Ah, tradition!

September 20th, this coming Thursday, according to tradition I must pick my hops. I was going to anyway this week, since they are papery and ready, but how nice to know that they are still doing what they have done for centuries; getting themselves ready for picking on September 20th. How punctual and dependable, hops!

"Hymn to Hops
Haste, haste then and strip, as it bends from the pole
The fruit that gives vigour and strength to the soul
Our hearts and our spirits to cheer
It warms and enlivens the true British beer.
—Charles Dibdin, Songs, 1798 "

I will not make beer with mine. I plan to make sleep pillows - little sachet packets full of garlicky dreams. (Hop flowers smell like garlic, but they *really do* induce sleepiness.)

A Garden Variety

Mom always said, "You were born backwards and you have gone into everything backwards ever since." She was right. Forward going would have been to start on January 1st, right? Instead I fussed and fidgeted and finally started to blog for earnest only because my picture storage site shut down, and I wanted *some* record of my pictorial past online! A backward reason.

So, now I start just as the summer is stopping, and the leaves are falling. They are falling down, but this week I am "Falling Up". Irene and I used to Fall Up together. It was *your* phrase, Irene, and I have stolen it. I am decorating my house for fall, and thinking of you every step. I want to walk across the quiet street and step right into your front door calling, "Hello, hello, it's just Peg!" and ask you where I should put the stuffed pumpkins.
Um...........

Irene? Where *should* I put the stuffed pumpkins?

hope you, whomever you are, will sit down "with" me for tea,or flavored coffee or spiced cider, and have a garden variety chat. Now and then. I am not so consistant about blogging as I ought to be. I *am* consistant about drinking hot beverage and the coffee/tea is always on the hob. Come on in!