Joanne and Mel (mother and “auntie” of Katie, Brennan partner) came to Kitchener from Columbus, Ohio, for a week long visit. The evening before they left to go home we celebrated Joanne’s birthday at the Malleck’s house. Here are pictures (all taken with my iPhone as I didn’t bring any other camera) of that event.
A Pony Party
Nathan and Karolina’s girls turned 3 last week and on Saturday we celebrated with a My Little Pony birthday party. Here are pictures from that event.
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.
A walk with Mama
Today was a lovely last day of spring. Though it clouded over late afternoon, the early afternoon was sunny and not too warm. I took Mom for a walk along one of the trails in St Jacobs.
Crocheted Stones
Just try a Google image search for crocheted stones — wonderful pictures.
I’ve decided to give this a try. I’ll be posting pictures here as I go along. The first two:
