The Community Orchard

Every community should have one of these! We're pretty lucky here that we can walk about 10 minutes down the street and come to an orchard right on the outskirts of town. There you can pick an ice cream pail of Saskatoon berries and just about as much as you want of everything else... There are chokecherries, crab apples, gooseberries, and currents... I think there may be plums in there too but it's early days yet and I wasn't looking for them...

We managed to pick enough Saskatoon berries for a pie but it took forever. The bushes were already picked over and this year has not been stellar for the berries. Oh well. The pie itself is a treasure and made B's day I tell you.

we keep getting these days that start out cloudy, get nice and then big bands of storm clouds float by sometimes dropping a little rain, sometimes a lot and then just cruising through... These clouds didn't scare us though, we were on a mission!

To make up for the hour and a half it took to get 5 cups of berries I talked the kids into picking Chokecherries with me. We got a big bowl in 20 minutes. The fruit was lovely and there are loads of bushes just bursting with cherries.

When we got home I set about teaching the Superstar how to make Gran's pastry (she did pretty well too) and I made the Saskatoon pie and an apple/rhubarb/custard pie. I have enough dough left to make another pie soon. Maybe use up the last of the frozen pumpkin...

I also washed and sorted the chokecherries. I'll be trying my hand at making jelly today. If it turns out I'll share the recipe!

Have you been berry picking this summer?

Apple Pie and Blocking

I don't usually sit at home on Mondays' blogging but Mr. Man has a whopper of a cold and I get to miss the morning of work. It's a good thing, I can catch up on some housework and blogging.

We have family coming for supper tonight and my mum-in-law is doing all the work. I was put on pie detail and a good old apple pie with crumble topping is the perfect thing. I'll run out and pick up some caramel swirl ice cream or maybe maple walnut and that's dessert!

Too bad I didn't make the pie yesterday when I was blocking my Guernsey Wrap! That would have been the best reward for all that hard work!

I made this sign because there were pins everywhere, I should have said "under foot" but I think people got the point (har har)! I'm still trying to get the hang of using my blocking wires and this was a good lesson in stretching my knitting to the max. I felt like I was wrestling with the wires and the pins kept popping out or bending. I could have watched my measurements a bit more closely as well, at one point I was out half an inch but thankfully it doesn't really show.

I know the wrap doesn't look like much in the top picture but I unpinned it last night and holy smokes is it soft! And drapey! I love it! I'm hoping to get some decent FO shots this weekend and I'll do a proper post all about the pattern (fabulous) and the yarn.

Have a happy Monday!