Tea party

The theme of our tea party was hats--cowboy hats, little red riding hoods, bonnets, hats with artificial flowers, shiny, black top hats. I read Do YOU Have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli. Then we shared party sandwiches, deviled eggs, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered blueberries, blueberry lemonade and, of course, tea in china cups with tiny flowers around the rim. By the end the little girls had chocolate and cookie crumbs smeared on their faces, which is the mark of a perfectly wonderful tea party.

Little helpers

My cousin and her three daughters came for a visit this week. While they were here, the girls helped to gather the eggs from the chicken coop and pick blueberries. 

Cultivating

The sweet corn is growing, though it will be awhile yet before the ears appear on the table for dinner. 

Country church

The light was fantastic Sunday evening. After the service two of my sisters and I took a walk on the gravel road near the church building while the rest of the family visited outside the building. 

Snowflake

Ripe

Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields;

for they are white already to harvest.

John 4:35

Blueberries...

hundreds of quarts of blueberries. 

The blueberry bushes are loaded with blueberries. We opened the farm to the public for the first time on Monday. Since then I've been at the farm twice a day picking blueberries, supervising pickers and serving customers. We added two Farmers' Markets--one on Monday evening and one on Thursday evening--to bring our total for the week to four markets. 

Our supply exceeded our demand this week. Mom has been experimenting with blueberry juice and Wednesday night the girls packaged and froze fifty quarts of blueberries.

The bench

Aunt Carolyn and I have been envisioning a series of bench of photographs since we discovered a similar collection of photos in a magazine several years ago. When we spotted an ordinary bench on our aunt outing earlier this week we realized the time was right. Photo credits: Carolyn. 

Bowl of cherries

and a self portrait

Circles

Framed

Libby and I went to lunch with Aunt Carolyn at Daddy-O's downtown yesterday afternoon. After finishing my Sock Hop sandwich and unsweetened iced tea we headed for the streets for a photo shoot. Aunt Carolyn asked to try my camera and I found myself in the awkward position of being on the other side of my camera. Photos by Carolyn, Amy and Libby.

Not every pose is meant to be.

Just for the record, I'm making a frame with my fingers.

Riverdays

Usually I am at the blueberry farm on Saturday morning during Riverdays Celebration. I decided to take advantage of my last Saturday morning before the farm opens and I headed downtown. It was a cool morning and most of the actors sat around smokey fires. The fife and drum corps performed on the lawn while vendors prepared to hawk their items. On the other side of the river, Julie and Brian sold blueberries at the Farmers' Market. Red-coated soldiers, mothers with strollers, and elderly folks with walkers jostled with each other as they moved around the circle and purchased cherries or cinnamon rolls or bouquets of sunflowers. 

Hands

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might

Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV

Eyes