1) The new house is wonderful! Of course not perfect, especially the disappointing discovery that the soil in the small gardening area is simply too wet for the plans I had (it was actually completely underwater after an especially drenching rain earlier this week). It's so much quieter; no horns or loud engines. You can hear the train but it is about half a mile away and the whistle seems whimsical to me now. Most of the people in this subdivision have dogs, there's quite a lot of families with children, and we're about 300 feet from a lake. Not much of a beach really, but at least a place to drop a canoe or small sailboat in. It takes just under three minutes to drive to the train station, lakes and trails are abundant, and there's plenty of shopping not too far away in multiple directions (if you know me, you know I mean things like groceries and walmarts, not expensive clothing stores). Strangers smile and greet you, which I didn't realized I'd missed so much. Overall, I feel less stressed, happier (such a generic and boring term but it'll do for now), and life feels like it holds so much more.
2) Ashley and Philip's wedding in Austin, TX went superbly! Of course, I wasn't aware of all the planning and detail hiccups that inevitably cropped up, but the celebrations were a blast. As one of the bridesmaids said afterwards, you know it's a good wedding when the pastor is dancing barefoot to AC/DC. Colin made fast friends with our host, one of Ashley's Austin friends, who is also a computer geek. I really enjoyed seeing so many K College people and swing dancing with Laurel. We managed to take a 4 oz jar of local honey through airport security that was a wedding favor. At the Houston airport while we were waiting for the flight to Milwaukee, Colin noticed they were looking for two people to volunteer their seats. After contacting some work people, we decided to go for it and partway through the planning with the airlines, we realized we could call up my aunt who lives in Houston and see if we could see them or possibly stay with them instead of at a hotel. It all worked out; my cousin picked us up and we got to see their "new" house (they've been living there for 7-10 years). In the morning before heading back to the airport, another cousin brought over her daughter who is less than two years old and the last time we saw her she was about 3 or 4 months old. She had great fun playing a "game" with me of picking out a blueberry in her cereal, looking at my reaction, putting the blueberry back in the bowl, looking at my reaction, picking it out, and so on. That was just before we left; after half an hour or so of being shy and climbing all over her mom, she was warming up to me.
Now onto the main topic:
There is backyard space that is shared with other houses and along the back perimeter are trees blocking the view to the houses nearby not in the subdivision. Colin and I ambled back there and I noticed a tree with berries on it. "Are those mulberries?" I asked. With a little internet searching, I found my suspicions were right and I started forming ideas of making jam or pies. Colin worried about whether or not we were allowed to pick them, but when I emailed our landlord, she said "Why not? Go for it!" So the next day, which happened to be the same day Tom was hanging out, I suggested we go pick them. It was fortunate he, who has some canning experience, was there to help pick out the equipment and know things like wiping off the lips of the jars before putting the lids on them. It took maybe three hours from tree to can and it was quite fun. We filled up 5.5 half-pint jars! Mulberry jam/preserves are delicious; if you've never had any, it's sweet and flavorful and the seeds don't seem to get stuck in your teeth. It does stain your hands really well and the biggest chore is taking the stems off (or more accurately, taking the pulp off the stem). Then about a week later, I checked the tree again and found many more were ripe and ready again. I was afraid the thunderstorms had caused most to fall off but there were plenty for another round of canning with Tom. We filled "only" four jars this time but there are so many berries still on the tree (yes, one tree). Colin suggested I take pictures of the process and post about it.
First, the tree and unripe berries:
I remembered the camera after we were done picking so I took this picture on the way back out:
The berries!
