Those last days before heading north for the summer are always busy ones. This year, they were also the hottest days of the year and it sure wasn't fun doing much but reading and essentials! My life included doc appointments, lots of reading, catching up on blogs, seeing a friend's play, popping corks with Cork Poppers and time with other friends, too. In the morning I would water plants and pull some weeds, bemoaning my strawberry crop.
That was it. (Well, there were about four more that birds and a squirrel got to -- I saw him, sitting out there, a little red berry in his paws and munching away as happily as could be!
I think I'm eating ice cream in this picture, but it's not unlike what strawberry picking at my grandparents' farm was like when I was this age. My grandparents had row after row of berries. In my grandmother's journal there is one entry where they said they picked 55 quarts one day! I clearly wasn't helping that time -- I'm sure if I was, they would have had 56 or 57 quarts! Or maybe only 53 or 54! The highlight of a big pick would be a strawberry shortcake dinner. That was it. Biscuits topped with berries. No protein, no veg. It was my favorite dinner of the year!
Our dinners are a little more balanced and we've enjoyed the grill. During our heatwave we enjoyed a warm cookout on Rick's patio, where I spotted this sweet little bunny, still a child, I think.
And this wee bird was found in my impatiens plant as his mom screamed at him or at me.
Eventually he flew across the driveway to the neighbor's garden where he was hunkered down for quite sometime. I hope they found each other -- he was gone a bit later (no feathers or carcass to be found, which was a relief.)
Time with friends played into our last few days here too. After our Cork Popper gathering, Rick and I went to see my friend Jane's production of "Pride and Prejudice" in an air-conditioned auditorium. (We don't have air at home.) We also enjoyed time with pals Mark and Jan, rescheduled after Mark's bout with Covid. I wish I'd taken pictures!
Another evening, our friend Onur (you can listen to his wonderful music here!) invited us to his home to meet his parents who were visiting from Turkey. We had the most delightful time with this warm and wonderful family and now are having a hankering to visit Turkey! (A bonus was that the ride to and from was in an air conditioned car, and Onur's home was cool too! Win-Win!)
I started with strawberries and will end with them. I have been on a quest to find fresh strawberries, locally grown berries, as my "massive" crop devoured after about two minutes. I finally found a strawberry farm nearby where you didn't have to pick them yourself!
I came home with four quarts (one for Rick!) and some shortcake biscuits. (And I have to say, the shortcake was delicious!)
Score! Grandma would be pleased!
Sharing with: Friday Face-Off
Yummy [post strawberries and a little girl eating ice cream- that is so dear! That image is a good one for a happy birthday card. Little bird so tiny and its mouth still baby faced. I am glad you got such nice photos of her!
ReplyDeleteThose strawberries look good ... can I have mine with cream please :)
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
That's like the cherry crop I used to get from three cherry bushes. Barely enough to fill s small saucer. All my dreams of cherry pie, cherry jam ..
ReplyDeleteYour strawberries are cheaper by quite a bit than our local farm stand. I'd be happy!
Sweet! We've a farm down the road!
ReplyDelete...I bought 8 quarts and they didn't last long with our family.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeanie, your photos are beautiful. The strawberries 🍓 look delicious 😋
ReplyDeleteSo glad you found a strawberry farm, Jeanie. Strawberries are so ripe and juicy at summertime. That's neat that you spent some time with friends from Turkey. It's always interesting when we communicate with people from another country. Your bird photos are fantastic! Is that a Robin? And I always love those old photos of your childhood. What a dear mom to take so many of you growing up. That blue plate you served the strawberries on is so pretty. Looks a bit vintage. ; )
ReplyDeleteHave a happy July week, Jeanie.
~Sheri
When my kids were young, I would take them to the strawberry farm. They got a hayride to the field and had fun eating strawberries and helping me pick lots of quarts. I froze lots back then. Loved seeing your pic. Too cute! Janice
ReplyDeleteYou’ve had quite a busy time of it Jeanie. That photo of the strawberries is delightful, including the ones at the end of your post. I have a hankering for strawberries and shortcake now, one of the all-time best desserts as far as I am concerned. I enjoyed your memories from when you were with your grandparents. 55 quarts? Oh my goodness! The photo of you is magical! You were such an endearing little girl. Sweet photos of the bunny and bird Lovely to see your friend’s play. How sweet of you to visit with your friend’s parents from Turkey. My niece and her partner have visited Turkey several times and each visit has been wonderful with the people so very warm and hospitable. Happy July to you all out there and thank you for all these delightful photos. Happy 4th of July!
ReplyDeleteis there anyone alive who does not love strawberries?? we used to go strawberry picking, but now i just buy them at the market!! you are lucky to have pictures from your younger years, i only have a few. during our heat wave we played several games and cards. i never mind being home and can always find something fun to do!!
ReplyDeleteMichigan strawberries really are better!
ReplyDeleteDid your strawberry shortcake dinners not include whipped cream? I don't think I had strawberry shortcake at all until I was an adult, and I learned to make the shortcake, so much better than the store-bought and too-sweet sponge cake so many people prefer. But slightly sweet whipped cream tops it off in every way!
ReplyDeleteWe are blessed with our youngest daughter's garden which produces delicious strawberries! I really like the blue plate on which your strawberries are resting.
ReplyDeleteJeanie! That picture of you eating berries is so dear... I'd recognize that face and that smile. Strawberry shortcake for dinner sounds perfect and delicious, actually!
ReplyDeleteThose are not a lot of strawberries... But they do look very nice and delicious.
ReplyDeleteWhat a rich and joy-filled farewell to summer’s southern chapter, woven with friendship, laughter, strawberry memories, and just enough ice cream and air-conditioning to soften the heat
ReplyDeleteC'est la vie! That photo of you:)
ReplyDeleteStrawberries are abundant here, too, but so far this year we haven’t bought any. Why? I have no idea. There is a Mennonite bakery in Hawkesville where I buy Morning Glory muffins (the only version Miriam makes infrequently) and they had a little pastry thing with fresh strawberries and I did buy that. With a scoop of Chapman’s frozen yogurt it was delicious.
ReplyDeleteYou are reminding me that I haven't had enough strawberries this season. More must be on the agenda soon. What fun memories of strawberry shortcake dinners. I would have love them too. Happy travels to the cabin. Glad you could enjoy friends before leaving.
ReplyDeleteHello Jeanie,
ReplyDeleteYou have been busy, having fun. Strawberry shortcake is yummy.
I have not picked strawberries in a long time. I do not think I could get up and down off the ground now. Love your cute photo! Take care, have a great day!
The photo of the strawberries on the beautiful blue plate is so lovely. I enjoyed that story of the strawberries on your grandparents farm- such great memories. $8 seems expensive for a quart of strawberries until I remind myself how expensive it is to grow anything. I grew tomatoes in pots on deck- by the time I bought the pots, the soil, the nourishment, etc. I think each tomato cost me $5 lol !! Beautiful photos! thanks jeanie..
ReplyDeleteHurrah that found some strawberries. They are so tasty, aren't they? It's the best time for year to eat them. And we had that heat too. Talk about not wanting to do anything...in fact it's sort of back today (just not quite so hot but still very humid) and I was going to hop out and weed a bit this morning, but I think not. Oh well, the weeds just grow back right away anyhow. :) Enjoy your lake time. And stay cool. And as important, enjoy those strawberries! hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteThere is a strawberry farm just a mile away, and they put up a strand around the corner.
ReplyDeleteI like stawberries, ONLY if dipped in choc! I know, I am so bad. So do you do the summer at the lake house? Winter in the other? Are they close together?
ReplyDeleteYummy strawberries are a treat. Lilly Dot loves strawberries.🍓 I bet from the farm they were ripe and delicious. Darling childhood photos and those birds.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at the picture of you as a little strawberry faced girl!! That is priceless!
ReplyDeleteHope all the doctor visits went well. Sorry about your strawberry harvest. But what wonderful times!! :)
I'm having strawberry shortcake this evening. Michigan berries. The best and I'm looking forward to summer "postcards" from the lake.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a lovely, interesting life. Strawberries for dinner yes please.
ReplyDeleteCathy
There's nothing like freshly grown strawberries! Yum!
ReplyDeleteOur local strawberries are done..We are getting them from Canada now..They were yummy his year..I just got some from Canada so I can't comment on them yet!!
ReplyDeleteYour strawberry crop sounds like my blueberry crop; the birds (or squirrels or whatever) ate every last berry on the bush before any could turn blue. I love making shortcake with our fresh strawberries that we get from our local you-pick farm.
ReplyDeleteI love strawberries, especially fresh ones. This is also the seaon in Sweden, and nothing tastes like Swedish, fresh strawberrie. I do unterstand you fully.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo of family and friends. We too are on a strawberry kick. These look fantastic.
ReplyDeleteSeeing a friend's play, catching up with pals, and meeting Onur's family all sound like wonderful ways to wrap things up before heading north. Hope the move goes smoothly and you find some cooler weather.
ReplyDeleteSeeing a friend's play, catching up with pals, and meeting Onur's family all sound like wonderful ways to wrap things up before heading north. Hope the move goes smoothly and you find some cooler weather.
ReplyDeleteWe found the local berries to be small and quite tart, and expensive. They are $8 quart here too. We have a big grower down toward Ottawa who grows several varieties right into the fall. Hopefully the later berries will be better.
ReplyDeleteYour strawberry harvest looks delicious -- too bad that so much of was ravaged before you had the chance to ravish it yourself! All's well that ends well, though, and I'm glad you found another source. Hope you enjoyed strawberry shortcake for supper -- that looks like something that deserves to become a tradition!
ReplyDeleteIf your hear has been like ours, I can't imagine how you stand it. I could take it when I was young, but i guess I have become a wimp. I know you must be looking forward to the lake with great eagerness.
ReplyDeleteThe berries look lovely, but my word they are pricey, aren't they! Locally they were between $4 and $5 a quart. Then I found some lovely ones at Aldi's for $1.69 a quart! You can bet i bought 2 flats! Couldn't pass that up.
Happy July !
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy, but my town once styled itself as The Strawberry Capital of the World. We still grow a lot of strawberries here, but we grow them a bit earlier in the year.
ReplyDeleteI buy a pound of fresh strawberries every week for breakfast. Last week, I bought 3 pounds and gave them to my in-laws for dessert. Delicious!
ReplyDeleteJeanie, I would love to reach into the photos and grab a strawberry or two or three. When we wintered in Florida, I ate them all the time. I swear Florida has the sweetest and best strawberries during their winter. I enjoyed seeing all of your photos.
ReplyDeleteI love the memory of eating dessert for dinner. What a fun treat! My grandparents had raspberry bushes. Each local family was assigned certain days to pick so we could keep up with the berry production. I whined so much about picking. The mosquitoes were quite bad but unlimited access to raspberries was worth it! We’d all get a gallon ice cream bucket but I never accumulated much… I remember we would have sheet pans of raspberries. My mom would wash them and then let them dry in the sheet pans and then some would be frozen but lots would go into desserts or jams or eaten on ice cream or Cheerios. Yum! Now we pay a pretty penny for the tiniest container of them. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThe heat has been so intense. I can’t wait to get to the lake tomorrow.
What a sweet baby robin, Jeanie! I hope it was reunited with its mother too. The picture of you as a small girl is adorable. I love fresh strawberries, and those boxes looked beautiful. Too bad yours didn't thrive this year. You are always busy having fun! Way to go! Have fun at the lake!
ReplyDeleteThat is the cutest pic of you, sooo awwww....
ReplyDeleteAnd hmmmm... strawberries!
I love your wildlife pictures! The strawberries look wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI love fresh strawberries but I am not good at growing food.
ReplyDeleteYummy strawberries!
ReplyDeleteDear Jeanie,
ReplyDeleteSince I assume that most of the books you introduced in your latest post haven’t been translated into German, I thought I’d comment here instead—because I definitely have something to say about your strawberry harvest: mine was just as miserable this year 😉.
But unlike you, I didn’t have the reward of a strawberry-munching squirrel to watch! 🐿️
You certainly had lots of adorable visitors in your garden—young bunny, young bird, and that sweet dog in the photo with your friends. 🐰🐦🐶
And what a precious childhood photo of you! I have a similar one—also with a face covered in ice cream—but I’m wearing a life jacket and sitting on a potty 😂 (I was about 2 oder 3 years old. The picture was taken at a lakeside campsite.)
Strawberries have always been my favorite fruit, even as a child—so this post was literally my jam! 🍓💚
Sending love from Austria,
Traude
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