Rose, rose, I love you!

FLowers all arranged for knitting tomorrow. The roses, though covered with blackspot, insist on blooming anyway. Aren't they lovely?












It's kind of funny - As soon as I posted the menu for the party, suddenly the number of attendees almost doubled. Reminds me of the town in Eastern Oregon that doubled in size for two years in a row. First year, the postman got married. Second year, they had twins. Thirty miles to the next post office, next gas station, next place to buy a newspaper, that little town, population 4, was the hub of the local community.

So anyhow, I had to add three more place settings to the table. My creativity got stretched, and the table got more interesting. It's all good! I feel justified in buying that Sindog now. There are enough people to eat it up.


I bought a flat of strawberries this morning. The farmers were just setting up their stand when I arrived. Two women getting out the signs and setting up the pop-up tent, and an older gentleman with the back of his truck full of boxes of berries. "Are you open yet? I asked the women. "Yup." one grunted, heaving a collapsable chair to the ground. "How much for a flat of Hoods?" I asked. "Twenty four," she replied, and heaved an icechest down from the tailgate. So, since she was clearly too busy to help me, and the other woman was involved in a wrestling match with the tent, I went over to the gentleman with my best smile and said, "May I have a flat of the Hoods, please?" I handed over a wad of money as he handed over a flat of berries. "You'd better count that." I suggested. "If it's not enough, I'll have to leave some of these." He counted. It was twenty one dollars. "I've seen you here before," he said, "So you get the good customer discount. See you again!" The women, who couldn't be bothered to help me, started to get therir feathers ruffled, but he just smiled and said, "How long do you want to sit out here? I just sold your first flat of berries."

They are sweet as honey and sooo delicious. While I was hulling them, I kept running across berries that were just so dead ripe that I knew they wouldn't last overnight. I HAD to eat them. And the weird-looking ones? Had to eat those, too. And there was one huge berry that was so pretty that I knew everyone would be fighting over it, so to keep the peace, i had to eat it. It's rough work, but someone has to do it.