Wordless Wednesday ~ 24th October 2012

Caramel apples…

Remember these?

• 16 wooden sticks
• 16 small apples, chilled $ Click to see savings
  
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light-colored corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. 1. Push wooden sticks into the top of chilled apples. Return apples to the refrigerator until caramel is ready for dipping.
2. 2. Place sugar, corn syrup, and water in a large saucepan; boil, stirring until dissolved. Boil, without stirring, 9 minutes or until light golden.
3. 3. Combine half-and-half, vanilla, and salt; slowly stir into pan. Boil until candy thermometer reaches 235° (45 minutes), stirring frequently.
4. 4. Pour caramel into a bowl sitting in a hot water bath. Swirl apples in caramel, and place on baking sheet lined with wax paper.

Nostalgia.

recipe from cooking light magazine

Alnarps Slott på Hösten. (Tre)

The other side!

Nikon D90, Aperture Priority Mode, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX, CPL filter, tripod, f/8, 1/80s, ISO200, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Dawn…

Each moment of the year has its own beauty,
a picture which was never before and shall never be seen again.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

'The Magic Apple Tree'

"I love the wild days of autumn, the west winds that rock the apple tree and bring down the leaves and fruit and nuts in showers ............. Soon perhaps over one wild night, the last of the leaves on the magic apple tree will be sent swirling away, and on the bare branches will hang here and there the last few, shrivelling fruits. and finally those, too, will thud to the ground and burst open and rot gradually into the soil, or else be taken by the birds, getting hungrier, now that the cold has come, and on that morning whenever it comes, the autumn will be over" ~ Susan Hill.

Today as many of you know is Apple Day. This event which is celebrated mainly in the UK was the idea of the organisation Common Ground. The first Apple Day was celebrated in 1990 in Covent Garden, London but since then has spread so that events celebrating the apple are held across the country. The day not only celebrates the wonderful variety of apples that grow in this country - over 2,000 varieties but also the richness of locality and regional identity.

Here the day has dawned with some appropriate misty murkiness lurking in the air, which promises to give rise to autumnal sunshine later. We will be celebrating Apple Day with an apple dish of some description tonight, using up a kind gift of a bag of apples from our neighbours. I'm slightly under the weather at the moment with the dreaded lurgy, so do not think that we will be attending any events. Instead I think that I will curl up later and revisit one of my favourite books 'The Magic Apple Tree - A Country Year' by Susan Hill. From her home Moon Cottage she sets out to record "the sights and smells, the people, gardens, animals, births, festivals and deaths that the changing seasons in the small Oxfordshire community". The book follows the seasons, describing not only the yearly journey of the gnarled old apple tree that grows in the garden but also observations and musings on what is happening elsewhere in the garden and the village beyond. There are several seasonal recipes, including one for a delicious sounding walnut and apple tea- bread - maybe that is one that I should try out later if I have all the ingredients to hand.

Throughout the book there are exquisite black and white engravings by John Lawrence.

The book was published by Penguin Books in 1982. Sadly as far as I can gather is no longer in print but it is possible to pick up second hand copies - well worth tracking one down if you do not already have this in your bookshelves.

The illustration from the cover of the book is Samuel Palmer's  work entitled 'The Magic Apple Tree'.

Dreams and a WD Media Player

It's our dreams, doctor, that carry us on. They separate us from the beasts. I wouldn't want to go on living if I thought it was all just eating, and sleeping, and taking my clothes off, I mean putting them on.                                                                                 - Veta Louise Simmons, Harvey (1950)

 

Isn’t that a great quote from Harvey?   I love movies and by saying this I don’t mean I enjoy movies, I mean I really love them.  I keep movie passes on hand all the time so that I’ve got tickets when I need them.   We subscribe to Netflix though the selection of films to stream could be better in my opinion.  BUT I have something that I think is amazing and I’ve really been wanting to tell you about it for a while.  Well, let me tell you a story.

Over the years I started buying DVDs – all my favorites Avanti, Valley of the Dolls, Wife vs. Secretary, Random Harvest, While You Were Sleeping, That Girl, Little Women (the one with Liz Taylor and June Allison) and the list goes and as the collection grew I catalogued the films in alpha order (of course a former librarian would catalogue a library, right?).  But the dvd collection took up a lot of space. 

 Over the years when I would volunteer with the ASO Decorator Show House there would always be a media center with an amazing online media library but I’d seen the price tag on those systems which were well beyond my reach.  One day last spring I mentioned to my son that I dreamed of owning one of these systems and guess what he surprised me with for Mother’s Day?  A digital media center!   He found one by Western Digital (which was not too expensive), bought it and has since spent a lot of time converting and loading the dvds onto my media center.  It is amazing!   I now have all of my favorite movies loaded in alpha order online and the system is connected to my tv!!!  With the click of a remote control I can enjoy all of my favorite films.

 The best thing about this product is that it was not expensive.  My son would tell you that the biggest challenge is the time it takes to get everything loaded on the player but it has made me one happy movie viewer. 

I thought Veta’s quote was perfect, a dream.  My dream and my sweet son, brought me a media center and I’m one happy movie watcher.

Alnarps Slott på Hösten. (Två)

Another angle. :^)