Reunion, Art Center, Ginny, and PEARS!

Taking a quick break from produce here to catch up with you. It has been a crazy week, and will only get crazier for awhile. To start with, last weekend I went to my 30th high school reunion (you do the math). I almost didn't go, but I am SO GLAD that I did. It was wonderful to see everyone. Its amazing how good we all look, and how well we get along now that high school is well past! The event itself was just a picnic, but it was held in the most gorgeous spot in the county, right next to the airport and the landfill.

Seriously, its beautiful up here. You can see across the entire county from the pavilion. I just forgot to turn around and take that picture, because I was too busy talking.

From there I hurried home to hang some recently finished quilts at the Leominster Art Center. Well technically, the man of the house did the hanging.

Here they are all together. The only one missing is the gear quilt, which is still fighting me.

This is a nice little space, sponsored by the city,  for local artist to show their work. There is an amazing variety of talent on display here.

And then yesterday, Ginny had a follow-up appointment with the new vet. Her weight is increasing nicely, and the vet wants to send the lump samples to a different pathologist. She thinks Ginny's initial cancer diagnosis may be wrong. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Ginny, meanwhile, is thinking she might like to trade her brown chair for our couch. 

 

Not so sure I like that idea.

In the garden, we are still getting all those blackberries, but now the pears have come ripe 2 weeks early.

Ignore the fact that they are in a litterbox. These boxes have been repurposed since Ginny developed a digging habit. Anyway, I have been doing lots of stuff with pears. Some have been frozen, some have been turned into pear butter.

Some have been dried.

Some have been made into cakes.

And of course there was a pear photoshoot.

This box of pears will be refilled at least twice this week. And my in-laws are arriving this afternoon for four days. And the blackberries are still getting ripe, and the green beans, and the zucchini. Oh, and its less than a week till we take First Daughter to Pittsburgh! Yikes! Send some sanity my way, OK?

Friday In The Garden

It has been a week since I have touched the computer. I am almost afraid to check my e-mail and reader! Second Daughter and I came back late Tuesday from visiting colleges in Maine (don't think she's any closer to narrowing that search down yet), and the rest of the week has been spent playing catch-up. The dental work seems to be helping Ginny, and she is slowly starting to eat again. She has even shown some interest in Weasley the past two days, which has made him happier.

As for the garden, this week has been mostly about the blackberries.

They look so innocent, don't they?

When we returned from our travels. we found that First Daughter had picked some, and made a very tasty pie. She is the pie lady in this house.

But there were more berries left, and in the next twenty four hours, we picked even more.

So I made some jam.

And then I made our favorite blackberry cheesecake, with blackberry sauce.

You can click this link for the Very Berry Cheesecake recipe. I use blackberry brandy instead of the cherry that is called for in the ingredients list. I also use lite vanilla wafers, lite cream cheese, and lite cottage cheese, and pretend that this makes it a healthy recipe!  By the way, this is one of those foods that is better the second day, if it lasts that long!

I also made a fruit salad with mostly blackberries, and froze three quarts of berries.This is our first year with a freezer, and I am very happy to not be canning quarts of blackberries this year!

Have a very happy weekend everybun, and I hope your gardens are also being fruitful. I promise to answer e-mail tomorrow, and start catching up with what everyone out there in blogland has been doing this week.

Another Late Friday In The Garden

Yesterday was crazy. Ginny had her dental work done, and came through it OK. She is eating some greens now, and I was told she has eaten some hay (haven't seen it myself). Unfortunately, this vet decided she couldn't do anything about the lump on her lip. She does, however, think that the Boston vet may be able to. First we have to fatten her back up, though (Ginny, not the vet).

Then I took First Daughter to her riding lesson, where this guy, named Dart, tried to eat my sketch book. It now has horse slobber on it. 

Then we went to Sturbridge Village to pick up a friend of First Daughter for a weekend visit, back home for a quick walk in the garden, off across town to pick up another friend arriving on a bus, home to feed them veggies from the farm that Second Daughter is working at, and watch some spectacular lightening. The lightening storm caused them to abandon plans for walking to the ice cream store, so I took them to the grocery to buy ice cream. I left them arguing about who could be Jo, Amy, Meg (but not Beth), and since they are not awake yet, I assume that went on for awhile. Today we will visit Orchard House, Home of Louisa May Alcott.

On that quick walk in the garden, I saw that the pears are getting bigger.

The blackberries are starting to need picking.

The Laura Phlox is in full bloom. Love that color!

And it is in front of the Rose Of Sharon that is starting to blossom. This is a white, double-flowered variety.

Around here we also call it the "Dirty Handkerchief Shrub", because on the second day those beautiful, white flowers look more like dirty, crumpled tissues! Very unfortunate, but the shrub is happy here, so it stays, at least for now.

Tomorrow I am off to Maine, with Second Daughter. We are spending several days visiting colleges. See you when we get back. Have a happy weekend, everybun!

Friday In The Garden

Things change so quickly in just one week in the garden. Today the blue babtisia is in full bloom.

But the Screaming Yellow babtisia is on its way out. Don't you love that name?

     

    

The catmint is also in full bloom, and being well used by the neighborhood cats.

In First Daughter's garden, the poppies are gorgeous.

And in Second Daughter's garden, the yarrow is making a big color splash.

The red-twig dogwoods are in full bloom, promising lots of berries for the birds.

The asparagus is winding down, but the strawberries are incredible.

The blackberries are starting to blossom, and will soon overwhelm us with berries. Luckily these are a thornless variety, or they would be too much to handle. It's called Triple Crown.

And the yucca from last week  is still heading skyward, but no blooming yet. Maybe next Friday.

Have a happy and safe weekend, everyone.

Creative Cue: Mother

This week's Creative Cue over at Three Creative Studios was Mother. Here is a sketch that I made of mine when she was down on Sandbridge Beach in Virginia in October of last year. I had tailed along on a vacation that she and my father, and another couple take each year.

I'm sure she will be thrilled to see this here, especially if I tell you that the rag in her pocket is covered with squid juice from cutting bait! This crew does love to fish.

I also made another stamp, more in the earth-mother vein. It still needs some work, but here it is as it stands now.

And on a silly note, some graffiti art by my Second Daughter. She "tagged" the thawing blackberries as she left the house this morning for a Marching Band event.

She was quite happy about it. The "tagging". and the band event, both.