes.
I get warm and fuzzy when I see my pantry cupboard filling with preserved jars of pickles, tomato sauce, fruit jams, pickled beets.  Just need to add some applesauce to the mix.

Fall in love in autumn
Golden light, ripened fruit sweet juice dripping,
Peels to earth fermenting, pit and stone
Sailing seeds, bursting husks

Fall in love in excess
Too sweet too much too soon
Gorging on a harvest of emotion
Not carefully tendered

Not carefully tended like the spring sapling
Bare root tender shoot
Braced against the elements, allowed to harden off
Adding tooth to the bark

Swollen rosehips precede the rose
Currants, black and pendulant before the tiny green pearls
Wild plums oozing honey relegate the froth of blossoms
Thorns! Thorns all around

Fall in love in autumn
Let spring find you hapless, rootless,
Stuck through with cockleburs
Berry stained and smiling.

by Cookie, autumn of 2005

Boxelder Plague

Two days ago it was a crisp 55 degrees and my new furnace was purring like a kitten.
Today, the sun is out and and the thermometer has crept up into the high seventies.  And the south side of my house is literally crawling with the nasties.

The boxelder bug is sometimes known as a garage beetle; the unscientific name "stink bug," ain't that sweet, more regularly applied to the family Pentatomidae, is sometimes used to refer to Boisea trivittata. 

There are several ash and boxelder trees in and around the yard that harbor them. 
Now that autumn is officially here, they are sashaying all over my south windows, leaving poo tracks and making it impassable via the deck door.  They want in.  According to the University of Minnesota extension, the best way to remove them is to physically barrier them and then suck up the interlopers with a vacuum.  I know that the insecticide spray works but it leaves stains on the siding and scum on the glass.  And it doesn't jibe with my eco-conscience.  They are a really a harmless nuisance.

some useful, beautiful boxelder objects by esty craftsmen:
1) lamp by mapleseedgallery
2) blue boxelder burl bottlestop by hilltopper46
3,4) handmade pens from norskwoodshop
5) boxelder bowl from BowlsandBoxes

Release

Sarah Shourd is expected to be released today from the Iranian prison that she has been held for over one year.   Let's apply the prayers and political pressure that is needed for the release of her companions, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
the story here