Snotty Hands and Cat Hair

This book is hilarious. I found it at the library and have been thoroughly enjoying it. One of the sweet ideas I learned from it was a trick the author's father used on apples. Each year when baby apples first started to appear on the trees, he would take clear plastic tubing or bags and cut them to fit about 3" diameters around the apples stapling them near the stem. The other end was left open to allow air and growth. This trick prevented the negative effects of the apple-maggot fly. One year he used clear plastic grocery bags with labels and realized at harvest time that the labels had transferred to the apples due to lack of sun in those areas. Their family then began personalizing apples by writing names and notes on the plastic before wrapping the apples each year. How awesome would it be to make striped, checkered, or polka-dotted apples? The ideas are endless!

In my continued quest for fall weather, a trip to the nursery to purchase pumpkin plants seemed like the perfect idea to begin setting the mood. Isabel and I put on our shoes and walked to the fantastic local nursery down the street from our townhouse, which specializes in native Texas plants and has a friendly, somewhat intimidatingly intelligent staff. We returned from our voyage with 2 healthy pumpkin vines, 2 delicious smelling handmade bars of soap, 1 pot of beautiful yellow flowers, and 2 sticky little hands covered in stray nursery cat hair (snotty nose rubbing mixed with kitty petting are a less than pleasant combo for all parties involved). Now, we just need to plant our vines in a little sun with a dose of water and dream of jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie.