Thursday Thoughts
Lots of Thursday thoughts are swirling through my head this week. Thursdays are a quiet day of the week for me, usually. While you are reading this, I’ll be heading to work with BigJ to help him prepare to host a group event next week. I’ll be helping him make up welcome bags, so nothing too stressful! Meanwhile, you can pop over to Not Afraid of Color and see what the rest of the group is sharing for their I Like Thursday posts. You can find all the links there!
Early July took us on our annual cherry picking run. It was a booming crop this year. We picked eight buckets of Montmorency cherries in 2 hours, then headed home and processed 53 pints of cherry sauce that evening. They taste so good!
We pick them at a cherry orchard in Door County, about 5 hours away. It’s a fun trip, and this was our fourth year.
We have native wildflowers growing in our backyard this year. BigJ brought me a little bouquet, which brought me so much joy. Wilbs thought they were tasty (they were safe for him) and really enjoyed sniffing them – we finally moved them because he wouldn’t leave them alone!
We took some walks this week, one at a nearby county park that had more wildflowers in full bloom. Here are a few I thought were pretty.
The Wild Bergamot were in full bloom – so pretty!
I had never seen this one, my phone tells me its Rattlesnake Master – I’m so curious why it is called that, and I like the look of them!
This Queen Anne’s Lace was so delicate and pretty. There were so many blooming throughout our walk.
The Weekly Wilbs
It was just too much to resist, he really needed to check out the inside of that bag! It had such a lovely crackle as he scrunched around in there. There was nothing inside, so he didn’t stay too long. That’s my Wilbs, always needing to be in the middle of things!
I hope you are enjoying some lovely Thursday thoughts today, too! Enjoy your day!
Wendy
Fab Farm Friends
23 Comments
nanacathy2
Wow those cherries look amazing. I should go fruit picking !
Mariss Stevens
Beautiful flowers. Thanks for brightening my day.
Stitchin at Home
Leave it to Wilbs, he sure is a character. Pretty flowers.
Diann@LittlePenguinQuilts
Look at those cherries – so pretty and yummy looking! Can you eat them right off the tree, or do they require sugar? Pretty flowers, too! Isn’t it lovely to see them growing wild? And as for Wilbur – I guess you just can’t keep any secrets from him!
Vicki in MN
We saw lots of the black eyed Susan’s up north in the wild, love those. Glad you got your cherries again, 53 pints is a lot!!
texasquiltgal
My goodness, I am always so impressed with your cherry bounty. They are like jewels! You sure got them all processed quickly. Cherry pie would be my first thing to make! Those are beautiful wildflowers. All of the ones around us are baking right now – too hot! Wilbs’ is so precious – he is a hoot!
Helen
I LOVE the black-eyed susans in the vase. Think you might send me that image? It looks like it’s begging to be put on canvas… 🙂
Tracie
I’m still amazed by all those cherries! And the photo is so pretty. But Wilbs steals the show once again! He must not startle easily if he was willing to explore inside the bag. I hope you enjoy your day out with BigJ!
Karen
your “rattlesnake master” looks like Bee Balm I wonder if the plant is related. That had to have been a very long day the cherries are 5 hours from you! then you pick for 2 hours and drive home and process them all right away – I assume you have a machine that spits out the pits? How do you process them – is this into juice or something else? I know you have mentioned them before . That is a long way to go for fresh cherries.
laura bruno lilly
Montmorency cherries are so prolific and the best pie cherries ever – your photo has got my juices going! Happy Thursday Wendy.
Joanna
My husband loves those cherries. In the past we have bought them frozen in 10 pound tubs from a local produce market.
Carol in Texas
There is a shrub growing in our creek bed that much be a button bush. The blossoms look like the rattlesnake balls that you show in today’s blog. The internet says it loves to be wet. Well, poor thing here in central Texas! We are in a drought with no rain in sight. But it comes out every year, freezing back in the winter. It’s a very pretty bush.,,,,quite large by end of summer. I guess in the creek bed its roots can go deep and get moisture.
Rochelle Summers
I was just saying to a friend that you hadn’t written a blog post about cherry picking and wondered if you would do it this year. So happy to hear it came off so well. The walk with all the flowers looks like it was fun. And Wilbs, as always, is the star of the show! Hope your day at work goes well.
Kathleen McCormick
Always love the Door county cherry haul! The wildflowers are so lovely….and Wilbs is just fabulous.
Susan Salo
Love your cherry haul! We have a few glorious weeks of black sweet cherries from the Traverse City area in northern Michigan. So good fresh. I am impressed with all the cherry sauce- what do you put it on?
aquilterstable
oh those cherries! SO good!
Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl
Those cherries look absolutely amazing; is the 5 hour drive to them one way or the round trip? I hope that making the goody bags today is going well, and I certainly got a good chuckle out of Wilbs needing to deep dive into the bag. Happy Thursday! 🙂
Sandi
I have 3 cats but only one, Oscar, loves flowers. When they are in a vase on the table, he doesn’t leave them alone so I usually have to move them. I enjoy seeing pictures of Wilbs.
Eva
Cherry season is always a wonderful time, as well here over the ocean. Could it be that this are no sweet cherries because you did cook them into sauce. What are you doing with cherry sauce? I know the sweet cherries like Susan mentioned. We have been there by accident exactly when the cherry festival was! So much fun and lovely remembering to MI.
So I think if you had a perfect fun day and the car full of cherries it was worth to drive a little bit. You did a day tripp to see something else and had much fun and .. ok.. some work afterwards. But I think this are the saure cherries. And yes my idea was as well could it be a bee balm!?
Hope that Wilbs find a little little treat in the bag as a goody for being such a fotomodel!
You gave sunshine to my little Friday!
Amusives
We have two small cherry trees in our yard and usually they produce lots of tart cherries. This year there are only a handful! Maybe we had a late frost or the weather was hotter and drier than the trees like!
Sally
Those cherries are such a bright red! Wilbur! That tail says it all. LOL
Quilting is in my Blood
I’ve really enjoyed that built-in app on the iPhone to identify plants. It does seem accurate most of the time. And the photo of Wilbs is entertaining as always. I’m glad he brings so much joy to your life!
Angela Grasse
Those cherries so good! Yum.