Nov. 6, 2012 Finally, it's election night.

CBC radio has been bombarded this week by complaints, tweeted, e-mailed and phoned in about stores and advertisers pushing Christmas sales before the candles have been blown out in the Halloween Pumpkins.  One retailer was persuaded to turn off the carols until mid November.  I haven’t been too aware of it in Vernon, but I did see candy canes for sale at the corner store when I bought the ‘Globe’ on Sat.  I actually appreciated the nudge because I was putting off the annual baking of fruitcake and that finally made me accept the inevitable.  After an idle hour or so with coffee and the ‘Globe’ at The Bean Scene, I walked home, got into the car and drove to the Bulk Barn to buy the nuts and fruits for it.  I always take the Joy of Cooking that my mother gave me at my wedding shower when I go to buy the ingredients.  The woman at the cash saw it in all its stained and duct tapped glory and commented.  It turned out that I got it the year she was born.  Yikes!  And I’ve been making this dark fruit cake since about ten years after I got the book.  You’d think I’d have memorized the quantities, but I haven’t.  I alter them a bit each year and really have only to remember that I need one pound of nuts and seven of fruit, 15 eggs and a pound of butter.  Next year I won’t take it.  It’s too old to leave the house, and if I don’t remember what I need to make a cake that I’ve been baking for about 25 years, I’m too old to leave home too.

The other excitement last week was picking walnuts at Bert and Peggie’s.  I went on Friday afternoon and picked a big white pail full.  It was a warm day, and I enjoyed it as usual.  Bert picked the last of his beets, potatoes, and carrots and gave me a bag full, so it was a day of harvesting.  Jules and Carol and Peggie’s mom joined us for dinner.  The nuts are spread out on newspaper on the basement floor, drying.  I also brought home a small bag of the mushy dark coating that covers the nuts and that we try to get off before putting them in the pail.  I had heard that the dye in them is a wonderful stain for the kind of wood floors I have.  It’s true.  After being moved into and out of by 3 groups of people the wood floors in the house had some chips and scratches on them.  I have now rubbed these with walnut mush, and they are no longer visible.  Writing of floors reminds me that the back yard looks the best that it has all year, covered in a golden carpet of freshly fallen leaves.  

I will be in the library tutoring my Korean students from 4 to about 8 this afternoon and then home to turn on the tv and find out who won the US election.  I hope that there are no big problems, that we are finally liberated from the endless exposure to ads., anger and outright lies and that Obama wins.  Dick and Ellen have been on my mind lately because I thought they might be in the Chicago area prior to leaving for Mexico on the first of November.  I wondered if the winds from Hurricane Sandy would have altered their flight plans, but when I went on the blog this afternoon I saw that it had been picked up in Mexico this week, so I guess they made it there safely and will be watching the election results tonight from wonderful, warm PV.  Adios amigos. 

Yesterday's bike ride to Lavington

An Oregon Grape bedecked with maple leaves