Small Town Delights~

This past weekend was our town's annual Raspberry Festival. Raspberries are a huge crop in Whatcom Country and we celebrate that with style!!!

 There's a great little 3 on 3 basketball tournament which is so fun to watch, especially the little kids!

Downtown is all closed off and hoops line the streets! A lot of the high schoolers help with coaching, reffing and score-keeping, and lots of volunteers keep things running smoothly.

Tyler played in the tournament for a number of years...

But the first year was especially sweet...

as they took home first place!

It's always fun to be a champion!!

Lots of food and craft vendors...

Jazz bands perform (those two little girls were singing!)...

And tons of raspberries and ice cream for the bargain price of $1.00!

And for the past few years and antique car show has been added. It seems to grow bigger every year! I have to admit that I wouldn't mind having at least one of these, but which one??? (warning: boatload of photo's coming up!)

The owner said these were Mother-in-law seats!!

I adore these old trucks...Volkswagen is still my favorite, but the Ford works too...and that color??? LOVE!!!

I really like this color...can you tell?

This backseat was the size of a couch! And I love the way the doors open!

Really like the yellow on this one.

This van was pretty cool! You sure could take a lot of people with you!

Gotta love the drive-in tray. Remember those good old A&W days?

There were so many of these gorgeous cars...I think having a matching vintage trailer would be sooo fun!!

Hubby and I enjoyed our few hours downtown. We haven't gone to the Razz fest for a few years...forgot how fun it is!!

What festivals do you have? If you ever want to visit ours, it's always the third Saturday in July!!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of something else Lynden is know for...their hanging baskets! Wish Mine looked like these!

Glorious!!

Pickling

Today is nice and cool...a lovely marine layer has presented itself and does it ever feel good!! Just a little too hot and humid for me yesterday...all you Washingtonians will understand this, while the rest of the nation scoffs at my wimpiness!!!

Went out to the garden early this morning to set up the sprinkler and pick some raspberries. I noticed that I had some cauliflower and broccoli ready to pick...a lot of it!!!

So...I decided to do some canning.

I got this recipe from a local Boxx Berry Farm, years ago and really like it. About three years ago I decided to use it to pickle some vegetables and have used it for that ever since!!!

ELLA'S DILL PICKLES

In clean jars, place sprigs of dill and slices of garlic.  (I load mine up!)
Pack tightly with cleaned cucumbers.

In a large pot, bring to a boil: 1 quart white vinegar
                                                2 quarts water
                                                2/3 c salt

Cover and boil for 15 minutes...the recipe says to "cover the kettle"...love that!

Keeping your jars hot, pour brine over cukes and seal. They may be processed in a water bath for 5 minutes if they don't seal or if you just want to be safe.

I actually use my mom's dill pickle recipe for regular pickles, but i love this brine for refrigerator pickles. I don't process them, just keep them in the fridge...they last at least a year this way.



ANYWAY....back to my vegies!

This is a big tub! There are 4 heads of cauliflower, 2 heads of cabbage and the bottom is full of broccoli...not to mention the abundance in the refrigerator!

Ignore, for awhile, what the postman just delivered to your door...(this is my second fall magazine this week!)

Get out your big jars...mine are half gallon size, and wash them up. You can sterilize them, but I put them away really clean and just give them another good wash before I use them. It helps to have a cute old colander to rinse the vegies in!

Cut some fresh dill from your garden...or buy some at the farmer's market. I have a few volunteers in the garden and  so I used that.

Cut up the vegies you want...I always use cauliflower, onions, celery and garlic, but this time I added carrots and some radishes too. We'll see how that works out!

Fill your jars with dill and garlic. Mix all the vegies together in a big bowl so you get something of everything in each jar. Nibble if you feel the urge!

After the jars are filled and you're waiting for the brine to be ready, make yourself a bowl of garden fresh beets! Add a glob of butter and lots of salt and take a glance at that mail that came...just a glance! And remember tonight that you had beets earlier in the day...you know what I mean...

Add brine and put your lids on. If I use regular canning lids it usually seals, but doesn't really matter as it's kept in the fridge. I like these plastic lids by ball...no rusting and easy to use.

That's it! Summer fresh vegies all year! Now...off to read my magazine!!

Short, but Sweet...literally!

Picked some fresh raspberries this morning for breakfast.

And then added some of this...

Oh...the joy!!!!

You're welcome!!

The Rest of the Weekend...

A little continuation of the weekend...Sunday Bliss!!

The weather here is finally BEAUTIFUL! Sunny, not too hot, but hot enough and a great breeze out here at our place.

After church on Sunday we thought it would be nice to be around water somewhere...Lake Whatcom? Bellingham Bay? Semiahmoo? Whiterock?  Just didn't have it in us to go home, pack up, drive around and be surrounded by people. So.....we went to our own "beach"!!!

Brian raked the beach, set up the chairs and umbrella and blew up the floatie toys!

I packed a picnic lunch and drinks, set up the iPod speakers, gathered some books and magazines and walked the 50 feet to the pond!

When we first moved here, 8 years ago, you could hardly see the pond. Covered in blackberries, we set to work on clearing things out.

The neighbor's section was pretty...

But ours was a mess!

 Cleared one side the first year and then worked on the back.

The kids would swim on the neighbor's side, but you couldn't even access it on our side!

 

There was a lot of pond weed...not fun to swim in!!! After some research, we were able to get some grass carp for the pond. They've been in almost three summers and this was the year they were hungry!!! We started with five, but only have three now. There is hardly any junk in the pond at all!!!

It's so beautiful now!!

We added a little beach...

 And that is where we spent the day. It was WOnderFul!!! We ate, read, floated, swam, listened to music and had a few cat naps!!! No driving, parking, hauling, searching for a spot....and nice clean bathrooms just a few yards away!!

We're loving our "new found" get away!!!!

In fact, I'm headed out there now!!! I have a few things I need to catch up on!!

Enjoy the sunshine!