Ten Little Celebrations – June 2024

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June 2024 ---- the transition to the heat of summer ---- celebrating June days.

Sunflower in the window…following the sun. I cut a sunflower from my wildflower garden and put the vase on the windowsill in my office…and celebrated when that it followed the sun!

Peachicks. I had never seen a peachick before and had walked more than halfway around the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, MO before I spotted three peachicks with a peahen. Celebration! The young birds already had the beginning of the topknot on their heads but none of the iridescent color.

Corn muffins. Sometimes deciding to make a food remembered from childhood is about celebrating more that the food itself. The dash of cayenne pepper in the batter provided an extra flavor pop.

Mowing the whole yard. My plan at the beginning of the season was to mow the front yard on one day and the back another…but I am doing great mowing both on the same day. I am celebrating that I am physically able to do more than I anticipated!

Blueberries. Picking blueberries was another first this June. I celebrated the experience – and that the orchard is less than 30 minutes from my house.

Breakfast with my daughter. My daughter wanted to try breakfast at a coffee shop she frequents…invited me to meet her there. I celebrated the serendipity of the event (and savored the breakfast  and spending more time with my daughter too).

Hummingbird. I’ve seen a hummingbird buzzing around our yard several times. I celebrate every sighting and am determined to plant some ‘big nectar’ plants for them for next year.

Young robin. I celebrated seeing a small robin – about half the size of the adult feeding it – on our backyard fence. And it could fly!

So many good books. There are so many books available electronically from my local library and Internet Archive that I am never without reading material. I celebrate living at a time when technology makes books so available.

Scissortail flycatchers in the neighborhood. I hadn’t seen scissortail flycatchers in our neighborhood during the two previous summers….so am celebrating seeing a pair of them this month!

Picking Blackberries

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Last week’s ‘new to me’ activity was picking blueberries. I’ve picked strawberries before, but not blueberries. A quick search got me to the UPickFarmsUSA site and I quickly found a farm close to me – Ozark Mountain Orchard…followed the links to their website and Facebook page. My daughter and I made plans and then headed out the next morning while the temperature was still in the 70s. It had rained the night before, but the sun was shining and the forecast had the day warming up fast. The check-in area was well-organized with buckets lined with plastic bags and belts to attach the buckets around your waist so both hands were free to pick berries. The rows to pick were marked with turquoise noodles.

The goal was to pick berries that were ripe (i.e. blue) but not squishy. I did more one-hand picking because of that. The stems on the ripe berries were very easy to pick…so if there was a ripe clump, it was worthwhile to use two hands so none of them dislodged onto the ground rather than a hand. I didn’t make it down to the end of my row before I was hot and tired. My daughter agreed. We headed up the hill to the check-in area to weight our bags and discovered we had both picked about 4 pounds of berries!

We put our bags in an ice chest I had brought….and relaxed with some blueberry lemonade before heading home. When I got home, I immediately rinsed and froze more than half my berries to use in smoothies!

I already have plans for next season – starting earlier in the season (when we went it was probably past the mid-point of the season) and going twice to load up my freezer with blueberries even more! Maybe my sister would be interested in bringing her grandson along --- a great ‘field trip.’