turkey feathers

Cold Turkey, Soup & Sorbet

What a great weekend.  I don't know when I've had more fun shoveling dirt and sticking things in the ground.  The garden fortress is shaping up beautifully.  The Mister is nearly finished hooking up the auto-drip system that will keep everything watered, in case, I, um...forget. 

(He made great waffles too!)

We went out and bought the girls each a chopped whiskey barrel, and let them have their pick of flowers to plant in them.  (We'll also be planting things like squash and beans, but a little instant gratification was in order).  The results reflected their personalities to a T.  Grace chose soft pastels, wispy, ethereal, graceful. 

Ginger went for bright, colorful, cheerful, spicy.  I can't look at these without being reminded of their gifts and talents.  It wasn't all work though, we did manage to slip out for that big enchilada fix one night and also made the afore mentioned strawberry sorbet.   In the very near future, I see my crockpot of soup being nudged out of it's prominent space on the counter by the electric ice-cream maker.  yum.  (Tami reminded me that we need to make strawberry lemonade too.  Yes, we surely must!) 

I know I said (last week) that I was signing off for the summer, OK I'm going...I really-really am this time...she says with one foot in the door. (tee-hee) I'm just not (sniff) good with goodbyes (sob).  It's hard to stay on task when there are so many lovely distractions like craftyblogs and blog pals.   So hard to leave this groovy party.  I just have one more loose thread to tie up before I go though.  The summer book give-away.   My goodness, never knew there were so many of you lurking out there.  Much thanks to all the old pals and the new ones for piping up and brightening my morning!  The comments are officially closed now though, and all the names are being tossed into the super sonic spinning bonnet as we speak.  A winner will be announced at any moment.  Hang onto your hats.  Drum roll please.... (nothing like keeping you all in suspense is there?)  OK.  The Super Shuffler has spoken.  It appears that lucky number seven has been chosen!  Congratulations to lucky number seven!  If you are lucky number 7, please contact me with your shipping info and I'll pack off your prize pronto. 

Thank you ALL so much for the fond farewells.  It warms the cockles of me little heart, it truly does.  Perhaps I'll pop in "now and then" with a bit of news throughout the summer, as has been suggested instead of going cold turkey.  (ha!) And just in case you may be wondering who this is, let me introduce you to, Star.  Star has been Ginger's constant companion for five years straight now.  She showed up one Christmas morning and the two have since been inseparable.  Meaning: she has accompanied us on family vacations, doctor AND dental visits, restaurants, shopping, anywhere and everywhere a horse can sidle up.  (Some kids have cute little teddies or blankies they transport with them everywhere they go...Ginger has Star.) 

Who um, appears to be waving.

(OK, I can take a hint. )

Strawberry Fields Forever

I fully intended to post the last FAQ  for awhile, but that plan just sort of slipped away after I caught wind that the strawberry fields were open and berries were ripe for picking.   After hearing that, it didn't take long before the girls and I had jumped in the car and were heading south on the old highway with our large containers and straw hats in hand.  Between the three of us, we picked almost 8 pounds of berries in just under thirty minutes.  At a cost of about $5.  (Now I ask you, how much fun can you have for $5?)

My blog pal, Mrs. Staggs, was discussing how smells can transport us to another place and time and how she wished she could share the scent of her roses with her readers, and I have to say, I wish I could share the taste of these strawberries with mine.  I'm terribly sorry if the sight of these are making you drool into your keyboards.  If I could figure out how to create a virtual food to share via the blog, this would surely be it.  There's just nothing like the explosion of flavor from a strawberry (or anything else grown organically for that matter), that's picked fresh from the field.  I know this.  But for some reason it always surprises me and I have to exclaim it all over again.

It was nearly two years ago that I started keeping this blog, and I just realized that my very first blog post was about the process of making strawberry jam.  And making jam is what I intend to do again, just as soon as we finish gorging ourselves on these.   (There are usually several trips back to the farm to gather more berries, before we actually reach the jam making stage however.)  And as it turns out, the exceptional warm weather we're currently having will soon turn to June gloom by next week, with the possibility of rain, which will make boiling things so much more tolerable.  So the timing will be perfect.  I need to find and gather up all my empty jelly jars now and get them ready beforehand.  Buy new seals and cute labels.

But Ginger just reminded me, that first we need to make strawberry milkshakes, strawberry ice cream, strawberry gelato, strawberry sorbet, strawberry shortcake with whipped cream and strawberries dipped in chocolate.  Oh My.  All that?  Apparently, we must.  So I guess I'd better trot back to the kitchen and deal with these very important matters. 

Before I do that though, I have a book give-away.  Just finished reading this lovely story and would love to pass it on (within U. S. only) , so if you're interested, leave a comment and I'll choose someone at random to send it to. 

Updated 6/4 to add:  Comments are closed, thanks everyone, a winner will be announced soon!