Drips and drabs, bits and pieces

Not a 'themed' post today, just bits of life that have happened recently...

1. Good thing--The blueberries are almost finished, only a few dozen berries left on the last bush. 
2. Bad thing--The elderberries and red raspberries are starting up. Red raspberries are relatively easy to pick because they're big, and elderberries are harvested by cutting the stem of the large umbel. BUT....then you have to sit down and pick all those little berries off the umbel and allll it's branches. A good choice for tv watching in the evening, but it does leave one with blue fingers. The elderberry jelly during the winter is To. Die. For. and very good for you, too!
3. My lamb is ready for pick up. I order one every year and am trying a new supplier this year. It's the farm that raises my Angus beef so I'm pretty sure that this lamb lived a pleasant life before coming to my freezer.
4. A new boutique has opened in Latrobe, PA and she's carrying my yarns! We took a pleasant drive last Saturday and dropped off the skeins, and accidentally spent about an hour chatting about yarn, spinning, classes, etc. Husbeast was happy to sit in the display window reading his book. 
5. A nice long bike ride last Sunday along the Freeport Butler Trail. Yes, folks, we seem to have found the one and only trail that goes uphill both ways!! It's a long grade uphill out of Freeport, about 2/3 of the trail, and another 1/3 of it is uphill out of Butler, which was the section we rode. But turning around and flying for miles all the way back to Butler--without much pedaling--was lovely. Wind in my hair, look Ma no hands!
6. The Butler Spinners and Weavers Guild will be taking part in a Sheep To Shawl demonstration at the Indiana County Fair this Wednesday around 6:30pm. There will be 3 spinners and 1 weaver working with a raw fleece; fluffing the wool locks out for spinning, spinning it into yarn, winding it onto a bobbin for the weaver, who will operate the loom to weave the shawl fabric. Fascinating to watch if you've never seen the whole process, or if you're interesting in meeting other spinners and weavers. Demo will coincide with the Lead Line and will be nearby, although we're not sure of our exact location at this time. Completed shawl will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, and our weaver has a great design on the loom.
7. And last but not least, I saw my medical oncologist yesterday. The bloodwork looks good, there's no more lumps that he can find manually, he says I'm perfect!! A CT scan and one more visit in 6 months and I should be good to go for the rest of my life, yay!

Drive-by photos of the basil and parsley I harvested yesterday. Much pesto was made, much parsley was dried, and I still have a large bag of basil. I'm leaning towards Thai chicken curry with basil for dinner.....