sand hill plums

A few Sundays ago I accompanied Brian on a cicada hunt. That's when temperatures were still over 100, and I was kind of a wuss. The heat sort of knocked me out, and I was not super helpful with the hunting. I was pretty good at being hot in the car. Near the end of the day at a wildlife preserve we went sand hill plum picking and that I really got into. Here is our bounty and me mashing them after cooking them. Whenever we finally have some time, we will make jelly, but for now this beautiful, tasty goodness resides in our freezer.











































I will also note that the next Sunday I went on another cicada hunt and was much more a part of it. I spotted several, and I also netted my first couple! That was exciting. I didn't completely get the hang of netting and trapping them smoothly, but I imagine I will have more chances to get better.

garden update

Here are our pumpkins. It's funny to us how one is really branching out and putting out a lot of tendrils, and the other is not and has no tendrils. These are plants we found coming up volunteer in our compost pile, presumably from a pumpkin we threw in there last fall. We know we won't get to harvest anything from them, but since they were just volunteer, we thought it would be fun to watch them grow.


They sure do put on beautiful flowers.





























A patio tomato. The bird who pooped on it must have been marking its territory because pretty much every one of our larger variety tomatoes gets pecked to death by birds as soon as it is slightly more than orange. Very disappointing for us.





























We have been able to harvest more of our cherry tomatoes, though. This is fun, but the fun is usually over in about 30 seconds since we'll get maybe five ripe at one time and just eat them right away. The plants are kind of comical with how tall and not bushy they are. We believe this is because they do not get adequate sun, but we had to work with what we have and this is the sunniest spot in our very shady yard. It's been fun to check the "garden" daily, and it will be kind of sad to leave these plants behind.

small group picnic

A few weeks ago our small group celebrated the end of the year with a picnic in the park. It was also the final group get together for me and Brian. It's been a good group that I've enjoyed getting together with. We ate some good food and played a variation of bocce ball. Below is the cake I made and also a group shot: Esther, Nate, Mariah, Brian, Paul, Judy, Craig (actually a cross-county cyclist who happened to be camping in the park and who joined us for the evening), Karen, and Ron.

our tree is trying to compete with yours, wiebes

Last night I was sitting on our front porch waiting for a friend to pick me up. I heard a bit of crashing in the branches and leaves above me. Although it was dark and I don't see a lot of squirrel action after dark, I assumed this is what it was. But then I did not hear any further crashing around or scrambling. I investigated and discovered a snake! It was quite a ways up and out (this is in large basswood). I know black rat snakes climb trees, but this was in kind of an unlikely place and plus there was that crashing as if it had fallen to that particular spot. I alerted Brian to come outside to see. He got a flashlight so we could inspect it better. Sadly, it seemed injured along one of its sides. The skin looked whitish and kind of torn where it should have been a dark color. One of Brian's speculations was perhaps it had been captured by a hawk and managed to get free of its clutches, landing in our tree. Crazy!

[In case you missed them, there are another two new posts below this one.]

4th

The extended weekend for the 4th was quite nice. I had a few hours of lazy on Friday but also went to the wellness center and did a bit of work in mom and dad's basement, which mostly made me think of how much work I have to do in our own house. And how much we put it off! Brian got back from a cicada trip in the early evening and we set out on a failed journey for supper. We ended up back home for bierocks, which of course was a nice alternative. On Saturday I didn't do much during the day, but I did take a nap. In the evening we were hosted by Amber and Jeremy for a 4th of July party, and it was a very fun time. Relaxing, beautiful weather, yummy food. Ber and I rocked beanbag (that is, we won by one point). We left to pick up Mark to hit not one, but two town fireworks shows! In our quarterly newsletter we'd seen an advertisement for North Newton's fireworks show, which we thought was just too cute. And it actually exceeded our expectations. Plus, they were incredibly dedicated to keeping the ground show of fountains going the entire time. I really enjoyed our viewing area on the grass between some of the Kidron Bethel duplexes. As soon as that show was over, we headed to the park area in Newton. We found an ok spot, but the show wasn't super. Then, it was off on a quest for roman candles and bees. Three fireworks stands later, we were satisfied with our minimal purchases and went to mom and dad's to light them. Sunday was our first time back to church for in a while; I guess we have been gone a lot! Mom and dad had us over for lunch and then we watched a disc of Arrested Development, which, if I haven't mentioned previously, is hands down the funniest show ever. Brian and I finally went out for his birthday for supper and had steaks.

collective soul!

Collective Soul is perhaps the only popular, kind of contemporary band I might actually choose to spend the money on to see in concert. If you're unfamiliar and want a great cd that is listenable all the way through, their greatest hits collection 7even Year Itch is amazing. Brian and I had talked about that they would probably be pretty fun to see in concert. A few weeks ago I heard an advertisement on the radio for their upcoming concert at the Cotillion. Woo-hoo! Even though tickets were a bit pricey, we talked about going. But then Brian went out of town right at that time. I considered going alone and maybe would have, but Amber went with me, even though I only asked her at the last minute, which was so great! The concert was so good. The set list was mostly all songs I know, which always makes for a great show. I also really enjoyed the handful of songs they played from their upcoming album. I've had mixed feelings about shows at the Cotillion before, but I really enjoyed it for this show because we could be so close to the stage – like probably ten people away. We were well positioned directly in front of their aweome guitarist; sadly, I did not get a decent picture of him. Oh! – oddly, they co-headlined with Gavin DeGraw, whom I would not have paid to see in person, but ONE TREE HILL!! :)

my day

I had quite a bit of time off in June and always intended to take one day for myself to do some superfluous things I would enjoy. I was going to do it a couple of weeks ago, but something else came up. Yesterday was my last day of vacation, so I went for it! I caught some extra sleep in the morning and went to the gym. After a couple of things that had to be done, I was off to Wichita for the Passage to India buffet for lunch. I was feeling pretty lucky to find my favorite dish -- chicken korma -- on the buffet, which I never have before! I definitely ate way too much and found a dish I may even like slightly better -- vegetable korma. After lunch I started my failed quest for Crocs. I think some of you have some real opinions about the aesthetics of these shoes, but I actually think the flip flop style ones are cute, and they sure are more comfortable than other flip flops I have. Since the ones I have are brown, I was wanting ones of the black persuasion that I could throw on with athletic shorts, etc. I had printed off a list of places in town that supposedly carried them. Let's just say Crocs really needs to update their list. I even got a tip from the Von Maur shoe guy (Von Maur was not on the list but does carry Crocs but not the flip flops) about a store that supposedly has "the biggest selection in town." I called them next and asked the person who answered the phone if they sell Crocs. His answer? "Do I sell CRACK?!" Um, no. Apparently that phone number was incorrect. Or it had been reassigned because I tried to find the store anyway, and it was not at its supposed address. Anyway, partway through my failed quest, my luck was even worse! I was maneuvering between a column and a rack of clothes, when I felt my sleeve catch. There was a dang nail sticking out from the column! It definitely ripped a hole in my sleeve. Oddly enough, I was at the store where I had originally purchased the shirt, so I ended up buying a replacement. But it was done in anger. The other activity I wanted to take part in during my day for myself was reading at Sugar Sisters and trying every kind of dessert I wanted to. They sell mini versions of their babycakes, and I tried lemon, chocolate peanut butter, black tie, and salted caramel (my favorite). They do not have all of their cake flavors all of the time, so I did not get to try another on my list -- dark chocolate stout -- but it's not like I needed a fifth. It's such a cute place and had amazing americanos to boot. That was my supper, for I was off to the best part of my day. Something I would not have gotten to do on my day had I not postponed it until yesterday. It was a great end to my vacation, so I think it deserves a post to itself.