resilience

we had a bad storm on friday - really bad, lots of trees down, etc, etc.

my corn fell down.

i was so sad.

but it came back up today!

yay corn!!

i'm older!

Thanks for all the Happy Birthdays! Especially on Facebook where I felt oh so popular!

I had a great birthday- it stretched out over two days and included tacos from Adolph's (the oldest Mexican restaurant in the QC), a yummy homemade ice cream cake (thanks Patty!!) and the inaugural use our air conditioning. Woo Hoo. And I got some pretty great stuff too.

One thing I'm sure I'll bring up later in the summer was the book Well-Preserved by Eugenia Bone. I'm pretty sure Eugenia and I are soul mates if the Introduction is any indication. I got several more really great items, but I want to share the big one --- I got this:

And yes. I'm in love.

And yes I think my family will hate me within a week - or at least hate the camera because I am like the paparazzi.

It takes some lovely pictures. Man oh man.

Even when the subject is freaking out because she has prune on her hand and OH MY GOSH SHE CAN'T GET IT OFF!!! HOLY COW. She still looks good. Look at that color. That depth of field.

She's got a thing about her hands. And feet. When they're not clean it is not good. In fact the world might stop until she can find a sink.

I got off of work a little early today so I took advantage of the relatively nice weather this afternoon - as opposed to the noon hour where it rained about 2.5 inches. I decided to take update pictures of our yard. Our day lilies started blooming today - they're about as tall as I am. I don't think they were that tall last year. So, I decided to snap a picture of one.

Except umm, it was a little humid. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow!

And in case you were wondering - it was 31. Way less stressful than 30.

strawberry city

Like you didn't see this coming?
We were up to our eyeballs in strawberries for about 10 days.

Probably picked about 12 quarts overall. Which isn't bad considering it's a 15 x 12 patch. And I left a lot - - A LOT for the birds because man, I just kind of got tired of picking them. Isn't that so lame? This had a lot to do with 1. the amount of rain we've had and the serious mud problems in our backyard and 2. with my serious lack of pathways and mulch.

When we bought the house there were no paths in the strawberry patch. Or maybe there had been and they'd just been eaten up by suckers. In the fall I tore out a bunch of plants to create our vegetable garden and then tore out some more to create some paths, but got nervous because I thought I was tearing out too much and we'd have like 1 bowl of strawberries. This year there will be no such anxiety!

When I was little I would spend a week visiting my Grandma Masil in Idaho and sometimes we'd be there around the time of the strawberries. I remember these neat little rows and these sweet little strawberries and all of it being very easy to harvest and I thought that was how this would be.

Then I grew the Amazon of strawberry patches.

Not that I'm complaining- although it sounds suspiciously like I am! - because we have eaten our fill of strawberries and we have a freezer full of jam and sauce - and did you know that a lime does not have the pectin content of a lemon and so if you are making jam and you only have a lime to serve for your pectin needs you will end up with sauce? Which goes nicely on ice cream?And will probably make a nice bit of fruit leather?

I do.

The other thing is that this year - only my third time of making strawberry jam probably- I added a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar to the jam. It made a huge difference. My 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' cookbook recommended it. Nigella said the vinegar would bring out the 'strawberriness' of the strawberries. And indeed it did. The smell made me a little nervous at first, but once it cooked down to jam the whole house just smelled like strawberries. Which was lovely.

I think we'll probably have one more harvest before we mow over everything for the summer. I'm thinking if they're good sized berries we'll get some dry ice from the store and flash freeze them in the cooler before putting them in the deep freeze to be enjoyed in January when we need some summer.

Or maybe we'll just let Gus eat them because she has eaten her weight in strawberries this past week so a few more can't hurt, right? It's not like she can OD on Vitamin C, right?

I asked her last night if she was going to turn in to one big strawberry and she got highly indignant, as only a two year old can. No, she says, I'm Deyah. Good to know. I'd hate to have any confusion about that!