Beets, Swank Bathrooms, Schnauzer Beefcake...

Because of the hot weather this July, we're only now getting harvest enough to can. Usually, we've got the fans going and the kettles boiling starting in mid-July. But this year, a good bit of the harvest happened just before our vacation (which had us scurrying to get everything put up so nothing spoiled the week we were away). Now, things are somewhat more leisurely. I say somewhat because now we're putting garden and bee hives to bed. Soon the first frosts will hit, and we need to be prepared.

Michael puts the beets in the boiling water canner.

Michael, filling jars with Oxblood red beets. And when we say
Oxblood, we mean, like red stuff everywhere.

See the red stuff? And not just in the bowl...it looked
like a crime scene around the sink, where we dumped the
water we boiled these babies in.

And for those that just didn't fit into the jars, they got a good whirring
in the food processor. Can you say, chocolate cake, boys and girls?
Yes, these will very likely end up in chocolate cake with peanut
butter frosting.

Okay, yesterday, I promised pictures of a Greenbrier bathroom, and I use the indefinite article "a" because I only thought to photograph one of them. There were more. Oh, there were many more. Some that had apparent flecks of gold in their granite countertops, bathrooms lit entirely by chandeliers, bathrooms with built in garbage cans and tissue boxes and little hand towels that didn't feel disposable (but were, thank goodness. I mean, ew?) Anyway, I promised and now I deliver:

Just one of the bathrooms at the Greenbrier in
White Sulphur Springs, WV....each doorway along
this hall leads to a small room with a vanity table
and toity. Each one has a door that closes. At the end of
this hallway is a conversation area (see the next pic!)

The conversation area at the end of the hallway above. I suppose this
is where all ladies go to powder their noses, although each bathroom "stall"
(cough) suite itself had a vanity table to powder ones appendages at.



Fred says that all this discussion of luxury is very
tiring. "A little grass, a little masonry work, or
the dust ruffle on Grandma's bed, and  you know, I
can work with that. Who wants to tinkle on marble?"