SWEET BRIAR COTTAGE JOURNAL: MEMORIAL DAY

Hello dear friends!  First, I would like to thank all those that have served and are serving our country and to all their families.  Your sacrifice is never forgotten here!

Well!  Spring has finally arrived in all its rosy and violet glory!  One day the trees were bare and stark, the next the lanes are canopied in soft yellow-green fronds.  As long as I live, I will always be in awe of nature and of spring. The lilacs have begun to bloom, just as they have every spring, cold or not.  How do they know that it is May? 

Lilacs are my very favorite flower and my very favorite lilac is Beauty of Moscow, a pretty double white.  It is acting coy, just popping open one bud at a time, slowly, like popcorn in a warming pan.  Perhaps next week it will bloom.   I guess anything worthwhile is worth waiting for is the lesson I am to draw from it. In the meantime I will enjoy the anemones blooming in the white garden.

Memorial Day weekend is also the official opening weekend of the tourist season around here.  Oh my!  So many people, so much  traffic and noise!  Jamie set out for a walk, but came back after waiting fifteen minutes to cross the street.  Only last week, you could have shot a cannon down Main Street and not hit a soul.  So we retreated to our orchard for peace and quiet.  We have procrastinated in digging a fire pit  for eons, but decided this weekend would be it.  It only took about 15 minutes!  Why did we put it off so long? 

I plan to do a lot of campfire cookery this summer because  a.) it's fun and b.) it saves on electricity.  It also just tastes better.  Even if you can't afford a vacation, you  can vacation in your own backyard.  When the boys were little, we would make up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sit on a blanket under a tree and read all day or study the clouds.  In the evening we would look for shooting stars and  UFOs  :).   You see, children don't really care about the money you spend on a vacation, what they really want is your undivided attention.  So  never feel sad or guilty because you can't give your children some expensive trip to Disneyland, I couldn't, and I don't think any of my children grew up any worse for not having those things.

Two nearby villages, Caseville and Harbor Beach, held their village-wide garage sales this weekend, also.  We found a few things, not much that was remarkable, just practical.  Ever since they put shows like American Pickers on TV, people have an unrealistic idea of the value of their junk!  But it was fun just to drive around and soak in all the beautiful scenery.  We turned down one country lane and I spotted my dream home!  It was an old farmhouse, silvered and sun bleached.  The old tin roof was falling in.  But I could envision taking all that old wood  and  perfectly rusted tin roofing,   and building my dream home.  After the furnace incident and dealing with zoning laws, I really have a desire to chuck it all and go live in a cabin off -the-grid.  It would just be one big harvest room with a big wood cook stove for heat.  And it would be far away from everything, especially  building inspectors and tax assessors!  And no big flower gardens, just big banks of orange day lilies and of course a lilac bush or two.  Ah well, one can dream can't they?

I said I wouldn't but I did (!)  can asparagus.

I just couldn't see it go to waste.  Plus this year has been a real bear, financially and I'm not about to waste free food!  We still haven't received the bill for the furnace, so we stopped in the plumber to ask for it but it wasn't prepared yet.  But the receptionist was rather cryptic, stating that there were some pretty expensive parts that needed to be replaced.  Sigh!  Then, this weekend our car's "check engine" light came on.  When it rains it pours!   I'm always so thankful for our bountiful gardens and well-stocked pantry to help see us through tough times.  We haven't bought a cartload of groceries in months.  Thank goodness! So don't let anyone dissuade you from stocking an emergency pantry.  You never know when your "times of troubles" may come!

Thrifty Things We Did This Week

Got free compost from the village for our garden. (They mulch and compost all the leaves in the fall and the villagers can take it for free.)
Canned eight pints asparagus.
Bought more canning jars at the garage sales.
Ate out of the pantry.
Hung the laundry out on the line.
Planted corn, potatoes and  pumpkins that we had saved the seeds from last year.
Vacationed at home.
Picked lilacs for floral arrangements.
Gathered things for a garage sale.
Harvested asparagus and yes, rhubarb from the garden (hopefully next week, we'll have lettuce.)
Killed the weeds growing by spraying vinegar with dish soap.