Preserve the bounty

Are you reaping the bounty?  Are you the proud owner of a sweet cherry tree?  Do you live near an orchard so you can go pick your own by the buckets full?  We do.  Live near an orchard, that is.  And last week when the girls were here we went picking and came home with buckets full.  It's really hard when you're in the element - trees, fat dark sweet cherries, birds, little girls - to stop picking and so you get a little carried away.  But then the girls went home and Patient Husband and I were left with our bucket full.  We ate and ate and then I went shopping on Pinterest for some ideas.  I found a couple that looked promising and this one at foodepix for a sweet cherry sauce seemed right.  I even happened to have all the ingredients on hand, including enough sweet cherries. 

So, this morning we went from this.....

 to this....and yes, I pitted them by hand, slicing them in half and scooping out the seeds.  It turned my fingers yucky but I wanted that half cherry look.

 It's a really simple recipe, and this was the gorgeous finished product.  It's really easy, the pitting is the most time consuming.

It's absolutely luscious.  I got two nice good pints and after it cooled in the jars I put it in the freezer.  If you're preserving, you need to preserve till January when a sweet cherry will taste even sweeter.  Truly, go visit the site:  foodepix and preserve some Sweet Cherry Sauce.

4th of July

How was your 4th of July holiday?  We had a few members of the family here for a cookout and then in the evening some fireworks for the kids.

 Elizabeth started out a bit apprehensive of her sparklers ......

 Not too sure what was going to happen with them......

 But she came into her element and by the time she went to bed she had had the most fun night of her life.  We had big sparklers.  She choreographed the fireworks show, handed out treats for us spectators,  she organized and led a parade of five people, waving flags and singing 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' as we marched in the street.  She was in charge of the party, she was up waaayyyy past bedtime, she had all the adults doing what she wanted...what more could a six year old ask?

 Adelaide was not feeling well all day, she ran a fever and had a bad headache and spent the day sleeping or being held.  Poor baby, she didn't want anything to do with sparkly things.

 But by this morning she was about 90% and was climbing ladders at the cherry orchard picking fruit.

We picked and picked and picked wonderful sweet cherries.  Then came home and ate and ate and ate wonderful sweet cherries.

The urge to purge

 I have the urge to purge.  And I always say, strike while THAT iron is hot, you never know when you'll be in that mood again.  Well, since I've been retired a whole month, I've been trying to attack a few closets and drawers and cupboards.  One of the projects is my scrap drawer. Over time I had saved anything that looked like a bitsy could be cut out of it again.  And to give credit, sometimes I DID rummage through and found something I could use.  But holy cow,  I've had it.  
SO  I took all of the bags (don't you love those zippered bags sheets and pillowcases and tablecloths come in?  Great for scrap sorting.)  that one day last winter I had presorted by color, took the batting that I had cut into squares, thanks to a blog tip, and started sewing strips on.  At first I tried to be coordinated about it but after awhile I just dipped my hand into the pile and sewed on anything that fit. 

At this count, I now have 45 of these 6 inch squares and ten 9 inch squares.  And two good ideas how to use them. 

Those two good ideas work in my dreams but I haven't tried anything yet for real.  No time.  You can't believe the mess I was in the middle of, but had to put it away for a few days due to the 4th of July holiday.  One of my ideas is to just attach them to each other and back them.  Maybe cut them diagonally and reattach yet again?  Another idea is going to take some thinking but if it works, it's going to be great.  Who knows....these are all scraps and I can do whatever I want.  If anything at all works it's a bonus.  AND I'll have gained a drawer!  I can go shopping!!

Summer in the country

Yesterday I went looking for some cherries because I wanted to make cherry chocolate chunk ice cream.  I have a policy of picking my own fruit.  We live between two and six miles of any summer fruit you could want so I take advantage of this luxury and only eat the fruit  I picked  myself.   There are a couple of reasons, really.   When we were kids we 'learned' to pick and went out a lot with mom as a summer-something-to-do thing.  But I learned to love everything about the experience.  It's quiet.  It's beautiful.  It's peace filled.  It's delicious.  It's cheaper.  It's just too easy to NOT do it.
So, living in the midst of orchards and pick-your-own farms, I pick.  It's what summer is for me.

 I couldn't help but notice as I went down the road just how many fruit/veggie stands there really are!

 You can't go a country mile without finding yet another place letting you know there's something fresh and good on a makeshift table waiting for someone's dinner....or dessert.

 There is just so much to choose from!

 For a city girl the eggs are really the fun part. 

Oh, and just leave your coins in the jar, thank you very much.

And, yes, I did get the cherries.  The place was absolutely packed with people.  So I got just what I needed and knew when I needed more I could just wander back and pick a couple more pounds.  Now, on to that ice cream!

Decompressing

 WE'VE

 BEEN

 BUSY!!!!

 

The girls were here for a four day stay without mommy and daddy and we were quite literally running the whole time.  We went to the city beach a couple of times, to our beach once,  to the ice cream parlor twice, shopping,  had hair cuts, took walks around the neighborhood, visited neighbors as we walked,  picked flowers, played in the wading pool,  made string art and stick art and made brownies,  and ate more Oreos than we're going to tell mommy about,  and read books and books and books and by Monday even they were tired.

To decompress after they left Monday night, and after every nerve ending in my body stopped screaming from fatigue, I picked up a block I'm doing for our exchange at October's retreat.  This is a work in progress and I'm truly making it up as I go along but I felt like I had to show something creative! Something slow and methodical.  Something!   

A week's worth

I went to the farmer's market this morning.  I didn't buy many veggies, the other things were far more interesting!  There was a man milling oatmeal right there for you, freshly milled into your own bag.  Now, I'm not real good at eating what I SHOULD, but I'm really great at eating what I WANT, so if I'm going to have oatmeal, it's going to have to be in the form of a cookie.

 

I follow a standard oatmeal cookie recipe but add chocolate chips and nuts - today that meant pecans, and coconut.  You don't taste the coconut but it gives a nice body to the cookie.  No raisins.  Just the good stuff.  Now, I could sit here all afternoon eating these so I'll share with a couple of neighbors.

 

 

 It's been a month since I've done anything with fabric, but last night I sat down with the 12.5 inch square project for our retreat in October.    I'm working on this applique.....

 thinking of how to fussy cut this one......

 and wondering what to do with these.....

 I've joined with a penpal friend in Germany and we've formed a round robin of her friends and mine.  There are eight of us that will share in this and we're all very excited.  I'm auditioning the fabric for my center.  We'll each do a center of 12 to 14 (or so) inches and we will mail them out in January along with a journal we will keep for each other.   Elke and I will be the mailers.  I will send them all to her and vice versa.   Then, we'll form two groups of four and take one year to add borders.   We're loose, we want to be creative but will have at least two borders assigned.   I'm excited!   I have the pattern I want to do but I believe I might be breaking some sort of copyright if I took a photo and sent it this way.  Once I get working on it I'll be safer.

 The girls came this week for their first overnight of the summer and that had to include strawberry picking. They love it, even if Adelaide doesn't eat them, she likes to pick them.

Everyone got in on the act, including Adelaide's BunBun.  Notice the Band-Aid on his paw. 

 

It was a great day, but unfortunately, our power was knocked out during a storm the night before, so after picking they continued on home.  When we lose our power we lose everything.  Water, lights, toilet, fridge, stove, the works.  I went back home and packed a bag to follow them to their house for the duration.  Lucky for the food in my fridge, power was back on by 7 p.m. and I could return home.

 

Strawberry Fields Forever

 This is what brings a smile to my face.  The first day of strawberry picking. The first fruit of summer. The first warm nice day outing that gives us such a big reward for such little effort. The first bite into a real strawberry, a berry that juices down your chin, a berry that you can smell, a berry that hasn't travelled thousands of miles is like nothing else.

 Patient Husband and I picked on Saturday morning, just enough for a pie for that night.  We went back Sunday for enough for another pie, some freezer jam (which I haven't made in maybe 10 years) and some strawberry ice cream.  

I say this pie is the reason God made strawberries.  

It's been weeks since I picked up a piece of needlework.  I'm very jealous of the beautiful things I'm seeing in blogland but I just haven't had the chance to get to it.  In a few more days.....