Slight Detour: Hot Kitchens; Hot Days and Such

I do not want to misrepresent.

Yes, these are lovely jars of pretty jelly.

No, they did not set up.

I rationalized about the situation this morning, thinking that the temperature has never cooled down enough for the jelly to set up.

Probably total rationalization, but since I worked in a hot kitchen preparing this jelly for several hours yesterday, I'm including the photo while scratching my head about what to do next.

Anyone who's read this blog for a number of years will remember the kitchen catastrophe in September, 2019 when I slipped on a wet spot on the kitchen floor with my crocs, fell down and had jelly pulp and juice all over my kitchen floor and myself.

So, by comparison, yesterday's jelly-making events were mild, except maybe for the bee that kept threatening my jelly bag which I had set up outside the garage door.

The metal frame holding the jelly bag was tenuous at best, so much so that even breathing too hard might cause the bagful of pulp to topple into the juice that had already drained into the kettle.

I decided to take my jelly bag operation outside because the 2019 incident and all the kitchen clean-up associated with it was still too fresh in my mind, but I forgot about the bees.

Well, that one bee kept buzzing and threatening, and I kept telling it to go away as juice slowly dripped into the kettle.

One time after going into the house for a quick moment, I came out just in time to see a small very guilty-looking bird making a quick escape from the kettle area.

Then, occasionally, the wind came up, threatening to blow down the jelly bag.

So, every time a little gust would arise, I'd hover around the kettle to protect the jelly bag from any outside forces. Must have been a strange sight for anyone driving by.

Twas a tedious and time-consuming task getting that juice to drip from that bag, but I got 'er done but also figured there must be a more efficient way to do this.

I'm hoping also that when the extreme hot weather of the next couple of days turns to mildly hot weather maybe that jelly will set up like it's supposed to do.

I've said to many people lately that this existence we are all experiencing could be dubbed the "gauntlet."

Anymore, it seems, there's no direct pathway to getting anything done---whether it's vacation planning, driving the local streets or even making jelly.

Every task seems to involve a whole lot of different steps to get from Point A to Point B.

Once again, from all this comes the good ol' North Idaho essential character trait called "resilience."

So, as usual with a little ingenuity on my part, maybe things will work out for that tasty huckleberry, raspberry and blueberry jelly to set up. I assure you that even though it's a little runny, the jelly did taste really good on a piece of toast yesterday.

And, if they do, I'll just call it "resilient jelly."

After the jelly-making marathon, I spent part of the evening watching the NBA draft. It's not one of my usual favorites, but when two and maybe more ZAGS players were part of the draft, I was anxious to see where they were headed.

Jalen Suggs, No. 5 pick: Orlando Magic

Corey Kispert, No. 15 pick, Washington Wizards and joining former ZAG and Olympic flagbearer for Japan, Rui Hachimura.

I saw this morning that ZAG Joel Ayayi was not drafted but signed with the Lakers.

Pretty impressive representation for our ZAGS.

Yesterday also marked the day that season ticket holders for the ZAGS women could renew. The women are expected to play with fans in the stands this year, so we wasted no time renewing our tickets.

GO, ZAGS!

Here's another case where I must be totally honest and not misrepresent the actual situation.

This photo may look like I have a lot of plums, but that's not the case this year.

It's totally a hit-and-miss on the limbs of all my plum trees.

One in the front yard has two plums; another in the Southwest yard has one plum, one near the greenhouse has about a dozen and the tree pictures above has a clump here and a clump there----maybe three or four dozen plums total.

My apple trees have the same situation, as that one somewhat subtle freeze we had in May did a number on the fruit trees.

Again, the "gauntlet" of an obstacle seemingly situated every step of the way.

And, once again resilience says be happy for the good stuff, and that I am. If the gauntlet will stay out of the way in my garden, we'll keep on loving the pretty posies, eating those tasty tomatoes, refreshing cukes and soon delicious sweet corn.

It ain't all bad! And, in two days, the weather gods are even suggesting a 40 percent chance of rain along with a moderate cool down.

Happy Friday.