Whirlwind Weekend

 

Happy Monday to you!  

I think Mondays might be my favorite day of the work week.  (OBVIOUSLY the weekends are my favorite of the WHOLE week.)  Mondays just hold so much...promise.

 

Sundays we are forgiven and we are renewed,  so when Monday rolls around it feels like a fresh start.  A new beginning.  A perfect opportunity to do better than last week.  And since we are rested (if we have used our Sabbath well!), it all seems POSSIBLE too.  It helps too, when Monday mornings are as beautiful as this one was.




This week will be my first big canning week of the year.  After a busy week of to-do lists last week and a few shin-digs over the weekend, the garden was a bit neglected.  And by "a bit", I mean sorely.

Andrew would come in with handfuls of stuff every day and I thought (foolishly) that the food he brought was all that was ready.  On Saturday morning, however, when I needed a few more cucumbers to make cucumber cup appetizers, I headed out to pluck some from the vines and discovered enormous zucchini, beans out the wa-zoo, and pickling cucumbers the size of a small VW Bug.  yikes. 
 

I have been using my Mom's hutch as a pretend Hoosier cabinet.  I've always wanted a Hoosier cabinet...they are so wonderful.  That and an old-fashioned wood cookstove.  Until the day I get them (if that day ever comes), I will pretend.  The hutch is loaded up with food that needs to be taken care of and I think it makes both the hutch and the food look prettier.  Like a painting.  Especially in the morning when the golden sun is streaming across the produce just so.



We went bonafide blueberry picking last week, at a bonafide blueberry patch.  All the local areas around us are $2.00-$3.00 a pound for u-pick but I found a place just a few minutes down the road, positively drooping with grape-like clusters of blueberries for .65 a pound.  THAT I can do.   (Until I get my own patch up and running.)  I wanted to make a few things for the parties and I still owed Matt a slice of his favorite pie ever.

We went and about an hour later had 16 pounds picked.  No complaining, no swimming bribes.  No holding wild and wandering 7-8 foot branches down for children to pluck from while holding plucking my own with my other hand.  No all-day affair.  It was positively PLEASANT.  I took a picture of the difference between wild huckleberries and blueberries to show you the difference. 
 

NOW I understand how people can pick so quickly at blueberry patches!  wow!  If the season lasts until the end of the week, I may just try and go once more.   Just because.  Come to think of it~ I haven't made blueberry lime jam in forever.

The parties were a success and I the fact that there were two in a row wasn't a big deal at all.  In fact, it was downright handy.  I was practically, almost RELAXED through it. ;-)

Oh, and  I *DID* take some pictures for you- I'll do the Library Ladies Brunch in the Garden party tomorrow.  But for now, I have tablecloths to get on the line, children to drop off for a creek-walk with their grandma and a monster bowl of green beans to contend with.