It's been a busy weekend! Yesterday we had Hair Day. Charles made beef chili and the Butlers chicken chili, we brought rice, there was the usual wonderful relish tray, and David, although not there, contributed cornbread. Juanita came with Jessie; the poor kid looks so pale. She has had to have more transfusions, and they are still doing tests to find out where she losing blood internally. They think she may have a bleeding ulcer, but it's in a place that's inaccessible by normal tests.

While the morning was fine, we spent the afternoon playing grocery store hopscotch, which I hate. We stopped on the Macland Road Publix to do our BOGO shopping since it was on the way home, only to discover they were out of the item we needed the most. We got the rest of the things, then angled our way through surface streets to the Smyrna Publix to pick up that needed item, and got a few extra BOGO items as well. But milk was too expensive there and we needed bulk unsweetened applesauce, so we tried going to Costco. Stupid idea; you can't get a parking space on Saturday afternoon. So back we went to Kroger for the milk and a smaller container of applesauce, plus I grabbed ramen noodles. And only then could we go home.

Spent the evening watching Father Brown and Britcoms, but went to bed early because we needed to be up this morning at 6:45! A little breakfast, a little dog walking, and then we drove off to Ellijay listening to an episode of "A Way With Words." We also wrapped up well: when I walked Tucker it was quite chilly, since it had gone down to the 40s during the night, and, at least early this morning, there was a good breeze coming out of the north. I wore a flannel shirt outside with my "kimono" wrap over it, and that wasn't good enough, so I decanted the lighter jackets from storage at the back of our closet.

We got to the Lions Club fairgrounds a little after nine and got a nice parking space right at the end of a row. It rained more up in Ellijay yesterday than it did here, and we were afraid of sodden paths, but there was only a small patch of mud churned up and they'd blocked that off. By then we had to don hats and gloves for a while, and the first thing we bought was some hot chocolate, which warmed us nicely. The sky was completely clear and a gorgeous, deep royal blue, the air crisp and clean, one of those days when you're glad to be alive.

We were there about three hours, having a nice leisurely prowl among the booths. We bought some teriyaki rub, a new hot pad for the kitchen (I doused one in chicken soup two years ago and had to throw it away; they had no fall patterns last year or this year, so I just bought one with apples this year instead), some homemade cheeses, and six pieces of fudge. I was tempted by the ceramic Christmas trees again, but I have no available surfaces and even less cash. They always remind me of my godmother.

By the time lunchtime rolled around, it was warmer and we were hungry. I was interested in the Greek booth's kabobs, but they'd run out of steak, so we had chicken instead. This was a ton of chicken. There must have been a pound of it on each kabob, and it was very moist and flavorful, seasoned well. I got some of the tzatziki sauce (cucumber and yogurt and herbs) on the side and dipped the chunks of chicken in it; it gave the chicken a nice sweetish taste to go along with the savory. James sat in his chair and I perched on a plastic-covered hay bale and we had a good time eating among the other fairgoers.

On the way home we stopped at Panorama Orchards. I realized with horror a few months ago that we were out of the blackberry spread we always buy there; this is my "jelly" of choice for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It's just simply blackberry puree with a little apple juice and pectin, no added sugar, just a deep, deep fruit flavor, simply scrumptious—I think this is what the angels eat for breakfast in heaven. (I tried buying some Polaner "all fruit" blackberry to tide me over; it was dreadful, sickly sweet and too many other juices mixed in so there was no real blackberry taste at all.) So when we got there I scooped up three jars (the jars are smaller now), and James got a jar of the blueberry, which is also richly flavored. We also got more pot pie noodles, some of the goat's-milk hand lotion that I like, sugarless taffy for James, peanut brittle as a treat, and a big peck of Granny Smith apples, one of which we munched on the way home. We also stopped at Costco for gasoline for the truck.

All that fresh air wore me out; I fell asleep on the sofa after we put up all the food!

Alas, we thought we found a forgotten container of turkey soup in the freezer, but instead it was some really old chicken cacciatore legs. James warmed them up with a side of ramen noodles, but they were pretty bad. James ate both of his, but I couldn't finish mine. Anyway, they're out of the freezer, so we have room for fresher chicken (or more turkey soup).

Finished the evening with The Durrells in Corfu and Alaska: the Last Frontier.

Labels: autumn, events, food, friends, shopping, television, weather

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