It was another super busy weekend. A friend's birthday (complete with a BBQ and beer-in-hand kickball--I wore a hockey mask to protect my broken nose), more housecleaning and wedding chores, an adventure at the Marlin to listen to Sweating Honey (our favorite local band) and make a pact with two friends that we would run the Equinox Marathon next year. (What did I get myself into?!) I went to the farmer's market on Saturday and bought, among other things, four bunches of carrots. When I got them home, I realized that I didn't have any meals planned for this week that involve carrots. So I blanched and froze them, as well as the rest of the celery I had in the fridge. (Celery goes bad so fast around here!) Actually, combining the two items in freezer bags is going to turn out to be really helpful over the winter, because now it's like part of a chicken soup kit. Or pot pie, or butternut squash soup...so many possibilities.
Sunday was for more blueberry picking. This time it was just me and Fiona. Ellie wanted to go, but she had too much work to do. (Ah, the life of a teacher, working weekends.) Anyway, this site was much further out than the last, an hour and a half drive out of town. It's also bear country, so I brought the dog and we attached bells to her. (Bears don't usually attack if they know you're there; they'd much rather avoid you. So talking, singing, and bringing bear bells are all necessary and smart precautions in bear territory.) It was fairly amusing because she jingled any time she moved. I think she liked it, too. I had to carry her over the river crossings, shaking in my arms (and I did buy some boots for this--but not XtraTufs because no one carried them in my size! the curse of tiny feet) but for the most part she loved the walk. And the site was SO WORTH IT! The patch we were at (one of several) was rather big, but even better was the fact that the berries were super dense in there. We set right to work, only taking one small food and drink break. But in the roughly two hours we were picking, we each got a gallon sized bucket brimful of berries. And we took about ten minutes to pick some for Ellie, as well, since she couldn't make it. (A very grateful--and rather hungover from kickball--Adam opened the door, surprised and pleased that we'd done that. I'd had moments of thinking we could just split those berries and keep them, but seeing how happy we'd made him was even better.)
We actually left the spot not because we were out of berries to pick (we only made it about halfway through the patch, and that was being picky about not picking the shriveled ones!) or because of the wet and cold (my hands did get cold, but I brought some tea to help me warm up) but because of the dog. After a while of running around, then a lot of confusion on her part as to what we were doing, she finally sat next to me for a long time, wet and miserable. She jingled every time she shivered. She kept shaking and looking back at me as if to say, "I don't like this. I'm wet, and I don't like it." So we decided that our gallons were good enough for one day and hiked back to the truck. When we got there Fiona said, "Hey, it's my dad's truck! He must be caribou hunting." For some reason, that amused me. I think it was the fact that we were all out there but didn't meet each other or even hear one another. I hope he gets a caribou.
Shane and I finally got a chance to see "Harry Potter" last night. For two people who love those books as much as we do, it's been a little torturous to wait until we had time to properly enjoy the final movie. And of course, I left the theater regretting that magic isn't real. Until I realized that there is a sort of everyday magic that we take for granted, and I'd witnessed a small part of it earlier in the evening. J and L had their baby yesterday, a little girl weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce. If creating a new little person out of two half cells isn't magic, I don't know what is. This particular little person is beautiful, and I can't wait to babysit!
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