It is Friday! - M.Wigham update, hockey and the Farmer's Market

It is always nice when Friday rolls around here during the summer, for that means no hockey tonight and through the weekend. I know that my boys would protest to something like that, but for me...one of the main chaufer drivers I am estatic as the arrival of Friday & the weekend!

However, I can't complain too much about this week. For our carpooling routine has been very kind to us. DH and I have taken turns driving the group of boys down and back from the rink for the day camp and the other families we carpool with have been doing the evening camp. If I go down to the rink during the day, I use that time to enjoy a good work out in the fitness room down there while still having time to get in some stitching!

I have made some progress on Mary Wigham this week and here is a status photo of the Gold motif I finished...and the start to the motif I am stitching in Oatmeal:

Mary Wigham
Gold Leaf Motif
(and above...the motif I am stitching in Oatmeal)

The section I have been stitching lately is section 6...however I skipped the middle section, which is section 5. Why? because that is the section where Mary Wigham's name is and because the graph sizes aren't quite the same size, so they don't match up very well when you cut/tape them together. In fact I noticed that section 5, 7, 8, 9 tend to be slightly smaller graph sizes and don't easily match up; thus, it can't be easily taped together to create one big master graph to stitch from. So I will definitely need to find the patience to continue stitching M.Wigham because I would love to finish this BAP before the end of the year!

Ok, enough rambling about M.Wigham...and on to another topic...

Farmer's Markets! Since moving to California almost 9 years ago, one of my favorite things that occur here are the Farmer's Markets. Last summer, a small local farmer's market started at a park that is 1.5 miles from us. It occurs every Thursday evening and since I haven't had to drive down to the rink in the evenings I have been visiting the local market and picking up some of the fresh produce that is coming in from the local farms right now. This time of the year is the "pit-fruit" or "stone-fruit" season. Which means that there is a wonderful selection of nectarines, plums, apricots and all the hybrids.

My Pit-Fruit selection from Thursday's Farmer's Market trip

The hybrids or cross-breeds (?) are very interesting and many are very good taste combinations. First up is the:

APRICOT + PLUM = APRIUM

Starting with the top-right-yellow fruit = apricots...the lower-right-purple fruit = plums..
mix them together and you get the middle-left-light redish/yellowish fruit = apriums
They taste like a plum with the texture of an apricot. The skin is also slightly fuzzy like an apricot

PEAR + NECTARINE = PEARINE



Top = Nectarine...Bottom = Pearine
(no pears as it is not the season for them)
I haven't taken the opportunity to taste these yet; however because it was the first time I saw this hybrid, I thought I would get a few and bring home to try. I'll let you know what they are like next time.

There are other combinations, like the PLOUT which is a real sweet plum. However, there were no pluots available at the market last night.  I did get a few other items, such as:

Heirloom Tomatoes

Have you ever tried the Heirloom Tomatoes. It is interesting, to me at least, how different each one tastes. I think my favorite are the ones that have more yellow and orange. The green/red one in the upper right-hand corner is a very strange taste, but I thought I would go ahead and get one. Might be good with something we might cook up over the weekend.

Last, but definitely not least...I got some:

Blackberries and Raspberries. Oh, my...it is heaven! When you put one of those large, lusious black berries in your mouth and those little pillows "pop" in your mouth...OMG!

Well, on that note. I wish you all a BERRY good and FRUITY weekend! Take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa



Life’s events move so rapidly we seldom relish the moments individually, but each day teems with tiny gifts divinely designed for our well-being.

The woman smiled at in the grocery store yesterday or the man acknowledged on the bus last week felt special.

And we were softened, too, by our expression. We change, and we change our world when we acknowledge one another’s presence in it.

The wonderful reality is that we are in another’s world because of the special qualities we each have and are able to share with one another.

~unattributed

It is Friday...yahoo! Although as I have figured out over the last 6, or so, months whether it is a weekday or the weekend, days seem to run together when one has a family business and 2 very busy kids. Gone are the days when Friday signaled the beginning of a weekend of R&R and an end to a week of craziness. Now all our days includes some sort of early morning activity, mid-day excitment and evening something-or-other.

Nevertheless, this week we have been blessed with quiet evenings and last night was not exception. Without evening hockey, the boys and I went down to our new (and small) farmer's market that the city has started to host on Thursday evenings in a local park. With about 12-20 food & farm booths and a stage for some fun entertainment, it is the perfect size for the community...giving it that small town, neighborhood feel. Summer time brings in all the delicious pit fruits - apricots, plums, pluots, aprums, nectarines (white & yellow), peaches (white & yellow)....all from the tree to your kitchen taste...yummy. After sampling the different kinds of "pit" fruits, we purchased a bag mixed with all the different kinds. In addition, many of the summer vegetables were also started to come in from the local farm fields (California has many areas where they grow all the delicious fruits and vegetables that many across the US get to enjoy - and this is the time of the year that it is plentiful fresh from the fields at the farmer's markets)...

I was excited to see the tomatoes, especially since I have been so busy that I didn't get a chance to clean out my little patch of land and plant any this year. I was also glad to find this stand, because they were selling their Heirloom tomatoes (in the back corner of the photo above) at the same price as their "on the vine" red tomatoes. Many time the Heirlooms are sold at a higher price; but I was able to purchase some delicious Heirlooms at a good price.
 

The summer squash is also starting to be harvested...I loved the way that this booth displayed all of their vegetables...with nice fabrics, straw baskets and fun chalkboard signs.

In addition to the fruit and vegetable vendors, there was also a soap maker, some bakeries and a honey booth:

This lady set up her stand with a live honeycomb frame, showing the bees at work (the frame was in a plex-i holder so there were no worries about being stung). She was giving samples of the different honeys she was selling - clover honey, sunflower honey, orange blossom honey, etc. Each one does have it's one unique flavor, believe it or not. White boxes of bee hives can be found in the fields of many citrus orchards, pit fruit fields and almond fields up and down the California fields. These bees help pollenate the flowers in the spring time.

After we loaded ourselves up with fruit, tomatoes and fresh Blue Lake green beans we went over to the food booths, where the boys got some grilled chicken kabobs, egg rolls and crab rangoon all of which was snacked on during our short ride home. Before jumping in the car, we ran into some neighborhood friends along the way. It was nice to have this opportunity to chat with them - to find out what they have been up to (they were one of many families who have been hit with "bad" times including foreclosure on their house, loosing money in a business and she was diagnosed with breast cancer) - that is where the neighborhood feel comes in...when you see folks you haven't seen in awhile and catch up. That is really what makes this farmer's market special.

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Tonight starts hockey tryout weekend. Robert has his first skate this evening. With any youth sport, trying out seems to bring out the loony side of the parents...hockey is no different. Worries of tryouts have been discussed even before last season was over with. It is amazing how obsessed we all get with regards to youth sports - who is trying out where, who are the coaches, who is manipulating the system so their child gets on the best team....ugh! On the flip side of tryouts, it does bring together the hockey community and there are many people we haven't seen since the season was over, so it is like a reunion. But, given all the stress involved in tryouts, the 'good' feeling of reuniting with the hockey families is sometime shortlived.

Anyway, like mentioned, Robert (older son) has his first skate this evening and Matthew (younger son) has his tomorrow morning. DH will have the privilege of driving down to the rink and emerging himself in the tryout stress for I will be at store #2 tomorrow and store #1 on Sunday :)

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Well, that is about all I have to share on a Friday morning. I didn't get in any stitching last night due to the late return home from the farmer's market, but I am hoping that I will tonight so I can finish the row I have been working on in the Family Sampler - then I can post some photos of the status of this project.

Until next time, remember...
Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa