It’s the first day of school here in Seattle. You can’t tell from this photo, but the crowd at our bus stop is even bigger than last year’s, flush with this year’s crop of kindergarteners, younger siblings and other new students. There’s a mix of apprehension and anticipation in the air. Caitlyn, of course, is all anticipation. And so it begins: old patterns, new routine, settling in, stepping out. Fall. Save
Shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target. I wasn’t slacking for all of August when it came to posting here, I was taking a break. Well, I didn’t realize I was “taking a break” until someone else posted that they were taking a break as part of a formal challenge. (I suppose it’s not the break-taking itself that is the challenge but the feeling-ok-about-the-break-taking.) August is gone, a break was taken, and here we are stepping into September, fall, second grade. I’ve a list of things to post about from the last month (blueberries, swords, our vacation, pears) …
So, the cherry tree has out-done itself this year. I’ve gotten all kinds of comments from neighbors this year. There were so many cherries that if the tree wore a blinking neon sign, it couldn’t have drawn anymore attention to itself. What does one do with about 20 pound of homegrown cherries? Well, I put a bunch in the freezer for crisps and such. I made a batch of brandied cherries, since they sounded good. (They are!) And I made a batch of “Holiday Cherries”, which are basically an alcohol-free version of the brandied cherries, with warm spices instead. Prepping …
A few years back, I put some Bing cherries in our dehydrator – you know, for science – and I’ve been drying cherries ever since. Uber-yumminess! They make great snacks, easy to grab on the way through the kitchen. I put them in granola and gorp, too. This is the first year that Caitlyn has gotten involved in the madness that is prepping 20 pounds of cherries for the dehydrator. That may have a lot to do with this being the first year that the box of cherries arrived at the house before dinner-time. Using the cherry pitter, naturally, was …
Some people (I’m looking at you, elsie marley) can take a camera when they go strawberry picking and somehow get fun pictures of their kids picking/eating strawberries without (I assume) making a mess of the camera with their own strawberry-covered fingers. I know this is a skill I don’t have, so I didn’t bother with the camera. You’ll just have to imagine: A day that was forecast for rain and then didn’t… A field of strawberry plants, just to the right of the teeny tiny Christmas trees… Caitlyn and her friend actually filling their buckets, instead of bringing us 4 …
The cherry tree in the backyard has been busy. It’ll be a good crop, if we could get just a tiny bit less rain… some of the fruit is molding before I can get it off the tree. But the birds are happy, as is the skinny squirrel I startled out of the tree the other morning. I do wish the critters would eat the fallen cherries first, though, leaving me the ones in the tree. Lots of cherries are out of my reach, guys; there will be plenty for all of us! Save
