Randomday

The plum tree is in full-on production mode.  Yesterday and today I made a batch of Pflaumenmus (plum butter), cooking it down in the crockpot.  It made almost 8 half-pint jars.

We have so many plums!  We can't possibly give them all away or use them all, I don't think.  Although we do seem to have friends who will take as many gallons as they or we can pick, so it's not going to waste yet.  Daniel started some plum-blackberry wine today.

Yesterday evening I went to the Salmon Creek trail to pick blackberries.  I had a fun time finding the biggest and juiciest ones, saw a heron preening himself in the setting sun, and heard what I think were two beavers calling to each other from opposite sides of the pond.  I also picked more than a gallon of berries, some of which were frozen, and some of which were added to the aforementioned wine.  It was almost a perfect evening, until a bug flew into my eye while I was walking back with my bucket of berries.  I went home, washed the eye out, showered, washed it out again, and lived with the irritation while we stayed up late watching "How to Steal a Million" with Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn (great movie!)  And then, as I was trying to go to sleep around midnight, the bug finally shifted around to the point where I could remove it with a q-tip.  I think my eye may recover but it's been very gradual today, getting rid of the irritation.  And the creepy feeling that it might have left a leg in there...ew!  Visine is supposed to be good for pollen, dust, etc., but it lists nothing about insect residue... but I tried it anyway.

Tertia's Washi dress for the wedding is finished and I'm happy with it, but don't have pictures ready yet.  I started today on one for myself, using a vintage sheet from my collection.  It will either look charming or weird.  Pictures to follow, eventually.

Quarta has texted from camp a few times, borrowing her friend's phone.  It seems very odd to be able to get texts from kids at camp.  She had a bit of a run-in with some barbed wire but she says the nurse cleaned her up.  Peter also texted from his "camp," just before they took his phone away.  Let's hope he gets phone privileges back sooner than in Basic last summer, or we may be waiting a few weeks. to hear from him.

Tonight we got Panda Express, and played Uno, which is probably Tertia's favorite game ever.  She took great offense when Daniel, Steve and I started talking in French.  Then we looked out in front of the house and what looked like a drug bust was going on right there.  Not sure exactly what was going on, but I think they took at least one person away, and a car belonging to another person was parked a long time with blinking lights on before driving away.  So we may be a quiet house, but a lot goes on around us.