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