Karyn Johnson

Words in Bloom: A blog about life, change, and finding the joy in every day

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about

I’m a content marketing and copy editor who also dabbles in photography. Also an enthusiastic hiker, avid reader, cook, wine lover, coffee addict, dog mommy, wife, native Ohioan, and diehard Buckeyes fan. Not necessarily in that order.
  • December/2023 Wrap-Up

    December/2023 Wrap-Up

    Here we are, the last day of 2023. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to pack away the holiday decorations and look ahead to the new year and new possibilities. But before I do that, I’ll wrap up December and 2023 with this update.

    I decided this year to make homemade candles for Christmas gifts. After all, I have a surplus of mason jars. I purchased a candle-making kit that contained a 5-lb. bag of soy wax, wicks, wick adhesives, and wick holders (to secure them as the wax hardens). I also bought a 4-cup plastic measuring cup and some vanilla essential oil. I went to Dollar Tree for some ribbon.

    I was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out. Making the candles wasn’t really that difficult. The wax can be melted in the microwave, as long as you watch it carefully and stir it every so often. I added both vanilla and cinnamon oils to my first two batches. Once the wax hardened, I decorated the jars.

    Result:

    The first batch is done!
    I put them in festive treat bags and tied them with curling ribbon and a little sleigh bell
    This is the one I made for Mom, lit on Christmas Day

    The candles were well received. I still have a lot of wax, so I’ll need to make some more. Maybe with different scents? I’m almost out of vanilla and cinnamon now anyway.

    Christmas Eve was quiet, damp, and foggy. We took a hike at a nearby metro park, but we had to make it kind of short. I severely injured my pinky toe earlier in the week and it was uncomfortable to wear shoes. But we did about 1.5 miles and then went to Starbucks. We had snacks for dinner (meatballs, cheese plate, crackers, etc.) and watched a movie.

    Our Christmas was good. I attempted to make homemade cinnamon rolls this year — a first for me. I even found a recipe that only had one rise and was supposed to be perfect for beginners. And still I managed to kill the yeast (despite using a thermometer when I heated the milk to avoid getting it too hot). So the rolls were a fail. I still baked them and we ate them. They weren’t soft and fluffy. They were small and kind of tough. But L liked them enough to actually finish them off the next day. I may have to attempt them again next year, but I’ll have a backup plan in case that happens again.

    We spent late morning and afternoon with my folks at their house. Then we came home, got into our pajamas, and watched Bridget Jones’s Diary while eating cheese and crackers.

    That was pretty much it. It was business as usual after that: work, chores, etc.

    And now it’s December 31 and I’m reflecting on this year. How lucky I am to have landed my current job. How my struggles as a business owner led to the opportunity I have now. I have zero regrets about how that turned out.

    We’re lucky to have had Blitz with us for the whole year. As he ages and his health declines, I think a lot about how much more fleeting our time with him is becoming. And I don’t know how much longer we have together, but I’m so happy he’s still with us.

    This coming year, I’m hoping to do more hiking. I’m hoping we can get the new barn built (and the old one torn down). I’m hoping we can also get my new garden area built (raised beds and fencing).

    I plan to go to Panama in a few months. My employer is a sponsor of School the World — a non-profit that builds schools in impoverished communities in Honduras, Panama, and Guatemala. A team from my company goes down every year to build a school. This upcoming trip is to Panama, and I’ve signed up to go. My travel expenses are paid, but I am raising money to fund the building of the school as well as teacher training, library books, and school supplies. If you feel so inclined, I’d really appreciate the support. https://donate.schooltheworld.org/fundraiser/5147281

    Thank you, dear readers, for showing an interest in my little blog this year. I wish you a happy, healthy, and successful 2024.

  • The festive month

    The festive month

    I am in a much better place mentally this year than I was at this time last year. I feel much more creative (though this sadly doesn’t extend to writing outside of work) and enthusiastic about the holiday season. Everything has fallen into place for me this year, which has made all the difference.

    So, here we are. December. Christmas is three weeks away. Most of my shopping is done, and I’m really pleased with the gifts I got everyone this year. I even made some gifts, which I will share here after the holiday. Honestly really proud of the gifts I made because I didn’t consider myself to be super talented in arts and crafts. But these gifts exceeded my expectations, plus I am enjoying making them.

    We’ve never been that house on the street that goes all out with Christmas lights. Our next door neighbors do that, and I enjoy their display, but I really like the simplicity and timelessness of our decorations. We have LED candles in every window — a new addition. My mom has candles in the window every year, and I always wanted to do the same. So I finally splurged and bought two sets — 20 candles total. They operate via remote control and on a timer, and they flicker like real candles. And they look very nice from the street.

    We have our main tree in the large front window, which you can also see from the street. And that’s really all we did in terms of Christmas lights that can be seen from the outside. It’s enough.

    Our pencil tree in the back living room
    Our main tree
    Mantel decorations
    The stockings were hung
    Stocking made from an antique quilt

    I also love real greenery at Christmas. As I was growing up, we had a real tree every year. But it just became too much to deal with. I’ve had an artificial tree for my entire adult life. However, we have five acres of real greenery, so I just had to take advantage of it. Real swags, wreaths, and garlands are so expensive if you buy them, and we have all the supplies in our own yard.

    So, I went on a little foraging expedition yesterday with my pruning shears. My only expense for this was the bow from Dollar Tree ($1.25) and some craft wire. The goal: make a swag to hang from our front porch light. I have never made one before, but it seemed to me like it would be fairly easy.

    So, I took cuttings from three different evergreens, arranged them how I wanted, bundled their tops together, and bound them with wire before snipping them more evenly and adding the bow. One cutting already had a cone attached, but I added two more with the wire. A lot of our cones have white residue on them, which is perfect for this.

    I added a couple of red sleigh bells at first. But I removed them. I decided to just keep this totally natural (with the exception of the bow). I contemplated adding red berries, but the only berries we have are from the invasive honeysuckle all over our yard. It’s bad enough without me possibly spreading it even more. So I nixed that idea.

    Et voilà!

    I am very happy with how it turned out, and I think I’m going to do this every year. I might even try a wreath at some point.

    So, this is my last day of a 4-day weekend. I’m using up all my vacation time before the end of the year, since it’s use or lose. So I have long weekends pretty much every weekend for the rest of the year.

    And for once, I don’t dread going back to work. It’s quite an exciting time in the college admissions world, actually. Prospective students who applied in the early admission rounds will start getting their acceptances (or deferrals or rejections) around mid-December. There is a large team of us at work that will be tracking the decision release dates for as many colleges and universities as possible so we can post them on our blog. These schools will likely start announcing these dates this coming week, so things are about to get pretty busy.

  • November Update

    November Update

    It’s been awhile. As the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer, my seasonal affective disorder kicks in. I’ve been struggling a lot with my energy levels. And that includes the mental bandwidth to keep up with this blog.

    At least it hasn’t turned too cold yet. Though I remember growing up that we usually had our first snow by mid-November. Other than some flakes flying on Halloween (which never accumulated), we haven’t had any snow — just frosts. Novembers just keep getting milder and milder as time goes on.

    I harvested the last of my salad greens just a few evenings ago. Unfortunately, the golden beets I planted with the salad greens never formed beets, but the greens are also good in salad. I should probably compost what’s left.

    The bird feeders are out for the season, too. Though the birds are still finding plenty of food in the decaying flower beds. This is why I don’t feed them year-round. They find an abundance of food in our yard during the growing season and don’t need the feeders. I bought a new feeder this year — bright red like our barn. I love it, and so do the birds.

    I am hearing the Great Horned Owl more and more, and he isn’t alone. There are two now. He has female friend with a higher-pitched call. I haven’t seen either of them. I only hear them hooting. But they were extremely close to the house a few nights ago.

    It’s been a beautiful fall. This is our second autumn in this house, and I continue to be amazed by how stunning our yard is when the leaves change.

    In other news, the bridge that L destroyed with the rental tractor has been rebuilt. The original bridge wasn’t made of the proper materials in the first place. L bought the right lumber and built a much stronger bridge. It’s wider, too.

    Last Sunday, I finally had the opportunity to join a Hikerbabes hike. I’ve been a member for almost two years, and the Central Ohio chapter is very active. However, the hikes are usually too far away, at an inconvenient time, and/or too long — like 8-10 miles. The hike last week was at Scioto Grove Metro Park, which is about 10 minutes from my house. It was 3 miles. And it was a mindfulness hike, so mindfulness practices were incorporated into the hike.

    We also collected objects from the trail (with advance permission of the park ranger) to make nature mandalas. There was a nice stretch of riverbank by the Scioto where we stopped to create our mandalas out of leaves, bark, twigs, shells, stones, dead flower heads, and other things that caught our eye — though we did not pick anything still growing. It was actually quite relaxing.

    I could easily create mandalas from objects in our yard. It’s a good practice that encourages you to really observe what’s around you and find things in nature that catch your eye. Ideally, you should find multiple objects that are similar. But of course, you will never find things that are completely identical.

    Anyway, I had to bail out early because I had new hiking shoes on that were only marginally broken in. They started hurting my feet. Plus, they are heavy and clunky. I think I’ll keep them for yardwork and not for hiking. (The good, expensive Salomon hiking shoes I bought last year are my primary yardwork shoes, and they are now starting to fall apart because I’ve abused them so much.)

    That’s it from here. Thanksgiving is in a few days and we’re going up to my aunt’s place outside of Cleveland. The original plan was to camp at Geneva State Park for the entire weekend — it’s near her house. But we canceled those plans because it’s supposed to be blustery with snow. Those conditions are not ideal for towing or setting up camp. Plus, I have to work for half a day on Friday anyway. So we’re now just going up for the day.

    I have to start Thanksgiving prep either today or tomorrow. I’m bringing the cranberry sauce, a pumpkin roll we ordered from an Amish bakery, and the appetizers. I’m making bacon-wrapped dates and cinnamon pecans, and I’m bringing a cheese board. The challenge will be staying out of these things before Thursday.

  • Rhino lips and giraffe slobber

    Rhino lips and giraffe slobber

    If you live in the U.S., you might be familiar with Secrets of the Zoo on the NatGeo channel. It features The Columbus Zoo and The Wilds — a safari-like park in Cumberland, Ohio.

    I’ve been to The Columbus Zoo numerous times, but until yesterday, I have never been to The Wilds. To celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary (which is this Wednesday, the 18th), we decided to pay for the Wildside Tour. Unlike the standard tours at The Wilds, the Wildside Tours go off-road and up close to the wildlife.

    We dealt with rain showers and blustery winds. I was an idiot and didn’t bring my lined rain jacket. The temperature was warm, and I thought I would overheat. But once the rain really started coming down, the wind picked up, and we were being driven around in an open-air vehicle, it got downright cold. I bought a $6 poncho at the gift shop to protect me from the worst of the rain, but I really could have done with my jacket. (Fun fact, if your clothes are damp and you put on a clear plastic poncho, condensation will build up inside and you basically become a human terrarium.)

    Anyway, despite being wet and cold, I had an incredible experience. We both loved it.

    Bactrian camel, Brutus, showing off his beautiful smile
    Persian onagers
    Bactrian deer
    Wild horses
    Indian rhino
    We got to feed the Indian rhinos – this is me feeding Sonya apples and carrots
    Takin
    White rhinos – the baby is 3 weeks old
    Bactrian deer
    In the giraffe barn — we got to hand feed them lettuce

    Also: a video I took as I was feeding Sonya.

    And another video I took of the baby rhino.

    If you are within a reasonable driving distance of The Wilds, I highly recommend a visit! Even if you do the standard tour, you should still get to see a lot. (And you will get close to the animals that hang out by the road.)

  • Life lately

    Life lately

    I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

    L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

    October is here, and I hope we have a healthy month ahead. August and September were challenging. I went to the hospital twice — to the ER for a sprained wrist in early August, and for a CT scan in early September for an intestinal issue. I was also sick for about a week just before my business trip to Baltimore. And it was likely a mild case of COVID, though I didn’t know it at the time. I only realize it now because my husband came down with COVID while I was in Baltimore and his symptoms started out like mine and then got a lot worse. And he tested positive. Thankfully, he’s feeling much better, though he has a lingering cough.

    We’re both doing well now. Let’s hope things stay that way for awhile.

    So, Baltimore — it was an unforgettable experience. I can’t believe it took me so long to finally land where I’m meant to be career-wise, but I think the trip to Baltimore showed me that this is where I belong. I finally met my co-workers in person. We worked together. We socialized together. And I hadn’t had that much fun in ages.

    Also, the Four Seasons. OH MY GOD. Best bed ever.

    Scenes from day 1 (Wednesday, September 20):

    The descent into BWI
    The descent into BWI
    The descent into BWI
    The view from my room at the Four Seasons (14th floor)
    Walking around the Inner Harbor
    Mr. Trash Wheel
    It was a gorgeous day
    Our view from the terrace at Maximon — the Latin restaurant at the Four Seasons

    Day 1 was arrival day, so no one was really expected to work. We all had dinner together that night, but the day was mostly mine to do with as I pleased once I arrived in Charm City. I decided on taking a walk first, then taking a nap.

    We worked a full day the following day, followed by dinner at Monarque (a French bistro) and a Family Feud-style game show that was a lot more fun than I expected.

    The menu! (Honestly, the cheese plate was TO DIE FOR, and I would have been happy just to eat that.)

    Day 3 was another work day, though we also had a professional photographer there to take headshots. And a professional makeup artist and hairstylist, because why not? I took advantage of that. After all, we were having a big semi-formal party at the stunning George Peabody Library that night (on the campus of Johns Hopkins University).

    I had some time to kill between work and the party, so I walked around Baltimore for an hour. Tropical Storm Ophelia was approaching at that time, so the wind really started to pick up (which kind of ruined my nice party hair).

    I love this style of lighthouse.
    This is a piece of NYC’s World Trade Center in front of Baltimore’s World Trade Center
    The USS Constellation

    Friday night – PARTY TIME! And we had a stunning sunset that night, too.

    Ready to party
    Had to get a photo of my whole ensemble
    Stacks stacked on stacks

    I danced that night until I thought my knees would buckle. It’s been ages since I’ve danced like that. I had a blast. (Though my feet and knees paid for it the next day.)

    We had workshops all day on Saturday, followed by a farewell dinner at the Choptank. (SO MUCH SEAFOOD!) The weather was abysmal because of the tropical storm. Thankfully, it cleared up by Sunday, since that’s when we were all leaving.

    I had a lazy Sunday morning. I slept in. I ordered room service. I read some of a cozy mystery (Paper Cuts by Ellery Adams). I stayed in my room until almost check-out time. Then my Lyft driver arrived to take me to the airport. And I came home to a husband with pink eye in both eyes and a raging case of COVID (pink eye is one of the symptoms of this current strain, which is delightful).

    Thankfully, I have stayed healthy.

    And now, with the fall weather finally here (as of today), we need to start winding down the gardening tasks and prepping for winter. I also have the urge to deep clean the house. I installed the Tody app to keep me on a cleaning schedule, and it’s been a total game changer. I highly recommend it.

    Some pics from around the farm to end this post:

    The mums are so gorgeous right now
    This dog and his sticks
    We have grasshoppers in abundance
    Golden leaves. Golden sun.
    Cute garden noodle

  • Golden days and chilly nights

    Golden days and chilly nights

    It’s been almost a month since my last post. There’s been a lot going on. L’s uncle died a month ago and he went to Minnesota for several days to attend the funeral. I’ve had health issues — I actually went to the hospital last week for a CT scan — though I’m glad to report that it’s nothing serious and I’m now feeling much better. Well, in that regard anyway. I think I’m coming down with a cold at the moment, which makes me a bit anxious because I have a business trip to Baltimore next week.

    We’ve been in a pattern of chilly mornings and pleasant daytime temperatures. Not sure if we’ll get another heat wave after fall arrives, but it’s entirely possible. But for now, we’re pleased to have good weather for working out in the yard.

    L rented a tractor last weekend to take care of some long-overdue projects.

    The main projects:

    • Pull out the grapevine supports, which were embedded in two feet of concrete.
    • Clear the massive weedy patch where the raised beds once were.
    • Scoop and distribute the pile of woodchips from our recent tree work into the front flower bed and the side of the house.
    • Pull out the clothesline.

    Mission accomplished on all. I am particularly giddy about there being mostly bare ground where a giant patch of weeds existed not even a week ago.

    Of course, now I have to worry about controlling weeds in this spot until we can build the new raised beds. I want to keep the same profile, more or less, but with fewer beds, an outdoor sink to rinse vegetables, and a fence surrounding the garden.

    L created an additional project because of the tractor. He was driving over one of our bridges, and it collapsed under the weight. Thankfully, he gunned it and made it across before ending up in the creek bed — getting a tractor out of a ditch would have been an ordeal. But the bridge needs to be rebuilt. Just as well, I suppose. It was pretty rickety to begin with.

    I did some fall planting while L was in Minnesota. Obviously I have no raised beds, but I found a kiddie pool at Big Lots for $3; poked holes in the bottom; filled with potting soil; and planted mesclun mix, chard, beets, and spinach. These are all cold-hardy plants that are perfect for fall planting, and they are doing very well.

    I have started thinning out the seedlings. The lettuce and chard in particular are growing like crazy.

    I don’t intend to use the kiddie pool method in the future, but it works in a pinch.

    Blackberry season is over. Sadly, I only filled one gallon-size freezer bag. Last year, I think I had at least three. The apples are on their way out now, though we still have several dozen of them on the trees. I made a couple batches of applesauce, apple chips, and apple pie filling. And that’s about all I can manage. A lot of the apples are smashed on the ground (thanks to our lawn mower), and the yellow jackets have been all over them. (The neighbor’s two horses and two donkeys got some, too.)

    I have probably never mentioned this, but sunflowers are my favorite. I planted dozens of seeds this year. Only two sunflowers came up — a tiny chocolate cherry sunflower and a massive one that grew taller than our house.

    In general, though, the flower beds were a total disaster this year. They were taken over by weeds, and I really want to make the beds smaller and more manageable. That’s a project for another time.

    Random photos from around the farm:

    I keep finding these assassin bug nymphs in the house – I catch them in a jar and free them outside
    Honey mushrooms? We have huge clusters of these coming up in the back of our property.
    I keep trying to make peace with spiders. Willing to do so as long as they stay outside.
  • False fall

    False fall

    It’s been feeling like early fall lately, with milder temperatures and rain — so unlike a typical Ohio August. But summer will be back to full strength tomorrow, with temps getting into the upper 90’s in the coming days. I want to plant my fall veggies (beets and salad greens), but I’m a little reluctant to do so when it’s supposed to be so hot.

    My wrist is almost completely healed now, so I can go back to doing yardwork. I was in the middle of weeding and mulching the front beds when this happened, so I can hopefully go out today and work on that. I want to take advantage of this last mild day before the heat gets cranked up tomorrow.

    It’s now peak blackberry and apple season. When I’m not working, I’m picking, cleaning, and freezing blackberries. Or I’m peeling, coring, and chopping apples for applesauce or whatever. I’ve barely put a dent in the apples. We have two remaining trees (out of the seven we had originally), and just these two trees produced more apples than I can possibly use. I plan to offer some to our neighbor for her horses and donkeys and maybe leave some out for the deer in the very back of our yard where they tend to hang out.

    The first big harvest of many
    From a batch of applesauce I made yesterday

    And to think, I had no decent apples at all last year. So odd. These apples are misshapen and blemished, but they are fine for cooking. (They don’t have a good flavor for eating raw.)

    The thing about working full-time now is that I don’t really have the time or energy to continually process these apples. Any applesauce I make is going into the freezer because I can’t be bothered with canning. But even making applesauce is a tedious process.

    I cored and peeled four pounds of apples yesterday morning (and chopped them using my Fullstar vegetable chopper, which was definitely worth the purchase), but it made a huge mess and dirtied up a lot of dishes. I have to say, though, that homemade applesauce is a million times better than store bought.

    In other news, I went out yesterday to pull up a lot of poison ivy. We have it all over the yard, and Blitz jumped right into the thickest patch two days ago. It won’t affect him at all, but I have had poison ivy once in my life, so I know I’m allergic. Anyway, this happened during my lunch break, so I didn’t have time to throw him in a tub. But we have IvyX wipes, which are supposed to remove the oil. I scrubbed him down with one and now I’m hoping for the best. I seem to remember that it took a few days to break out after I came into contact with it last time. I have no signs of a rash yet. Knock on wood.

  • Oopsie!

    Oopsie!

    I sprained my right wrist three days ago. I was on my lunch break, and Blitz and I were walking through the yard. I noticed that a lower branch on a tree near our creek was drooping almost to the ground. It was partially split off. So I grabbed it and started working it, back and forth, up and down. And it was working. The bark was cracking. The wood was splitting. I didn’t manage to get it down, but it was hanging on to the tree by the thinnest sliver.

    I got Blitz inside and grabbed the loppers. This is when the trouble started. I still don’t know exactly what happened. I was struggling to cut it all the way through — next thing I know, I was on the ground. I fell hard. And I automatically braced with my right wrist. Pain shot through my arm.

    I got up, dusted myself off, and picked some wild blackberries. (I had the bowl with me that I use for berry collecting.) Then I got the loppers again and finally worked off the branch, dragging it to the brush pile.

    My wrist hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable. At that point.

    I eventually logged back into work, and the pain got worse as the day went on. My mobility did, too. I tried to wrap my wrist, but it actually made it hurt worse. It got to the point where I was typing only with my left hand.

    One of my co-workers finally urged me to log off and go to urgent care. (It was literally the second week of my new job! Horrible timing!)

    At 4:30 pm, I left for the urgent care. I walked in, and they told me they didn’t have an X-ray machine, so I’d need to go to the emergency room at the hospital down the street. Ugh.

    It was a long ordeal of sitting in the main waiting room, being escorted to wait for a long time in a private room, seeing multiple healthcare people and giving each one the same information, being escorted back out into the main waiting room, etc. etc. etc. And I hadn’t even been X-rayed. When they finally called me back for X-rays, that part took 2 minutes.

    Ten minutes later, an email alert: “You have a new lab result on MyChart.”

    I logged into MyChart to get the results of my X-ray. No fracture. Soft tissue damage. I waited several more minutes, but no one came out to get me so I could speak to the doctor.

    Finally, I got tired of waiting. If it wasn’t fractured, there was literally nothing they could do for me in the ER that I couldn’t do for myself at home. I had an ACE bandage and a wrist brace. I had ice packs. I had Advil. I walked over to the reception desk and requested a discharge. They had me sign a form (HA! My right wrist is my dominant wrist), and I was on my way home.

    I iced it, wrapped it, AND put on my wrist brace for good measure.

    You know, a night’s rest did a world of good. It felt so much better the next day. And the day after that.

    This happened on Wednesday. When I went to bed that night, I couldn’t even curl my hand into a fist without pain shooting up my arm. Now I have most of my mobility back with only a little pain.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to resume heavy yardwork anytime soon. This still needs time to heal. But at least it’s not going to affect my ability to do my job.

    In other news, my very first FORA client is now on the first full day of her trip to the UK that I booked for her and her husband. They check in today for their Trafalgar tour. They arrived in London yesterday morning so they could have a couple days of sightseeing on their own. Trafalgar will take them on a brief tour of London tomorrow, and they will move on to other parts of England on Monday. The tour includes Edinburgh as well, including the famous Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

    I’m very excited for them and not at all jealous.

  • Brighter days

    Brighter days

    I started my new job a week ago, and I’m still settling in. It helps that I freelanced for the company for four months — I think I will settle in faster. But I am on a new schedule now, too, which is a big adjustment.

    So far, so good, though. This new role really plays to my strengths. I love it, and everyone I’ve “met” (remotely, of course) has been so incredibly nice and welcoming. We’re all getting together in Baltimore next month, so I’ll actually meet everyone in person then.

    Anyway, farm updates…

    I spent Sunday morning cutting down the ugly shrub in front of our house. It was dying anyway — a complete eyesore. I used my brand new Black+Decker Alligator Loppers, which worked great until the chain came off on one of the thicker branches. LOL. I need to fix it. Thankfully, I found some YouTube videos showing me how to do that because I learn much better from visual demonstrations than written instructions. I plan to use it a lot. Once I fix it, of course.

    Hubs got out the chainsaw to take care of the trunk, which he cut to ground level.

    Before
    After

    You’ll see a lot of ground elder and various weeds in these photos. My next task is to clear all of that and put down mulch. We still have that pile of wood chips from all the tree cutting a few weeks back.

    This will greatly improve the curb appeal of the house.

    In other news, apple harvesting has started. I have two trees bursting with apples of unknown variety. They are small, pockmarked, and often misshapen. But I think these are cooking apples, so they will work fine for applesauce. I picked the first two yesterday. I was checking on them and they pretty much came off the tree right into my hand when I touched them. The other apples weren’t quite ready yet.

    I cut one up and tasted it and it’s neither sweet nor tart. It really doesn’t have much flavor at all, which is why I suspect these are cooking apples. I have a recipe for freezer applesauce — I don’t have the time or patience for canning this year — and maple syrup is an optional ingredient as a sweetener. I’ll give it a go.

    The blackberries are coming in, too. Though I don’t think I’ll get as much of a yield as I did last year. I severely cut back the blackberry bush last fall and it’s not as full or tall as it was last year. It’s fine, though. We have wild blackberry vines sprouting up everywhere, and I need to get them under control.

    We decided to put the new barn on hold until next spring. Now that I am working full-time again, we want to take some time to save up some more money first so we don’t have to get as much financing to pay for it. But at least the tree work is done. The stump grinding took place on Monday.

    Our neighbor has told me of strange cat sightings in our yard. The only cat I have seen is hers. They have a barn cat, Momo, who hunts in our yard. I was out front last week doing some work, and a strange cat jumped up on our front porch demanding belly rubs.

    I am allergic to cats, but I obliged. Stranger kitty moved on after a few minutes and hasn’t been seen since. I sent this photo to my neighbor, and she doesn’t think it’s the same cat she’s been seeing in our backyard. I have yet to see that cat.

    To close, I’ll share some random photos I’ve taken recently.

    Laden with apples
    Rare monarch sighting
    Blitz enjoying a stick

    Hope all is well in your little corner of the planet. Thanks for reading.

  • Closing Up Shop

    Closing Up Shop

    When I embarked on my freelance journey last year, I didn’t know what was in store. The market is flooded with freelancers — then ChatGPT (and its ilk) came along, further complicating matters. I’ve been reading the stories about freelancers losing lucrative contracts because their clients switched to ChatGPT.

    Then there is the matter of my travel advisor gig. And the time I spend working on the farm.

    I felt like I was being pulled in different directions. I never felt like I was doing enough to grow my business as a freelancer — but at the same time, I felt exhausted and overwhelmed from doing too much in general. When you freelance, there is this expectation that you need to constantly post content (preferably on LinkedIn), research prospects and do cold outreach, network constantly, read EVERYTHING you can get your hands on, upskill through courses and workshops, etc. etc. etc. I couldn’t keep up with it all. There are only 24 hours in a day, and I have a life. (And I also like to sleep!)

    Then we got the estimate for the new barn. And it really opened my eyes. We shelved a lot of projects when I left my full-time job last year. And we have been fine on my husband’s salary and our savings. But now we have a very real need to get some projects done to make this property what we want it and need it to be. And frankly, I was feeling more frustrated and stressed out trying to grow my freelance business than I felt as a full-time employee. During vacation, I did some soul searching and concluded that it was time to return to full-time work.

    Lucky for me, one of my freelance clients was creating a new full-time position that seemed tailor made for my skills and experience. I was offered the job, and I accepted. I start next Wednesday as a full-time content marketing associate.

    I’ve freelanced for this company for four months. I love the work, the people, and the company. This feels like such a great fit, and it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.

    Words in Bloom will remain — as the name of this blog. I’m closing the door on Words in Bloom as a business. I thought I’d have mixed feelings about it, but I really don’t. I’m excited about what the future will bring, especially since I’m stepping into a brand new role and can really make it my own.

    This will also free us up to get some work done around here. I’ll gladly give up some of the hours I spend out in the yard if it means we can now afford to hire help to do some of this stuff.