First Fruits, Weird Dogs, and a Write of Passage

Lughnasadh came on August 2 at 1:46 am-- it's the first of the harvest holidays, and a good time to honor the season's "first fruits."

The turn of August also means the arrival of Tilton apricots at my greengrocer. These are just about the best possible 'cots for canning or making preserves.

Above are my 40 pounds worth... a bargain at $29!

Take out the pits, add a little bit of lemon juice and some sugar...


Boil quickly in a wide pan. No need to add pectin-- these apricots thicken as if by, well... magick! Double double, toil and trouble....


The result? Apricot preserves! Perfect for spreading over toast or scones, and also wonderful when cooking chicken or pork, or making curry. There's also something inherently rewarding about working with apricots-- maybe it's their sunny, gold color, invoking the Sun.


In any case, my freezer is rich now with preserves, dried apricots, and apricot halves, frozen with sugar for later use in desserts or stirred into yogurt.

Okay, now about weird dogs. This picture speaks for itself. What it doesn't show is that one of his hind legs is right under his face. I just don't know....


And finally, as many of you know, I'm writing my first book, Gargoyles. It's due to the publisher in 1 month and 8 days, and I'm thoroughly immersed in it, spending several hours per day writing, researching, revising, etc.. With no school, no teaching, and no crises of any kind (knock on wood), I'm discovering what the life of a writer is like, this idea of sinking into a task to the point that you seem to enter another world. I'll sit down to write and find, when I look up, that 3 hours have passed, silently. It is a true write/rite of passage, and so far, a nearly spiritual experience.