The soybeans may be a total loss, but our fruit trees have been loving the warm weather.

Michael picked a huge bowl of itty bitty cherries on July 2nd. We babysat on the 3rd and then spent two movies worth of time on the 4th pitting them. Breaking out the laptop turned an otherwise arduous obligation into a fun afternoon.

This year’s jam turned out jewel-like and scrumptious.

We netted 15 jars of cherry, which came out to about an hour’s worth of work per jar. We are debating whether to pick the remaining cherries or let the birds have them.

Our apricots produced fruit for the first time in years. Michael used to shake the trees to get the fruit to fall. They have gotten so big he propped the tall ladder in small branches to reach the fruit. I held the ladder as he poked about with a four-foot ruler, knocking them down around my ears.

We netted about 2 dozen jars of apricot gold with not as many hours of labor.

Our black currant bush suffered damage a few years ago and still hasn’t fully recovered. We gathered 4 cups of berries, which gave us 5 cups of jam.

You know we love you a lot if we give you black currant jam.

Our breakfast table is adorned with jewel-like colors. Perfect with Michael’s whole grain rolls.

I’ve been singing on my morning walks, telling the bears that all the berries are “way off over there, there ain’t nothing here, we don’t need no bears! Oh bear oh bear, I have a dog. He’s a worthless dog, but you don’t know that bear.” My singing is such that the bears run when they hear me: at last, having been denied musicality pays off!