Christmas trees in July
Things are bowling along at their use pace of summer intensity round here. I have to give credit to my mother's vision and optimism - I swear it was only a few years ago when she planted three cherry trees, refusing to plant any more because "when they grow, we'll have too many cherries, and we won't know what to do with them all". At the time her statement seemed a bit "pie in the sky" (cherry pie, that is), and almost laughable after our hired help mowed down one of the trees with the whipper snipper. Over the next few years the trees grew in fits and starts, and produced around 10 cherries each, which we never got to eat, because a flock of starlings would turn up right at the time they were ripe, eating them all in one fell swoop.
But not this year!! Oh no. Mum and I decided to wreck the starlings' summer, and covered the trees in alfoil, which made shiny, rustling christmas decorations in the trees to scare away the birds. Didn't do much for the wasps though, who came in droves when the cherries got ripe. I spent a week in July fighting with the wasps for the cherries, and ended up with WAY too much jam and pie filling, with more cherries in rags, being munched on by fat, happy wasps. So in my desperation, I had to resort to making bottles of...
Latvian olives. You know, cherries with lots of sugar and vodka on top. Let it sit until New Year's Eve, makes for a tasty celebration. You wanna come over?
The fields are totally amazing at the moment, because our neighbour hasn't yet mown everything. The wildflowers are over the kids heads in a lot of places, and when you walk in the field you can see the inspiration for Latvian folk costume colours, right there in the field. Lots of subtle shades of browns and greens and yellows and purples.
I could go on, but summer is galloping, galloping, and I actually started this post weeks ago. Need to post it so that I can write another one about the rest of the goings on in our part of the world. Over and out.
Sveiciens no Australija....yes I would love to come over...you never know one of these days I might get there...it would be great to see the birthland of my Parents ...Dzintra
Love those grasses in the fields. I love it! xx