Thankful.

Thankful For:

Springs: and mossy fairy cities.

Underwater life: eyes exploring below.

Mountains: all around.

Minutiae: and it’s magnitude.

Energy: there is so much at 3 and 6.

Rainbow river rocks: everyday jewels.

 

Art.

As if you didn’t already know, or notice… art is everywhere.  Artisitc concepts surround us.

 Line.

Form.

Shape.

Value.

Space.

Color.

Texture.

  The garden is my palette.

This moment.

Joining Amanda at Soulemama today with:

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Please feel free to share your moment with us.

Dessert.

In the recent explorations of our generous friends garden, there was a certain corner of the garden that kept pulling us in.

Can you imagine why?

The first day we picked and ate and picked and ate.  No berries made it home with us.

The fourth day, we were barely able to save enough raspberries for one batch of freezer jam.

Oh,  how precious it is and how thankful we will be in January, nibbling warm toast and watching the snow fly.

The rest of the berries have been eaten on site or made into several delicious desserts.

 

Not only were our friends kind enough to share their bountiful raspberry crop with us, they also shared a delicious recipe with us a few years back.

Enjoy!

Swedish Cream and Berries

2 1/3 cups cream or half and half

1 cup sugar

1 envelope plain gelatin

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pint sour cream

Mix together cream, sugar and gelatin.  Heat until dissolved. Cool. Gently mix in sour cream and vanilla.  Pour into 8 x 8 baking dish.  Refrigerate.  Serve chilled with berries.

** Use whole milk and fat free sour cream to lighten this up a bit.  I have always wondered about using honey in place of the sugar, but haven’t tried it, yet. **

Virtues.

There are many virtues to be learned and mastered in a lifetime.  As I wander the garden, I see many metaphors.

Helpfulness.

Determination.

Compassion.

Independence.

 Enthusiasm.

 

 

Guests.

We’ve had the pleasure recently of watching over our friends garden.  Checking a few pots for water, but mostly wandering and enjoying.

The hardest part about spending time in their garden, was holding my children off from visiting and revisiting, several times a day.

This new garden space was liberating to my little ones.  They had fresh eyes for all the beauty and growth and snacks to be found.

But, of course, my excitement was also hard to contain!

 

Inside Surprise.

With all the bounty out of doors, this little surprise was nearly missed peeking from behind a tiny jungle.

Cherries.

The gorgeous cherry, adorned in pink, has exchanged those frills for ruby jewels.

More juicy, tart cherries than we can manage. We pick and pit and freeze and can and bake and pit some more. It feels like mostly pits, but the sweet-tart joy we reap is worth every stone (even when you get one in your cake). And there’s plenty leftover for the birds.

For others with tart cherries dripping from your trees, these are our new favorites:

Sour Cherry Preserves and a variation with a blender to make it into jam.

Moist Yogurt Cake with Tart Cherries with our variation of 1 tsp almond extract and 1 tsp vanilla.

A special juice recipe created by Weston: “extra hummingbird juice and cherry juice”, a tasty treat.