Strawberry season is short in the Willamette valley. Our yard strawberries produce all summer long, yet just when ours get going, the big farm strawberry season is over! It catches me by surprise every year.
The kids and I got out this morning, and picked three flats of "end of season" strawberries. That means they are tasty but you have to put them UP within hours! They quickly turn dull. The kids took turns reading out loud as we processed strawberries, and then we watched a few episodes of Avatar. (Have you seen that cartoon? It's a long series and I just love it! Great values, great characters, and such an original adventure. Netflicks). We put bags and bags and bags in our new upright freezer in the garage. I feel like such a "grown up" with an extra freezer. Until now, I've filled my regular freezer with blueberries for eating, smoothies, and making cobbler all winter. Now we can really indulge with lots of fruit and big batches of yummy foods!
Speaking of cobbler, we made two strawberry cobblers today. That's a new version to me. Very tasty! One was for the neighbors who traded us a huge heap of garden edging bricks for summer baking. Yey for good neighbors.
After all that strawberry business, we had some play time, me a wee tad of studio time, before piling into the car to pluck Max from the work week and doing
important family evening errands such as
#1- buy new water squirter for the six year old
#2- zip to Joann's and snap up a whole bolt of canvas for new experiments in the studio
#3 - friday night out to dinner at a fresh, design your own burrito place
#4 - take the pup with us in as many places as will let us (It's a new family hobby)
#5 - discover a new fun park on our after dinner walk, and invite a mass of kids to play a game called "fling everyone off the spinner."
#6- pop into the hardware store to fetch big washers to keep the knots in the new tire swing from pulling through.
I am loving summer with the kids.
New music: I just discovered Jack Johnson's soundtrack to Curious George. So sweet!
And I'm playing all the early Michael Jackson songs and videos for the kids. You know why. He was once the king.
We were planning a five day trip to Waldo lake with the new Kayak, BUT a big weather front is coming in. All the packing and planning is a ton of work, but being there is glorious. Darn. And the kids start school next week. On the other hand, it's good to be home too. LOOK at that bounty from the garden! Food needs preserving, cooking, baking and eating.
The Butterfly Tree is growing and blooming nicely. I was trying to capture the portraits of two little orange butterflies in this photo, but they were shy. 
Have a look at THIS furry string bean I found in the garden! 
Poppy Kitten.
Ok ok ok, I finally decided to be a "grown up" at least a little. We installed a stand up freezer in the garage, and I bought a full canning set up. This is our first batch of plums and pears. Looks like I need to pack the plums a little more firmly. We opened a mixed batch to test. Delish! I like the super light syrup with very little sugar. 
