Solanum lycopersicum! Well, not really, but I am excited that my tomatoes are almost ripe! They are the Bush Early Girl variety which claimed to be ready in around 50 days. I honestly don’t remember the exact day I planted, but I did blog about them end of April. So it’s been way longer than 50 days, but at least they are ripening :)
On Sunday I volunteered at Camp Horizon for a couple hours with the horseback riding. The camp is held every summer in Blaine (closer to Birch Bay) for special needs kids & adults. The people running the horseback riding go to our church and that is how I heard that they needed help. Since I love to be around horses, I thought it would be fun, and it was :) My job was to walk beside the rider as a spotter so they didn’t fall off… though most of the riders had great balance. I used to volunteer at a therapeutic equestrian center in Canada while attending Trinity Western University. It was neat to be able to have the experience again.
The two girls pictured are my friends Janelle & Krista from the Christ Group Todd & I are involved with. We all were helpers.
I forgot to post this awhile back. Most of these flowers have finished blooming, but I still wanted to share what was in the yard a few weeks ago :)
On Friday we drove down to Shelton/Olympia area to spend the weekend with Todd’s family. Todd’s brother, Keith, flew up from Arizona for a visit, the first in two years since we last saw him. On Saturday we went to Tommy (Tom’s son) & Krista’s house on Black Lake in Olympia. We had fun on the giant water trampoline with the water being surprisingly warm! Afterwards, we gathered at Tom & Cindy’s in Shelton with Kali & Brandon (Todd’s sister and her husband who live nearby) and played the Wii that we brought down. We all crashed at the house which I think is the first in a long time Cindy has had all her kids under one roof.
While we were there I took pictures of four baby birds in a basket next to the front porch. The next day they had moved out of the nest and were preparing to fly. The parents were encouraging them to get moving through their chirping. One of the babies didn’t quite get the hang of it after he flopped out of the nest, so the mom flew down to get the baby to follow her to safety. It was neat to see!
On Sunday, after church, we walked down to the creek behind the house and watched Jasmine (their dog) entertain us. She was cleaning up the creek by pulling out all the sticks she could find and laying them on the embankment, then going back for more. She’s a funny dog. We packed-up soon after but stopped in Olympia to play a few holes of disc golf with Cindy & Keith. It was nice to get away for a couple days and see family, hopefully we will get together again soon!
I get about this many raspberries (large tray) every few days, so I have to freeze them or use them within a day of being picked. The golden raspberries are pretty good, but I think red is my favorite flavor :)
My friend Jessica and I were walkers in the Chuckanut Footrace this weekend. Jessica encouraged me to sign up and walk with her, so I did (it was capped at 1,000 people). The walk was beautiful through the trees and overlooking the bay. We were on the Interurban Trail for most of the 7 miles which started at Marine Park and finished at Larrabee State park. It actually was pretty fun, mostly because I had Jessica to laugh and talk with. It took us about 2 hours, which is not too bad for this being our first race. My feet were extremely sore afterwards but now I know to buy a better pair of shoes for next time. You can see our action shot by a professional photographer by clicking here. We took the one below after we got back to Jessica’s a couple hours after the race.
Yesterday, my friend Jessica and I made some old-fashioned strawberry jam. We bought our strawberries from a local stand and spent several hours making five batches between the two of us. Mine had a few variations like strawberry-rhubarb & strawberry-raspberry (the raspberries were from our yard). I think they all taste like strawberries and sugar, lots and lots of sugar :)
It definitely was a fun experience and I am looking forward to our homemade apple sauce in the fall Jessica!
I keep finding beautiful creatures in the yard. The camouflage frog was sitting in my strawberry plants, posing.
The moth looks very vogue dressed in a snowy white fur cape with zebra accents (antennae and legs).
Mr. snail also looks snazzy, especially in black & white :)
I noticed this cool looking moth near our front door the other day. He was still there this afternoon so I thought I would get his picture before he flew away. I think he looked like a leaf, he was very green!
On Monday I had fun picking strawberries and raspberries from our yard. I was amazed of how many we had growing. The previous owner had planted a row of raspberries and filled in below with strawberries. We heard the raspberries are ever-bearing so we should get another crop in the fall. They sure are good, but don’t have a very long shelf-life…so you have to eat them all in one sitting or freeze them :)
