We got home late from the Black Sheep Gathering, and the next morning Jeff went out to water the garden and harvest lettuce. He said we had a lot of lettuce we needed to eat, and we’ve been enjoying fresh salads every day since. Besides picking berries in the garden to eat, Bracken has been making some creative berry art. I loved his berry creation so much from this last week, I had to share a picture. (He’s always coming up with interesting art forms, like paper birch art.) It helped that there was a combination of berries ripe all at once- blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and honeyberries. (That’s one honeyberry at the very top, we’ve harvested a small amount of those from the garden this year and we love them.)
Oh, and that wasn’t the first berry art around here. I took a picture of this one from a few weeks ago- with red huckleberries, salmonberries, strawberries, (and some frozen blueberries.) It has been a record year for red huckleberries around here, we’ve never seen anything like it.
I have a box of wooden toothpicks in the cupboard to use every time I bake something to check if it’s done. I thought that one box would last me forever because I’ve hardly made a dent in it (I need to do more baking), but it actually looks like I’ll need to get more toothpicks at the grocery store. I’m very happy to do that. A really great thing about berry art, by the way? After you enjoy it, you get to eat it!
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P.S. Sorry that I’ve been so absent here. I apologize to those of you who have visited this space, looking for a new post, and wondered where I went. Life has felt like it’s been happening at lightning speed for awhile. (Anyone else feel that way? Isn’t the summer schedule supposed to feel like everything is slowing down a bit?) As soon as we came back from the fiber festival, I thought I would finally get a chance to come here, and somehow the week has flown by. There has been catch up with orders, deadlines to make, and so much more. Life has been full and I have taken more pictures than I’ve had time to sort through. But I’m here now. And I’m happy to be here. In my ideal world, I’d come here to write all the time. (I’d also like to write more tonight, but sleep is important.) As it is, I’m along for this ride called life and as my grandma says “you’ve just got to roll with it.”
I’ve been worried about you because of the wild fires that have been covered on the news lately. They seem to be roaring up from California and since I remember all of you going to CA for markets this year, I sit here biting my fingernails and worrying like the little old lady that I am. I’ve followed you all since Bracken was a wee tot and feel that closeness of distant cousin or lifelong friend that has moved to the West Coast in Northern CA or Southern OR. My prayers are with you all. Be safe and know you are worried about way back in NY up on the Hudson River.
Patricia,
I’m so sorry you were worried about us! Thank you for thinking of us, we’re all safe. I hope you know that I feel truly honored that you have stuck around and read my blog for so many years! Please leave comments anytime you feel inspired to. 🙂
Great to have you back! The berry art and lettuce look delicious. I had hoped to grow lots of salad myself this summer but with all the storms earlier and now unusually hot, dry weather with water restrictions it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen! Hope you get a chance to slow down.
Thank you! 🙂 Sorry you didn’t get your lettuce, but hopefully something else thrived in the garden. Gardening is always a surprise, our zucchini is usually a reliable thing, but the starts looked terrible for awhile, we’re hoping they’ll snap out of it.