Last Jam

Happy Strawberry Season!

Today the boys  and I started smooshing and stirring and ladling out our annual batch of strawberry freezer jam. We picked berries together this past weekend and it has taken me until today to be able to finally get the pectin out and haul the boxes of half-pint jars out of the attic.

We've been busy because we've been working on pulling together bids and comps and forms and heaven knows what else in paperwork and last night it all culminated in our offer on a lovely three story colonial being accepted. We are really excited and I'm daydreaming pretty constantly about where I'll put the vegetable garden and the bee hives and which rugs will go in which rooms.

This berry jam will likely be the last big project I'll ever  do in our boiling hot, gray kitchen. I hope I'll be canning my August peaches in my new kitchen....looking out the window at the lilies in the backyard. I'll miss the sunshine in this space, all my plants crowded into our story corner under the solarium windows and the cool of the marble floor not to mention the marvelous way it hides all cooking spills and drips. But, we are moving on to greener pastures folks. Literally. There is a wide green lawn, front back and side of the house where boys will tumble happily, an apple tree of our own to love, a big one car garage where bikes can live and a beautiful sunroom where I'll paint and sew and make emerald with green growing things.

So, here's to jam! The last ruby product of our little condo. Grey eighties place, you have been a good home but, not our real one, we hope, hope, hope (pending inspections and mortgage stuff and appraisals and all manner of other processes) you will be a piece of our past by the end of July!

House Option #3!

So, intially...way back in spring of '09 there was this house. Remember that anyone? I still drive by from time to time, watching how the new owners are slowly sprucing up the place. I'm a creepy house-stalker person. I can't help it. I got all attached...and I'm living vicariously.

And then there was a long break, a lot more looking and eventually...a few minutes ago....this house. We put in a knowingly low offer and the seller's agent scoffed in our general direction and we waved goodbye.

Take three and my current dream.

 We toured this house on Saturday and have been mulling it over, looking through our pictures and piling up comps to examine since then. The neighbors are incredibly kind and friendly, the sidewalks broad, the street green and leafy, there's an apple tree in the yard and the doorknobs are glass...it sounds good.

Whaddya think? We're hoping to put in an offer this week. I can see myself canning in this house.

Coffee Tree Very Pretty....

Well, they want too friggin' much for the house. Blast. Oh well. We're leaving our names and numbers and letting it all go for now...there are other houses on the market and other yards to dream of landscaping. Who knows what will come of even this house though...its a great place and they've been trying to sell it for a year now with no luck so, maybe they'll call us back yet. One thing I feel for sure is that if its meant to be our house, we won't have to sweat it. Providence will guide us on this one and we'll know what to do when...things will happen.

But in the meantime! There's all kinds of lovely things to enjoy, right here in the yard of our silly condo....

And in my kitchen....the coffee tree is blooming! First time ever!

Coffee blossoms smell a lot like jasmine or orange blossoms. Super yummy and that familiar starry white. I could imagine tucking them into the upswept hair of some Columbian bride. Pretty food crops are nice. This particular tree isn't actually ours...we're only long-term babysitting. It belongs to A's brother Miq and his wife Penny who are currently overseas with military assignments and needed a home for their glossy leaved plant while they country hopped for a few years. We take care of Planty (his official name) and are happy to report that he's doing well enough that he's been repotted several times, routinely shoots out new leaves and yes, now is having his first round of blooms. I feel like a good steward.

The Real Estate Blues...

Have to chuckle about this cute blues man and am sending my sympathies out to you folks on "the other side" tonight because at this house, we're digging these blues and shimmying down to them, we're buyers not sellers and these blues aren't ours. I like the sound of the this guy and of the current market both, pretty musical if you ask me.

Tonight we put in an offer on that half-timbered Tudor we have been eying up and now we wait to see if they wanna sing the same tune or not.