Catching up on things

It's been a busy time here for the past few days.

We picked up a great deal at the grocery store and bought 5 pounds of blueberries.

Now I like blueberries in my cereal and my muffins and my pancakes, but 5 pounds is A LOT of blueberries






So, out came the jars and the sugar and the Certo

(I know, there is some sort of fruit mojo that has us working over a hot stove when it's 95 degrees outside!!)

Here then, the results of our labors

beautiful, sweet, yummy jam

(too bad we can't trap the warmth for releasing in the middle of winter when I'll be spreading some of this on toast!)

On Friday I went off to my quilting group and spent the entire morning with the ladies. This group is rather like the old quilting bee -- except that each of us has our own little projects we're working on.

We each have a table to work on that is big enough for a sewing machine (there were several of those running) or to put a cutting mat on (some of that happening) or to spread out a quilt to mark and quilt on (my choice for this time)

While we are a very diverse group by age and background, there is a genuine sense of caring about one another's problems and concerns that is quite refreshing

While there I got a lot of quilting done on the baby quilt, and I'm already looking forward to next month's meeting.



This piece of equipment has arrived in the lot behind us.

Guess this means that we have dust and noise to look forward to this week

The construction company left a notice on our door asking for our patience with their work and telling us that the retirement living center they are building is scheduled to open in Fall of 2009.

Nice to have a time frame!


After several good soakings and an application of fertilizer the green beans seem to be taking off

there are still a few scrawny stragglers, but they look a lot better

The little anaheim chilis are getting bigger

and we have the first crooknecks -- two little babies (and LOTS of other blooms)











the pumpkin is putting out lots of male blooms and starting to crawl across the back of the garden behind the bean patch

this is a good thing -- I really don't want the pumpkins to set too soon as they make for better eating if they ripen when its cooler

and we have tomatoes!

probably about a dozen of various sizes

lookin' good

My daughter, my sister and I converged on my mother's house yesterday morning for a "let's defrost grandma's freezer" party

The upright freezer needs this every now and then, so we went armed with a hair dryer, a case knife, an assortment of odd plastic buckets and a pile of towels.

Its been about 20 years since I had to do this project this way (I have a friend whose upright freezer is at the street end of her garage, and when we defrosted it we just emptied it and brought in the garden hose!)

Anyway, its all done now, so she's set for another couple of years.



My daughter decided that we needed refreshments for this chore and brought along a great summer time desert.

We ate about half of it and left the rest for my folks.

(I have posted the recipe on Hatties Kitchen if you want to give it a try)

When all 4 of us women are together there is always the general exchanging of items ("look, I got this recipe"; "here's your jar/pan/bowl that you brought jam/pie/salad in to the last gathering"; "I cut this coupon/article/picture out for you"; etc., etc.)

This trip my sister totally stunned me by handing me the item in this picture

this is a roll of fabrics that includes every color that was available at the time of its purchase of that wonderful marbly looking fabric that I absolutely LOVE to work with when I'm doing appliqued quilts

She knew about the bird quilt we've been designing and offered these up for me to use parts of

It never fails to amaze (and humble) me that she is so generous with materials that help me make my various projects

It brings to mind a lyric from The Sound of Music -- "somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good"

Thank you sis!

And under the catagory of "Mom is a Geek"

my daughter brought me the software and the cable for the MP3 player she had given me so I can add more music (probably off of CDs she's made me!)

I'll be tackling this project a bit later in the week.

Well, that about wraps it up -- guess its time to go do something