Packing....

We leave bright and early Monday morning on our family vacation out west, and will be gone for a little over a week.

So goodbye until we return!

Summer Afternoon...

"Summer afternoon~summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

~Henry James

Done!

"Fired with a housewifely wish to see her storeroom stocked with homemade preserves, she undertook to put up her own currant jelly. John was requested to order home a dozen or so little pots, and an extra quantity of sugar, for their own currants were ripe, and were to be attended to at once. As John firmly believed "my wife" was equal to anything, and took great natural pride in her skill, he resolved that she should be gratified, and their only crop of fruit laid by in a most pleasing form for winter use. Home came four dozen delightful little pots, half a barrel of sugar, and a small boy to pick the currants for her. With her pretty hair tucked into a little cap, arms bared to the elbow, and a checked apron which had a coquetish look in spite of the bib, the young housewife fell to work, feeling no doubts about her success; for hadn't she seen Hannah do it hundreds of times? The array of pots rather amazed her at first, but John was so fond of jelly, and the nice little jars would look so well on the top shelf, that Meg resolved to fill them all, and spent a long day picking, boiling, straining, and fussing over her jelly."

~from Little Women,

by Louisa May Alcott

Yellow and Blue.....

.....in my kitchen.

And I am currently debating whether I should make up a great big batch of freezer jam....

....or not.

We leave on our annual trip out west on Monday, 

and I have plenty to do already. 

But strawberries are so cheap right now,

and I don't know if they will still be around when we return.

And I have heard that making freezer jam is so easy...

I think I will....

(Am I crazy?)

Yes, I think I will....

Eight Years.....

Living Lace....

Miss Posy has been bringing me little bouquets of Queen Anne's Lace every day. So pretty!

Homemade Vanilla Pudding.......

.....with fresh berries.

It's really such an easy dessert to make,

and the kids can't get enough of it!