Pickles: CheckWeather: Check, we got itWine tasting: Planned

Six pints of bread-and-butter pickles in the jar, sealed and ready for storage. No need to use them right now for while the pickles and onions were soaking under ice and salt, Terry went out an picked four more cukes, two zukes and a passel of string beans. That will make another quart of the latter for the freezer.

As for the cukes (there will be more tomorrow) Terry has a refrigerated pickle recipe she wants to try out. We might need more pint jars before that can be attempted, however.

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Managed to slip up to 72 degrees today when there was a break in the clouds...for about 15 minutes. The rain, too, slackened off although radar showed it all around us. We must live on a magical mountain or something. Storm clouds frequently break up and veer to either side of us. Still, we should get some more rain over night. I don't expect the temperatures to fall much, either. The system is coming from the southwest which usually means slightly warmer air. They've even changed the temperature forecast for tomorrow. Now the high is supposed to reach 80 degrees under a mostly sunny sky. (Still below the average high for the date and far better than being in the 90s!)

Speak of the devil. Just as I'm getting ready to post, the rains returned.

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Time for a day-cation. There's no bird watching planned, so we're going to take the day off tomorrow, something easy to do when you're retired, and go wine tasting. The Finger Lakes of New York are surrounded by vineyards and we're going to sample some. I've had my eye on a few along Rt 14 between Watkins Glen and Geneva on the west side of Seneca Lake. Terry's visited some folks over by Keuka Lake and there are scores of wineries along the shores of Cayuga Lake between Ithaca and Seneca Falls. We'll probably stop at five or six, sample some wines, buy a few bottles and have lunch at one of the wineries that has a cafe or bistro.

Should be fun despite my having absolutely no idea what I'm doing at a wine tasting. I enjoyed our little sojourn into the Napa Valley a few years ago. I may have no nose and faltering taste buds but I do know what I like! Terry, on the other hand could tell you if some one dropped an errant clove in a vat of curry two miles away--against the wind. And if you want to protect your secret recipe? Do NOT let her have a taste! Even if you insist on Vicks Vaporub smeared under her nose she will chemically (or is that herbally?) analyze your dish with 99% certainty, recreate it accurately and then improve upon it! That probably explains why she likes the sweet wines and I like the "pucker your lips" dry wines.

Oh well, there's a hard cider mill up there and a meadry that just beckons every time I drive by. Tomorrow I won't be driving by.