Dedication ..... and Mason Jars!

I don't know what it is about this time of year! Fall ... colors are changing. Gardens are starting to produce at a slower rate, at least here on the Western Slope of Colorado they are. I am not really finding my canning to be slowing down all that much, though. I still have apples and pears to look foreward to, and I am REALLY hoping the tomatoes keep changing from green to red as I have LOTS more plans were they are concerned.

Maybe it is the canning that makes me ponder my Grandma .... my Great Grandma ... My Aunt Alice .... these women who have been gone from my life for many ... many years. These women, and countless others who molded many memories for me. Women who did things in their time for granted that women in my time wouldn't think of doing.

This blog is dedicated to those matriarch's who left behind in their wakes the memories that are burned in our minds. Memories of apron clad women baking, canning, cooking meals that are still mouth watering just thinking about them. Looking at a black and white photo of Grandma so and so, but still being able to see it in color wth your minds eye. The smell of rose water, talcum powder ... and what woman in her 50's (like me) could forget the smell of a Tony Perm that Grandma was performing on you as a young child?

What do you remember about your Grandma? Your Great Grandma? An Aunt or Great Aunt? Maybe your memory is an elderly woman in your neighborhood or church? Maybe the Aunt Bea type of woman? Maybe she was alot rougher around the edges? What did she cook? What did she wear? What did her hands look like? Hands speak alot about a person, you know ..... Did she quilt? Did she knit or crochet? Did she do laundry every Monday no matter what and the ironing followed on Tuesday? Was it Meatloaf night every Thursday and Pot Roast on Sunday? Did her apple pie win the blue ribbon at the County Fair every year as well as the best of show on her quilt? What do you remember ......

I have a love for Mason jars ... their usefullness was bred into me by the woman who helped form me. Those women I knew, as well as the ones who came before them. My need to can is not for the same reasons my Great Grandmother did. I have two grocery stores within 5 minutes of my house. But how I love to can! The smells, the colors ... the taste. Not to mention knowing my daughter dables with canning (I suspect she'll do more of it as she gets older. 30 year olds are still in the mindset the grocery store in the convienent place to go). I like seeing the fanciful jars through my 5 year old Grand daughters eyes. Priceless ....

I leave you today with the extreme hope, wish and prayer, I have helped you to remember a woman or two in you life. If those thoughts down Memory Lane are worthy of passing on to the next generation, then do not hesitate to do so.