little pleasures...

I am not a great cook, a great raw vegan dieter, nor even a great photographer, less so the awesome writer I dream of becoming, for which I still have a long time to go and ink to spend...but I do like taking photos, documenting my life and keeping journals. I've been writing journals since I can remember...I remember having one in my third grade, writing about my life back then and my experience, and most of all beliefs. I regret not keeping them, I had my crazy periods also when I burned them all down, because at that time I thought these journals were stupid and childish...and now I bitterly regret my denial teenage period. It would have made a great reading today, my vocabulary at 7-9 years....should have kept them!
As I've grown up I forgot about that passion, but somehow managed to get back on track, and I must say documenting everything I do keeps it in my memory and keeps me on my right track....
So here are my recent adventures, with some of the technology of the XXI st century, even though not the latest...
I've been making apricot and prune jam....

....and just for the purpose of bragging about it...I've set up a photoshoot at my working place...on my balcony :D

...and I am modestly but trully happy with the result....in my humble opinion it looks awesome, at least these photos are eye candy for me :D...

I'll be having enough prune jam for the whole winter...and probably more...since it is yummy, I've been using the traditional method of boiling it, but only with a little amount of sugar, compensating with boiling it for about 12 hours...I think it will hold....I am so happy I received the bigger part of the prunes from one of my work colleagues, who had a rich bounty this year...and the other half, just as tasty, came from M's mom and directly from her garden...I was so happy to receive all these fruits!
This year was a really good one for prunes...and apples, I will be making apple jam very soon. Aaaa, and I haven't used any preservatives, in case someone wondered...I never use, not even aspirin, as some do, because if you boil it long enough, it will hold anyway.
Part of the apricot jam was made with the classical method, and part I've made by boiling the mashed up fruit already in jars, practically boiling the jars. I couldn't help it and opened one..It tastes awesome, refreshing as I used the smallest amount of sugar and the color is just as if I had just mashed the fruits...awesome!
I'm thinking about using this method on all the aples....

In yet another order of ideas, I've documented a little this flower's life...here she is at just a few weeks after I stole the branch from my friend, Alida's home....while talking care of her cat and watering her flowers when she was on a short one week vacation....

Romanians call this flower "muscata" and I have no idea how it's named in English, but we believe it brings prosperity to your house, especially if it flowers...and mine did! She did so 2 months ago...and today she looks like this:

...heavily burdened with flowers...should this mean something? who cares if I'm being superstitious, 'cause I don't!
My flowers will be a problem very soon, as it's getting chilly, and I will have to find them refuge, somewhere away from my flower-vore cats...
And I have plenty of them, and many not just cacti, which can escape the cat-menace...
My last idea comes to say that I'm currently on an easy reading diet....

..simple, quiet, deep enough and history- loaded just enough to protrude through my brain's anti-sapientiae shield....
...and this is my proud- inducing working space I've created all the above in, except that my really nice neighbors are unfortunately not in a vacation to a far far away land.....:(

...one last thought and I'm off for good...I tried to eat carambola last evening...

and I've come to the conclusion that I should probably stick to my prunes and apples. Call me an enemy of the new, exotic and interesting if you will, but that's just what I believe!

Until next time!

May all the goodness in the world be upon us!