Christmas Sky

What a gift we woke up to on Christmas morning! The sky was ablaze with color as the sun came up. We even had pink water in the pond from the reflection (top photo). An amazing 'first gift' of the day!

Christmas Wishes

Gifts of time and love

are surely the basic ingredients

of a truly merry Christmas.

(Peg Bracken)

Fruit of the vine...

We have two different varieties of grapes...one is Green Thompson Seedless and the one shown is Concord. It looks like it is going to be a good harvest again, just as it was last year. I hope some jelly and other goodies will be made from them, once they ripen!

Drying herbs

Yesterday I harvested my sweet basil plant and put the leaves in the dehydrator. This morning, I decided to move them out onto the counter to air dry. It will save money and be more fragrant.

With basil, so far, I have Varigated Sage and Parsley drying. Yet to come...Rosemary, Thyme and Oregeno. As each batch is dry, I will put them in glass jars and save for cooking. If I get an abundance, I would love to give some as gifts.

Hope

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops...at all. (Emily Dickinson)

Madrone

Bark on a Madrone tree on our property.

Plum Pickin'

We have a wild plum tree that is either two trees growing together or two varieties in one. Yesterday I picked the sweet yellow blush variety from it. Yum! So sweet! The dark purple/black ones were nearly over-ripe and are being enjoyed by the birds and deer. The larger plums in the bowl are from a different tree. There weren't many ripe ones on it yet.