Summer 2013 Part 1

Every summer starts with our trip to Sunriver OR. This time was a bit longer then most but because of the rain I was only able to sketch a few pages. I have been sketching exclusively in my large moleskine allowing me to write more about where I am when painting and what I am experiencing. I especially love watching people look through it and read the stories. 

Not a few days after this trip we were off to the coast to camp with family; my oldest sis Angie from Dear Spring Green and her family along with my mom and dad. It was so great spending time with my niece and nephews. Mark went diving twice in Depoe Bay and we dreamed together of one day owning a house on the beach. We drive around looking at signs and collecting flyers. Does anyone else do that?

At some point, and I honestly don't know when because I'm getting old, we went fishing. Very, very  early in the morning. The morning started out with high hopes. El had just gotten a new bright pink fishing pole that lights up when you real in and I was fully prepared with sunscreen, snacks and a fabulous hat!
Within the first hour we caught our first fish! We all clap and take pictures and congratulate each other. Hour number two goes by... nothing. The other boat holding Mark's brother and friends continue to catch fish. We say "yay!" and clap for them the third, fourth and fifth time but by fishy number six we could only manage a weak "yay" followed by a grumble. The sun was not warm on our faces anymore. We lacked the excitement we once felt when we cast our line. Life was meaningless.

I love my photo bombing daughter

 After five hours we went home and took a nap. Life got better.

And, as always, there is the CONSTANT harvesting going on here. Because we had such unseasonably warm weather in June our cherries, basset berries, strawberries and rhubarb all came on at the same time. My fingers were stained brown from all of the cherry juice for a few weeks, but I now have a gallon of dried cherries and countless gallons of seeded pie and bing cherries in the fridge.

In my search for a good cobbler recipe for the bings I found THIS one by Martha Stewart. I would double the filling though because there is a ton of crust in this recipe.

Now the blueberries are consuming our evenings and the blackberries and apricots are on their way! I am also working on harvesting our lavender for my handmade sachets and to make infused vodka!

I will spare you the details about worming the sheep and move on.

Finally, we are enjoying every sunset here at Bramblefield and I look forward to sharing more of my summer projects with you soon.