Apple Butter Time

I'm writing this on Sunday to post on Monday, because I have to scoot out early on Monday. I'm going to the home of a very special & powerful new friend who's helping me with healing, learning, growing, & manifestation. Then I'm going to one of my beloved Reiki Exchanges with my favorite group of people, & taking my new friend to meet them. I've felt like I've been on vacation since Wednesday. That day I enjoyed this woman's hospitality & ministrations for the first time, then went on to meet up with my group & meet Doreen Virtue! The next day I shopped & took myself out for sushi. It's amazing what a new, totally clean & smell-free kitchen garbage can will do for a girl! Then I read a great novel all night, then remotely (as from the comfort of my couch) participated in a manifestation ceremony. Saturday I went to the Groundhog Club annual picnic, where Punxsutawney Phil receives a drink of Groundhog Punch. It's done there at Gobblers Knob & the drink gives him 7 more years of life. He's 125 years old as it is & I always joke that he can never die even if he wanted to since they add 7 more years to his life with that annual drink of punch. He's the star of the show but I was the belle of the ball. The picnic is one of my 2 annual holidays including Groundhog Day, which is close to a week of seasonal events for me, much like Christmas holidays for most people. I always go to the Club banquet the night before Groundhog Day, as I have a Club chapter & know most of the Inner Circle members, am on friendly terms with all. I haven't seen any of them since February, so yesterday was lots of fun. I've lost a lot of fat since they last saw me, & I was one sad little girl in February. That's when everyone became aware of my pending divorce & circumstances, & I passed my wedding anniversary explaining it all. (I was married on Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, & the current president of the Inner Circle stood up for me & had Phil at the wedding as a surprise. I'd been told he wouldn't be able to attend.) So yesterday was my chance to show off the new me - happier than I've ever been, over the shock & back on my feet & better than ever. Speaking of belle of the ball, I was shocked that the mayor of Punxsutawney remembered me from performing our wedding ceremony 6 1/2 years ago. I've only seen him from afar since my wedding, but he attended the picnic this year. I always thought my former spouse, at 6'3" & about 350 lb, always dressed in Hawaiian shirts when going formal, was the memorable one. I told the mayor I forgave him for marrying me, & that I'm now divorced. We had a good laugh. I was honored that as he was leaving the picnic, he made a point of coming over to me to say it had been good to see me again! The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle are some of the nicest men in the world & it's always a real treat to hang out with them. They've been very kind to me, very tolerant of my enthusiasm for all things groundhog. The mayor & the Inner Circle are typical of the kind of friendly people I've found in Punxsutawney, which is why I moved to this area.

This afternoon I stopped to do something at the kitchen sink & saw a doe just out back eating windfall apples. After she left I picked one & took a bite, then took bags out & picked 5 large bags full. That was a huge delight in itself. I've had 1-2 apple trees in my yard (first Maryland, then here) for 11 years now & have never picked them. My ex declared them inedible, so we enjoyed watching the deer & groundhogs eat them while in Maryland. But my landlord's son said these apples make great apple sauce recently, so I've just been waiting for them to ripen. Last year I bought apples from a friend, who gave me a terrific apple butter recipe. I needed to find my soup pots & by the time I found them, everything was "hitting the fan" here & I didn't get to make the apple butter. So even as I speak, my canning jars are being sterilized in the dishwasher in preparation. I haven't canned in about 25 years but still have canning jars because I always figured I would again. Back then I made grape jelly from my backyard grapes. I've never made apple butter before but my first attempt at jelly was terrific & my first attempt at canning a great success. I'm a connoisseur of apple butter, so I know this will be great. Also, my beloved Grandma will be helping me. I don't remember her ever canning but she's with me all the time now when I practice the old fashioned arts & I so enjoy her presence. I've spoken of her before. Yes, she's been deceased since 1985, but these days she's with me a lot, especially as I redecorate my home with her furniture & things.

Back to apple butter. Most years from about 2001 or so through 2008, we went to the Berkeley Springs, WV Apple Butter Festival both days. We loved it so much, one day wasn't enough, & we always bought the warm apple butter made in a huge copper pot in the square. That was our favorite. So I know just how I want this to taste & will adjust the recipe if it's not coming out that way. I'm so excited to be making my own, from my own apples. So, when you come to my B&B, I'll serve you some of my homemade apple butter, if you'd like. And if you like it, I'll have jars for sale that you can take home. Part of what came of the manifestation ceremony is that I'm going to turn my enclosed breezeway with separate entrance into a small shop. That will give me organized space for all my products so they'll be set up & out where we can easily get to them. I have wanted a shop of my own in my home for most of my adult life, so another dream is about to come true. This space will be much smaller than I'd envisioned but it's somewhat the way it always appeared in my mind. I pictured a door from the house to that room, it's own entrance, & that it would be on the left side when you face the house. All that is true of the breezeway. So I have to say that I'm totally loving my life & home, & that I'm now starting a second very exciting week in a row. Fall is always my favorite time (except when Spring rolls around) & it's becoming very Fall-like here already. It always stirs my creativity, & I already feel it starting!