Under the Tuscan sun…not
Time to harvest the grapes!
We’re not ready to start a vineyard yet, but we got twice as many as last year. I think the grapes cross pollinated. I bought two of those dried out vines in a bag the home stores sell, cheap enough to give it a shot. One was white, the other red. Last year the jam came out an attractive red. This year, while I was smooshing up the grapes, it ended up green. Sort of a kiwi color! Mmmm, kiwi jam…I wonder? Anyhow, green grape jam sounded weird. Food color? Messes up my “all natural” intentions. I took desperate measures. I had a bag of frozen unsweetened raspberries. I added them to the pan of hot grape pulp. Result- attractive violet colored stuff! And it sounds like a nice mixed fruit combination.
Today, it will get a strain through cheesecloth and get cooked with sugar and canned. Oh yeah- Happy Labor Day! I have to consult my “Culinary Arts Encyclopedic Cook Book” circa 1950. I’m not sure if grape/raspberry is going to need pectin to “set” There are certain fruits, no matter how long they’re cooked, you end up with syrup- and you can’t spread that on a bagel!
My arthritic boys Mike and Tesla are both having a tough time with pain this weekend. Da Pyrate has always tested negative for rheumatoid arthritis, but he’s had major episodes of pain for years. For several months the joint of infamy has been just in one thumb- but it’s howling agony for him. Duchess says it sounds like gout. He’s resisting this idea, because gout sounds like the disease of the idle rich- so not him! It’s true that certain foods and drink can set it off, but it’s a hereditary thing, occuring mostly in men. If I could just get him to go see our “undoctor” they have medicine for gout. Aleve and things like that don’t seem to help him much.
As for Mr. Tesla, he’s hobbling. Also laying around and panting, which is what dogs do when they’re hurting. He’s only seven, but I can tell he’s going downhill. One bad thing is he’s put on so much weight. Sometimes when a dog puffs up like that it’s a kidney problem. He gets glucosamine, but it hasn’t helped the last couple of days. Finally this morning, I gave him one of my “heart therapy” aspirins. They always helped Ms. Coors. He’s sleeping now, but still doesn’t seem “right”. I guess I’ll make an appointment with the Vet for later this week.
I hope they’re straight with me about what’s going on with him.
I’ve found that medical people (animal and human) sometimes encourage hope even in cases where the long term result is the same. My cousin told me recently about a friend of hers who had to put down her beloved dog, but was left with an $18,000 vet bill. I guess she felt bad enough about her dog, but to run up a huge tab and still lose her….
Long Weekend Movie Watching: First we watched Something The Lord Made A true story starring Alan Rickman and Mos Def. It’s about a doctor who took on a young black man, Vivien Thomas, as his lab assistant. Vivien wanted to go to medical school, but lost his money in the Depression. Becoming the assistant to a surgeon was better than sweeping floors. He follows the doctor up to Baltimore when the doctor is offered a fat cat job at Johns Hopkins. When you least expect it, Maryland reminds you that it’s part of the South. In the 1940’s it was still segregated. Vivien finds out that working in the lab with the chief of surgery, he’s making the same money as a janitor- because he’s black. Not to mention, the doc could have pulled strings, even opened up his wallet and put his talented associate through medical school. Not clear if this is because of his own racism, or his selfishness, because working together they were very successful. The two of them performed the first ever heart surgery- a procedure to fix “blue babies”.
Yesterday, we watched The Dambusters A WWII drama with Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd. As everyone who knows me knows, I don’t like dams. I think they’re a menace to the environment and mess up more than they help. But this was war and different than my environmental rants. A scientist developed a skipping bomb that would destroy a dam. By destroying reservoirs in the industrial Ruhr, it would cripple industries and help end the war sooner. So this was the story of this success. There was some film of the aftermath. It was pretty devastating. There must have been great loss of life, but the counter argument would be how many lives would be spared if the War ended sooner?
But now it’s time for jam, pumpkin pie and laundry!
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