In Celebration of a Life - My Mom

My Mom

1918- 2013

A loving wife to my father and giving mother and grandmother to all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

With some not all of her offspring.

An accomplished tole painter and landscape artist.

Never one to sit when there was food to be prepared.

2 weeks before her death

Mom, thank you!  You will be sorely missed!

Fall Harvest

I've been traveling back and forth to my mother's this week and last and the week before that.  She's not doing well at all and we are keeping a bedside vigil.

Today I couldn't be there because of other family matters so had a chance to pick a harvest from the garden.  My first harvest of Fall 2013.  Most of it except the tomatoes will go into a stir fry tonight.  We will eat well.

Harvest Addendum

I posted Friday about my latest harvest but that was before ...  Above is what I just picked this afternoon: tomatoes, tatsoi and buried underneath 

snow peas.  The first fall crop of them.  Just enough to be added to an oriental soup.

 They weren't there on Friday that's for sure.  There will be many more in the days to come.  Yummy!

What I'm Harvesting

I am amazed that the tomato plants keep producing.  There doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

I picked this basketful tonight.

Here's what I already have on the kitchen counter that I need to use or freeze.

I made an oriental soup for dinner with these greens: tatsoi, bok choy and I guess the greens from the mesclun mix that are growing are mustard greens.  They had a strong taste.

Fourth and final butternut squash.

As a postscript, my 94 year old mother is very ill and I've had lots of trips there to be with her.  I'll be going again next week.  Yesterday my daughters went with me to visit for what may be their last time with her.  Bittersweet.

Sarah (above) and Emily (below) with Grandma.

Labor Day in Georgetown, DC

We spent the day with Sarah in Georgetown.  First for a bike ride along the Potomac and then for lunch and a walk about.  The place was full of people.  Didn't take any photos on the bike ride but here are a few after lunch.

The C & O Canal runs from Cumberland, MD to Georgetown, DC.  Built in the 1840s it was soon eclipsed by the B & O Railroad.  Now it's wonderful tow path provides a bike trail between to two places.

At the bottom of Wisconsin Avenue where it intersects Water Street is this wonderful fountain.

On a 90º+ day it was a major attraction for the kids.

Out on the Potomac River were various water crafts.

The Key Bridge connects Georgetown to Rossalyn, VA.  We crossed that on bicycles to get to the Mt. Vernon Trail.

An assortment of ducks and geese.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts could be seen down river.

Rosslyn in Arlington, VA is an area of tall buildings which DC cannot have since nothing can be taller than the Washington Monument.

Sarah and Dan.

Sarah and me.

Clyde's on M Street where we enjoyed a nice lunch sitting at these windows to watch the passersby.  This is Clyde's original location.

Goldfinches

It's that time of year.  The flowers are going to seed and the goldfinches are gorging themselves.  I did read somewhere that as seed eaters they hatch their eggs late in the summer so there are seeds to feed them.   I caught this pair on the purple cone flowers outside my bedroom window one afternoon.

And the spider webs have been profuse of late.  This was an unusual web and spider outside Dan's shop door.