On Bramble Hill » Thoughts and Experiments from a Suburban Homestead

05.18.12

Life is a bowl of cherries…

Except I really do like the pits. They are on the porch right now drying out in hopes of planting some seeds and actually growing my own tree one day!

First off…no clue if that is even how it works with Cherry seed/pits but figured I could just dry them out and figure it out when I didn’t have a baby climbing up my legs

Until then…I shall enjoy the yummy cherries my friend Laura has spoiled me with!

photo (13)

So what to make with them now? I am so happy! I am like..jam? cobbler? pie? In the mean while I put a bit of lemon juice and sugar to help “preserve” them a bit (yeah right….I am eating the heck out of these suckers!) until I figure out what I am going to do with them tomorrow
Any suggestions?

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JillMay 18, 2012 - 9:32 pm

Save some for me;)

05.17.12

Grrr…… {Gardening Chronicles 2012

Well boo! Still fighting these little buggers

I will be pulling the rest of the lettuce out probably this weekend.
I am thinking that should cut down alot on hiding places for these guys.
It has been so wet and rainy they are just loving those low lying, yummy leaves.
Jill better get back from Ohio soon! We have a night time hunting battle ahead of us

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05.16.12

Somebody really likes the strawberries….

Last week we took…ok dragged….Lucas out to the berry field with us to go picking with our homeschool friends.

my cuties…

Then it was time to get down to the business of introducing Lucas to the joy of strawberries…
I suppose I am a bad mom for just letting him eat them out of the field but he is the third.
He survived

“hmmm….what is this?”

“Oh wow! This tastes good!!”

“MORE!”

and then it became the case of he couldn’t stand to see the basket unless one was in his hand…

and then I remembered…I forgot any sort of Wet Wipe or even a paper towel!

God Bless my mom friends.
Much like boyscouts they always seem to be prepared.
Me? Not so much!
Heck on this field trip we got about 5 minutes from the berry field when Haley declared,
“Oh My Gosh! Mom I forgot to wear shoes!!”

I kid you not…shoes. You know the things most normal people would notice they were missing when they walked out the door.
Lucky for her we were at a farm and I personally always garden barefoot so I told her to just suck it up or take mine
Such as life in my crazy world. I love it!
I have a feeling we will be laughing about her forgetting her shoes for years. It has already became the family inside joke.
We all load up and ask “Everyone buckled in? Everyone have on shoes? How about clothes? ”
To much laughing and eye rolling from Haley…”builds character” I tell her and we roll on along.

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AlisonMay 17, 2012 - 7:43 am

we drove for and hour and a half one day only do discover that my youngest did not wear shoes.

TishaMay 17, 2012 - 9:13 pm

LOL! She will be happy to know she is not alone in the “shoe forgetting” department

05.11.12

Just cause… {Gardening Chronicles 2012

I walk through my garden and I am in love with it.
Totally my happy place.
I am always cutting plants/flowers and bringing them inside to liven things up around here.
I have decided this Summer that I am going to do a series of images that are the bouquets of all the different flowers and such that are always blooming in my gardens and frame them on the wall at the end of the season.

Sounds like fun…right?
Starting with a little Borage…

add in a few chives…

and you will end up with a beautiful…edible bouquet

Now my kitchen table is all pretty…what’s not to love?
Awe garden season how I love you!

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AnneMay 11, 2012 - 7:31 pm

Love this! That little pitcher is too cute! Next time you are tending to your “other” garden in Hanover, you should stop by and meet my chickens! Miss you!

TishaMay 17, 2012 - 9:25 pm

I would love to swing by lady! So far I have been hitting it during weekdays in the morning though. Guess what?! I have 2 of those yard sale find pitchers and I will gladly share one with you next time I come by
They were too cute and a buck! Couldn’t resist!

05.10.12

The view from my iPhone…

I figure it is about time I start making a post each week to add to the blog my Intagram images from each week.
I want to publish my blog for the kids each year via Blurb books and having our lives documented by the cell phone is very much a part of our daily life.
I am always saying that I am more into catching the “moment” than the camera used to capture the “moment”.
I will use whatever camera I have available. Instagram has become Lucas’s baby book of sorts…lol.
I am forever whipping out my iPhone and snapping off shots…actually I have the whole family setup to have their Instagram images added into a family cellphone Smugmug gallery (via their Awesomeize app). This allows us to print them and share them between everyone in the family.
Safe on the web in case we lose our phones or the images on them!
From time to time I am going to try and go through my favorite iPhone images from our week and post them here as well

This week has been busy busy busy…

Started off with lots of berries….

moved onto lots and lots of jam…

and tomorrow…we are heading back with our friends to pick even more.
Is it possible to have “too much” jam?
Nope…impossible!

and then I have to say I am very proud of my first Calendula bloom…
I have “a thing” for Calendula. I swear this herb fixes everything.
The Neosporin of the plant world.

Our house is indeed a zoo…

Aunt Jill and I had a very spicy date night…

That ended with me dragging her out Slug hunting…
By the way this is when you know your best friend is indeed your best friend….
And yes….we laughed and laughed the whole time.

and then there are these guys…
We are in a battle for my dill.
I keep telling them they can have all the parsley they would like but that they need to leave the dill alone…
They disagree though…but they are really pretty so I suppose I will just keep sharing.

I spent Saturday out at Lavender Fields open house enjoying some herbs and sunshine…

Aunt Jill sent me these two images while she and Lucas were having some fun!
He is such a trend setter…this kid!

I love this one…he looks like he is pondering all things that maybe right and wrong in the world.
Or maybe whether he would rather have bananas or peas?

and then this….Oh this made my Summer right here…
My lovely in-laws (love them!) are letting me share a chunk of dirt to grow a nice BIG garden.
Not that I don’t love my Urban gardening
but it sure is nice to set out more of a perserving garden in addition to my “kitchen” garden.
More to come on this over the weekend no doubt

and last but not least…Adam’s mid-term report.
It turns out that we haven’t ruined him with homeschooling and the kid is right where he needs to be.
Big long sigh of relief …

Everyone wants a “homeschool to regular school” update…
I will probably get to that over the weekend cause it will be a long one