On December 20/15 Stu Weber took these pictures of me and Trina’s family.
And this morning Linda Worth passed this picture on to me, taken about 37 years ago –
I love these pictures!
Gingerich Gathering 2015
Once again we gathered at Queen Street Commons for food and fellowship (5 pictures taken by Martha):
A Stump
Back in December 2013 we had an ice storm that brought down a lot of the Russian Olive trees that line on side of our street. 
After City workers cleaned up the fallen trees there were quite a few stumps left behind.
In August 2015 I noticed some marigolds growing amid the litter in one such stump:
Then a month later there were zinnias blooming as well:
Now, when I walked down the street I would look for the stump, to see how the flowers were doing.
The end of October and fallen leaves add more colour to this tree stump, the flowers undeterred by the cold:
Notice that someone has removed the litter out; wasn’t me.
Finally, in the third week of November we have our first significant snowfall. Looks like the flowers are finished for this year:
And then, just days later, the City trucks were back. The stumps have all been removed. I wonder what will happen with the marigold and zinnia seeds. Will they grow some place else? Who put them there in the first place?
Mina’s Birthday
Missy Mina turned 6 today! It was a very exciting day.
More berries
This has been an amazing berry year. I don’t know where all the birds are, but they are not stripping the bushes and trees.
On the neighbouring property there are three weeping mulberry bushes that are loaded with berries. 
Thursday evening my favourite man helped me collect two berry boxes of black mulberries. So sweet! 
I made mulberry “jam” – not real jam because I added less than 1 cup of sugar, the berries didn’t need more sweetness than that. 
I was surprised to find that the fruit did not become mush. I think next time I will use a hand blender to mash the cooked berries before putting them in jars. This time it is basically putting mulberries on your toast, but that is delicious too!
On Friday afternoon, before leaving work I went outside and collected as many Saskatoon berries as I could reach. This tree is at First Mennonite Church, but most of the berries are out of reach.
…which is really a shame, because the tree is loaded!
I got about 1.5 cups of berries,
so I used half in a dozen muffins (my favourite recipe from “More with Less Cookbook“) 
and put the other three-quarter cup into the freezer for another time.
On Saturday afternoon, after walking by the blackberry bushes again,
I decided to leave Billie inside and take the berry boxes outside. Another box of blackberries.
I really wanted to be able to share some of this bounty with my mother, but she has trouble eating these kinds of fruit because the little seeds get under her dentures and cause discomfort. Looking on the internet I found a recipe for Blackberry Coulis (syrup) for which you strain out the seeds. It took a little more effort, but it is definitely worth the results!
And one of the wonderful things about all these berries — they were free.