Back yard harvest and making lemonade

The blueberries have really come in, and they are lovely. So plump and juicy. I have some cherry tomatoes too which no one will eat but me. That's ok, I'll enjoy them.

Unity made some lemonade herself. She gets these ideas and then really wants to do it all right away. This time, it worked out. 

We went camping this past weekend with some friends. I didn't take my camera but we had a great time hiking and cooking over the fire and just being out in the trees. Maybe next time I'll remember to take some pictures. 

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

The bags are unpacked, the to-do list has been pulled out and the toys are all over the floor again. Yep, we are back from our fantastic trip to Chicago. And all of a sudden, summer is down to a few last threads unspooling across the floor. 

I have to remember how to make dinner again, and pull out my meal plans and my trusty workhorses. I use other cookbooks but I always come back to these. And the coffee. Nothing happens without that. 

                   

Yesterday I was at Target getting school supplies and a mom walked up and dropped a box of tissues in my cart. Her kids were laughing but really,we are all walking around with carts full of the exact same items. Totally understandable. 

We got a couple more of these too. Unity has been wearing all her party dresses, trying to squeeze in these last days of fancy. 

When I went to check out the garden for the first time in two weeks I found this: 

                                   
 It's the very first pear from Brixton's tree, the one we planted when he was born.His tree is old enough to bear fruit. I'm in awe.

Almost time for kraut.

My friend Alisa gave me a few bean seeds from her garden this spring. I planted them, not really knowing what to expect. Only one came up which is probably good, consider what this one has done.

This is the ants at the picnic dress that Chris and Unity made earlier in the year. It's a bit too big but that just means she can wear it longer, right? 

Garden Update

The garden is coming along. Unity is in a garden camp this week and has been learning all kinds of fun things about medicinal plants. She came home telling me about putting lavender on sprains and making tea out of lemon balm. 

                                              These are Unity's peas. She is proud of how they are doing.

                         

Our spinach is going crazy. Lots of saag paneer in our house these days.

                                              And the cabbage too.

My friend Alisa gave me four bean seeds. This is the only one that took. 

                                       The potatoes are volunteers from our big year o' potato, 2010.
                                     The broccoli is hanging in there despite the onslaught of slug attacks.

                                    Picking berries, always a favorite.

                                       
                                       Just a couple cherries. They are hard, since their window of time for
                               pollination is so short.

                                   
                                     Blueberries are almost ready...

Raspberries are starting. 

What's Goin' On...

We got derailed by a quick little bug over the weekend. It wasn't too bad, but it did cancel Chris and my plans to see 12th Night in the park. I'm hoping to still catch it later on.

                               In the summer, we become fruititarians. I'm ok with that. It's such a short time that we can drench ourselves in blueberries, rasberries, cherries. We eat them in sticky handfuls. A lucky few get put up in the freezer for later jam making. Mostly we just eat them and are delighted.

                                  I know my pictures are sometime a little unbalanced and Brixton gets more screen time. It's too bad I can't follow Unity to school and take pictures of all the interesting works she does and all her wild and tumultuous friendships. Ok no because that would be creepy but still.

                              Yesterday he spent the morning hammering, and then starting cuddling with a shirt of Unity's. The shirt became "baby Walker", don't ask me how. It's funny because Walker is actually a family name on my mom's side but he wouldn't know that. So for the rest of the day we changed baby Walker's diaper and played with him, and rocked him when he cried. I love this hammering cuddling little one.

And the big ones too of course.

   

Fruit

It's creeping up on us. Summer. The Farmer's Market brings us clues, relics from lands where it's hot now.

                                            It's actually been nice here, for Junuary. I'm not complaining.
                                           I am not a 100-degrees kind of lady.

                                       Right now we are just pitting and top-cropping and then freezing
                                  the fruit. Jam is coming but we've been busy lately. And there's the lure
                                  of the BBC dramas.

                                   The top two photos are fruit we bought at the market, but that bottom one?
                                 Those are all ours baby. Home grown. and just the start of our little backyard
                                 fruit harvest.