Marionberries!

The marionberries have been exploding over the last couple weeks. Mom's made jam and pies while freezing more for future pies, and giving berriees to friends and family. The berries at Mom & Dad's house descend from the berries my grandparents had more than 30 years ago.

Marionberries are my absolute favorite. They're both tart and sweet. There's a bit of a surprise in every bite, which I love. I don't love picking them. They have these really nasty little stickers. It's the legacy of the marionberry's ancestor, the himalayan blackberry. Sometimes you don't know you've got a sticker embedded in a finger until it festers a few days later.

Unfortunately, marionberries mean that summer is almost over. In a couple weeks I'll be headed back to school and a new crop of students.

New Passport

It's here! My new passport arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm happy to have it, even though no trips are planned right now. I guess I need to start saving my pennies and plan to go somewhere and have some fun.

Sisters Quilt Show

I'd never been to the Sisters Quilt Show. I'm not a quilter, so this event (which is a really big deal to quilters) was not on my "must see" list. Don't take me wrong, there's nothing wrong with quilting, and if I didn't have creative outlets elsewhere, and I was somewhat talented with a sewing machine, I might try it. But I digress....

I had no plans for the weekend, so the parents said "Pack a bag and come along. We'll hang out in Sisters, and do whatever we want." So that's what I did, and we were off to Sisters on Friday morning. The weather was beautiful. We saw some truly gorgeous quilts. Man, are people talented or what? I had a chance to see some of my cousins. It was a good weekend. But most of all, it made me appreciate all hard work that must have gone into those old quilts my grandmother and great-grandmother made. Man. I would never have the patience.

Aunt Bess

I got a call from my dad this morning that Aunt Bess pass away last night. It was not totally unexpected. Her life had been long (96 years) and full. She has children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren surviving her, as well as nieces and nephews.

Aunt Bess would be the first to say that living a long life is hard. I remember one conversation where she now understood how her mother must have felt outliving most of her peers. Granny, my great-grandmother died at 93, after being a widow for more than 30 years.

Bess was sharp. She had trained as a teacher, and the conversations were never dull. Her sense of humor was always in play. But she was the last link to the past. My grandmother, Bess' sister has been gone almost a decade. Losing Bess is not just the loss of her, but the loss of memories of the generations she remembered all the way back to our Oregon Trail pioneers who Bess and Grams knew well.

Raspberry Picking

The fresh berry season continues. Today the parents, sister and I headed out to Childer's Raspberry Farm east of Albany and picked 29 pounds worth of beautiful, giant, red berries! Mom took most of them home, made jam and froze the rest. I kept a few for eating. In fact, I'm chowing down as I write this post.

A week at the lake

The parents and I spent the week at the lake. It's nice to just sit...and do nothing. Well, not exactly nothing...we took walks, fished, took boat rides, swam, ate, napped, read, laid in the sun (Mom worships the sun. Love that Vitamin D!) You get the picture. After all, what else are you going to do camping in places without electricity, wifi and cell service?

The 4th of July is always interesting at the lake. We're surrounded by forest, so fireworks are pretty much a no-no. One year fireworks set a forest fire. Another year, some idiot used gasoline to light the bridge on fire. Luckily the bridge is concrete. This year we saw some really beautiful fireworks, then we saw sheriff's deputies hunt down the offenders (These were not legal Oregon fireworks) and issued citations.