The reward for making jelly is what's left after you fill the jars... you just put it in a little bowl, make some quick biscuits and eat it up... I mean, you don't want to waste anything, right? 
then you pick you a bunch of them... I picked over twice what you need for a batch of jelly... you don't actually need many, about a quart, but I always make extra juice... you can freeze it in 2 1/2 cup bricks to make a batch later.
The color of the inside of the fruit is so amazing... it always surprises me, even though I've cut hundreds of these things open in my life, that magenta is always a shock...
halved, covered in water, they'll be brought to a boil then cooked till tender. This is absolutely necessary to extract all the flavor and goodness...
And now, the fruit is in a jelly bag, dripping juice into a bowl... which I would have took a pic of, but quite frankly, it ain't interesting...
As my regulars here know, my Mother passed away recently. I'm actually dealing with it well, but Thanksgiving was a bit of a downer... all my normal holiday rituals and routines just went out the door.
I was lucky in that my 'adopted' family made sure I didn't spend it alone. I had my turkey day with Robert & Grace, their three grown daughters - who grew up calling me uncle and my mother 'Grandma,' - their husbands and a whole passel of kids...
I took a batch of pumpkin - cranberry muffins with me.
Of course they told me I didn't have to bring anything because they were raised right.
And, of course, I had to bring something because I was raised right.
It's one of those Southern catch-22's. We don't worry about it, we just live with it...
Anyway, it's one of my uber-simple recipes... take a can of pumpkin, a yellow cake mix and a bag of dried cranberries. Mix them together... sprinkle in some cinnamon, bake them in lined cup cake tins at 400 for 18 to 20 minutes.
Surprisingly good....
It occurs to me that I'm going to have to construct my own traditions now.
I think making this jelly, which Mom and I used to make together, will probably become a part of it...
To be blunt, there's no huge rush. The fruit will actually hold on the plants through most of the winter, and they don't all ripen at once...
The fruit below illustrates various stages. The tuna on the bottom, where the bloom scar or 'eye' has turned purple, is completely ripe. Above it is a fruit that's just turning color, and at the top is one that is ripe and usable, but the green-brown eye says that in a week or two more it will build up natural sugars and juice. Right now, it would be a little bit insipid.
Luckily, we'll have a few more days of warm sun yet... we don't usually get our first freeze until January, and, if I can talk myself into it, I'll have plenty of little jars of jelly to put into homemade fruit baskets for Christmas.
The agave is doing what agave does... more or less just sitting there looking threatening. 
The yucca however has decided to grace us with a candelabra...
and the geraniums, after the summer heat, have revived and are blooming well... usually, we just let these die in the winter frost, but this year, I'm going to see if there's room in the cold frame for them. 
The episcia did good... this is 6 months later. It hasn't bloomed yet. Primarily because it's in a window with an exterior sun screen... Which I hate. But, in this part of the world, they seriously cut down on air conditioning bills. Which I like. It is growing dark green leaves and pink veins. The person who gave me the origional cutting said that it had red flowers... which is hardly surprising as most flame violets do... although there are pink, yellow and orangish varieties out there....
I may, some time in very early spring, take some cuttings of my own to root and sell for a couple of bucks each at the flea market. We'll see. As dramatically pretty as the plant is, it doesn't really suit me. 
Little Lounge Lizard Bob is about 10 years old, and I made him as a good luck charm for a friend of mine who was opening a bar. It was a rousing success... He has now opened a new bar, and I was amazed to see that Bob had followed him... if you're ever in Dallas, check out the Tradewinds Social Club in Oakcliff, and make sure you say hello to the wooden guy waving to you from the ceiling over the bar... 
The Blue Girl Rose is blooming in the yard... this is the bush that sombody gave to my mother, and ended up in my front yard. I posted about it before but nothing too important...
But here's what's been happening... Last week, I drove all day on a rather slow Monday. Then I got an order to pick up on Tuesday and drive all the way to Austin... aproximately 200 miles. Good $$$, so 7 am Tuesday, I'm picking it up and gone, back in DFW about 3:30... (and I suppose I should mention, it rained each and every inch of the way... not a nice polite rain either... we're talking a no visibility near biblical deluge type of rain) and then straight home... (this is why couriers charge so much for longer trips... one is all they can do per day as opposed to 7 to 12 smaller ones...)
So they send me the order. Turns out it's a round trip... extra $$$, but now I have to deliver the machine part to the factory, pick up the bad one for repair, and be back in Dallas before 5 AM. No R&R, no fun, no sleep. That's just annoying.
so, I get back into Dallas about 4 am, get the part where it's going, and I miss the next days work entirely. I'd driven more than 20 hours, the only thing getting delivered was my butt into a bed. And BTW... this is my birthday. Weee Haw.
Drove Friday. All day. Till far too late... 
