summer fun

A couple posts in March…  A post in June… Here it is almost Labor day before I show up again…  Well, so it goes… I resolve to do better and blog more often every once in a while, but life is what it is.  It can only be lived a day at a time, as I must learn over and over…

So what have I been up to?  Artwork of course.

And this summer, while it’s been very dry, we are having an exceptional fruit harvest.  I live on an acreage.  We’ve been here 11 years.  When we bought the place, there were several old and mostly dead apple trees and a pear tree and a cherry tree that didn’t have a pollinator, and thus never bore cherries.  My husband cut down everything but the old pear tree.  Then we started over to establish the orchard of my dreams.

It’s been slow, as some years we planted one or two new trees and they didn’t survive so we had to replant before different fruits were established in my orchard.  Then, as the trees became large enough to produce fruit, we’ve had 3 bad years with late spring freezes that have zapped the blossoms.

This spring was a perfect spring for the fruit trees.  In July, my daughter and I picked sour cherries and froze them for pies, canned them for preserves, and made chutney.  Yesterday, I took every peach off my small peach tree as they were ripe and the bugs discovered them.

Fruit, to me is just such an example of God’s benevolence.  Sweet, tart, bright colored, it makes me smile.  A stack of jars is a thing of beauty.  It’s not my usual artwork, but it is Art.

15 pints of peaches will make my family smile

12 jars of peach/tomato salsa

The apples are ready, but thankfully, they are more patient, waiting on the tree for their turn.

Hopefully, I’ll be back soon to show some of my usual artwork… (I’d promise, but that’s risky….)

Blessings,

Patti