Berry Picking

This morning my friend Karen and our daughters, the lovely Miss C and Lil Miss A, all went strawberry picking just outside La Crescent, Minnesota, at Kathan's farm. The season only opened yesterday so the pickin' was really good. The berries were plentiful and beautiful, though not as sweet as one might hope (though, strangely, by the time I got mine home, they seemed sweeter). After we picked, we went out to lunch at Fayze's Restaurant in La Crosse.

Now I'm home. I pitted and sliced some berries for dehydrating and some for the freezer. I'm telling the family to eat all they can manage now while the berries are at their best. I'm also going to can some peaches that I bought at the market.

Here are my Strawberry Tips for 2011:

1. Wear strawberry-juice-colored clothing.
2. Use a paper clip to pit the strawberries. Unbend the center bend, so you have the two bent ends to work with.
3. Slice ripe strawberries with an egg slicer.

Quote from Lil Miss A, helping to shuck the skins off the peaches: "Why does the skin always stick in the butt crack?"

Baby robins

This is my favorite, with the evening light.

This was with a flash. They thought the camera was their mama, come to feed them.

Forget it. Not Mama.

Look! Teeny robin feetsies!

Just listed on eBay: Reproduction Hoosier bread drawer

Just listed on eBay: Vintage Masonite HORSES SIGN

Just listed on eBay: 57 pieces of Turquoise and White Melmac Texas-Ware

The link is here.

Saw my first cedar waxwing.

What a striking bird! This one was hanging out on one of our corkscrew willows.

A natural mistake.

ISR: He has originally the natural tendency...
Dictated: He is originally from Nashville, Tennessee...

I used to have one of those tics...

ISR: "This is a 45-year-old woman with a history of baby monitor tic."

It was really something completely different. Cannot figure where ISR got this. But anyway.