Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries...And Figs

It has been a nice long weekend. For once I didn't make myself an enormous list of things I wanted to accomplish, only to be frustrated by what didn't get done at the end of it all. I did get some things done, but we managed to set aside time for fun too.

First, a garden update:

Last year, the birds ate all but 4 of the cherries off of the cherry tree. This year, they either forgot about them or decided to be nice and leave some for us. Tons more will be ready soon. Yum.

And the fig tree has started, as my husband says, sprouting fruit from every crotch:

Can't wait to see the kind of searches that wording brings people here now. They're going to be awfully disappointed. But I won't be when I get to have fresh figs sliced over arugula and fresh mozzarella with a squeeze of lemon. Yum again.

Fiber Fun

I decided that even though they're predicting frost in Vermont tonight, by the time my upcoming high-school reunion comes around in early June, it'll be perfect weather for a summer-weight sweater. I'm an optimist - so sue me. Saturday morning I cast on:

This is going to be Hey Teach from Knitty. I'm using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in the Candy Apple colorway. I'm actually farther along than this picture indicates - I've now finished the middle ribbing and added about two inches of the lace pattern. Instead of knitting it in separate pieces, I'm combining the fronts and back, and knitting them all together until I need to split for the sleeves. The only other change I'm making (so far) is to do a twisted rib in the middle instead of regular - I think it'll look a little more polished.

Onward

Sunday morning Kathy and I went for our normal walk, then Brian and I headed down to Monterey to visit the Aquarium and check out the new seahorse exhibit. It was, as expected, insanely crowded, but worth it. The surroundings weren't exactly conducive to picture taking, but it's the best I could do:




So cool!

And blurry.

But cool.

This morning I slept in 'til after 6:00 (if you're used to getting up at 4:00, that's late) and then I washed and sliced these:

Cooked it 'til it looked like this:

Poured it into these:

15 minutes in the canning kettle and...

23 jars of strawberry jam!

That should hold us for 23 years or so...