alive and well

Just letting you know that I am still breathing!

I have found the answer to one of life's important questions:

How many times can a 2 year old ask "What's that"?

Answer:  Infinity

We (Bob and I) spent a wonderful long weekend with our 2 little grandsons.  And then collapsed!

There are many entertaining things to do when you are 2.

Ride on Grandpa's lawn tractor.

Look for toads.

Go to the apple orchard.

Help grandma cook something.

Build a fire with Grandpa.

Pull weeds.

Play outside with front end loaders and dump trucks in the sand.

And then there's baby brother, who likes his bottle many times a day.

And learning to eat cereal.

And work on rolling over.

And tummy time.

And holding onto rattles.

And jumping in the bouncer.

We all had a good time, and we were all glad to see mom and dad return from their trip.

Being grandparents is a good thing!

One of our weekly produce bags brought us these very pretty vegies, and I just had to take a picture.  I have never seen a purple cauliflower before!  It turned the water purple when I steamed it.  I should have used it for dying some yarn!

Remember the new yarns that I bought on vacation? I made myself leave them alone until I finished the little sweater that I had been working on.

Here it is after washing, all laid out to dry.  

The letter "B" stands for Burke, their last name.

And solves the problem of whether to put their first initial on it and then the other won't get to use it.

And now that that's done, I am figuring out my next project!

thanks to mother nature

We are testing out a change to our regular summer gardening--basically, we have no garden!  Instead, we have a share in a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  The farm is not far from here, just up in the Isanti area, and is called Outstanding In Our Field.

Yesterday was our first pick-up.  We have only a single person share, to see how it goes.

We were given basil, sage, thyme and parsley plants.

Then Bok Choy, turnips, spinach and a big beet rounded out the selection.  I have spent the morning washing, rinsing, washing, rinsing to get all of the fine sand out of the leaves so we can devour them!  Actually, since my stove is not in place yet, I will take some to Brita's house tomorrow night to cook for dinner with them.  And I am starting to educate myself about juicing, something my son, Dan, is a big fan of.  So we will haul out the juicer and see what we can concoct from these and some fruits.

When I cut off the beet top, I saw this pretty design by Mother Nature--

Also, another part of nature's bounty, these came to us last week from Glacier Distilling in Coram, MT. Lucky for us, we have a connection via Dan and Lauren to obtain some of these fine distilled products.

But you, too, can order from their website drop by Coram to get these or other distilled adult beverages, so don't miss out!  The bottles alone are worth having!  The labels and design are beautiful.

On the left is Little Cottonwood, a cherry liqueur flavored with orange, cardamom and ginger.  This is delicious in small amounts over ice.  On the right is North Fork Whiskey, named for the North Fork of the Flathead River, flowing from British Columbia to Montana.  I have tasted this one, too, in little sips.  It is smooth and flavorful.  Do I sound like a connoisseur?  I'm not.  

It's hard to lay my hands on a decent glass around here, since everything is still boxed up.  We are using mostly disposable stuff, and I'm sure that the dixie cup that these beverages were served in added a special and unique flavor.  Sorry, Lauren, you might be cringing over the fact that your award winning distillations have stooped so low, but I can assure you that the good glasses will be located soon!