The Big Harvest

Our saskatoon berry bushes have borne fruit, and here's the big harvest we got from one of them the other day



They're like mild, sweet blueberries. Very tasty! It'll be a couple years before they produce enough for more than a small snack, so don't get too excited. I also found out they are sometimes called June Berries. Makes sense, since they're ready by June!

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!

It's still May, but temperatures here have reached the low 90s. This does not make me nor the dog happy. While I appreciate that we finished our 14-day streak of rain, going straight to hot humid weather is not what I had in mind to wrap up the month of May. To illustrate what happens when it's unbearably hot outside, here's an example of what Binsey gets up to:

After coming back inside to the air conditioning, Binsey decided she wanted her blanket. A corner of it was sticking out of the back of her crate, so rather than walk all the way around, she tried to pull it out the back. However, as lazy as she gets in the hot weather, this is the result.



Making some progress:


...and way to tired to deal with that, plus the floor is sooo nice and cold...


Maybe I can bring it around the side and pull it the other way without having to stand up...


...wait, is that it?


YESSS!


It's mine, all MINE!!


Note also that I am on my summer vacation and I have a lot of time on my hands during the day while Paul's at work!

Time for bed

Here's what Binsey does when she wants to go to bed. I should note that she sleeps in her crate with this blanket, however she won't settle down in there until you give her a treat and rub her ears. She'll tote the blanket around wherever you are until she gets tucked in.

From Binsey

From Binsey

It looks like someone lives here!

While I was busy working on my final paper, Paul was busy planning and planting our new garden areas. He dug up the grass around the mailbox so we could put a bunch of plants there. We moved the plants from our front walk area to the mailbox patch so we could re-do that section with lavender and phlox. The tiny plants up by the walk aren't much to look at right now, but they should start to fill in that area over the summer. It's amazing how much work it takes to garden such a small area! By the mailbox, we've got mums, salvia, maltese cross flowers, multicolor columbine, and a weigela bush. They all should be nice and filled out for next summer. I am so happy with how it turned out! Paul did an awesome job planning it out and getting it all in the ground!

Here's what the front yard looks like now.


It's really starting to look like someone lives here!

Good things

It's one of those days. I've got a big paper due tomorrow and a bunch of small but annoying problems have come up (one of which is that the study where I'm working looks like it was hit by a tornado with my journal articles all over the floor). So here's some good stuff that has been going on.

1. Binsey was sent out by herself to get the newspaper for the fourth day in a row. She successfully brought it back and dropped it on the doorstep. She also did not get mud from the gardening all over the carpet today.

2. I'm sipping a tasty amaretto flavored iced coffee (non-alcoholic - I have a paper to write!)

3. Our water & sewer bills arrived today and they were lower than usual.

4. The air conditioner is all fixed after 4 weeks of repair action and the service was covered by our builder.

5. Despite waking up to find I'd "ruined" my homemade yogurt by adding too much starter, I can still turn it into cheese! It's currently draining in a cheesecloth. I also discovered I can take the liquid whey and make ricotta cheese - so that's TWO kinds of homemade cheese!

6. I saw a beautiful FULL double rainbow yesterday!

7. My wonderful husband has been working really hard to make our front yard look gorgeous with new flowers including three hanging baskets with petunias, and planting, lavendar, creeping phlox, saskatoon berry bushes and some kind of berry-bearing tree whose name I forget.

8. The dog escaped through the gate yesterday morning while I was upstairs getting dressed (with all the gardening the gate was accidently left open), and all she did was run around to the front door and bark to get back in! No chases, no nothing!

9. We finally hung up our most expensive wall art - our diplomas!

10. I had a nice chat with my awesome sister-in-law Anne today.

11. I'm done with my teaching assistant job for this semester.

12. Binsey is making cute puppy sleeping noises

13. It is a beautiful day - bright sunshine and not too hot.

14. All I have to do is finish this paper in the next 24 hours and I'm done for the semester! Just 5-10 more pages!

My new apron!

I just finished my first sewing project: an apron. I figured I'd start with something that wouldn't matter too much if it wasn't just perfect. It's got pockets, which weren't as hard to do as I thought they might be. I'm really happy with how it turned out!


Here's another view


The most fun part was using the buttonhole feature on the machine. You put the button in this little device that goes below the sewing needle, then choose the buttonhole shape you want, and press the "sew" button! It even sews on buttons too, so I tried that as well. Now I'm going to have to locate all those random shirts and pants that have had buttons fall off but I was too lazy to reattach them!

It's a good thing I'm not expecting to sell this thing, beacuse for all the time i spent on it, it would so not be worth what someone would pay! Hopefully I'll get quicker as I try new projects. As for what's next? Not sure, but I did buy a pattern for making storage boxes for shelves. We'll see how that goes.

Doggy Playdate

Last night Paul had to work late to set up a business expo, so I invited my friend Jamie over with her dog Miller for a doggy playdate/girls night. We weren't sure how it would go because it's the first time Binsey had another dog in "her" back yard, plus the dogs have never met. It didn't take long before they decided to be good buddies and run-run-run around.


...and pounce!