Planes and Purple Cone Flowers

Over the weekend, we had a big family dinner to say goodbye to Mimi before she heads back to Arizona. Most people enjoyed lobster, a few of us non-lobster folks enjoyed some grilled chicken, and there was both blueberry pie and apple crisp for dessert. It was a veritable feast with great company. Before dinner, the little boys were out playing with their new planes in the yard and I snapped a few shots, until I got dragged into the games with Alex and the boys. I also managed to get a few shots of my favorite late summer/early fall flower - the purple cone flower.

Crash landing


pretty light

Singin the Blues

A few weeks ago, Mimi, my mother-in-law and I all went picking blueberries. It was a gorgeous, sunny morning and the vines were bursting with berries. In an hour and a half, we managed to pick more than 25 pounds of berries and spent the rest of the week flash freezing them and coming up with a million and one uses for blueberries. So far, we've made blueberry cheesecake, blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins and blueberry banana cookies. Up next is blueberry pie. Any awesome blueberry recipes would be greatly appreciated :)

It was definitely an interesting experience for me. I grew up in Nova Scotia, quite literally in wild blueberry country. Wild blueberries are smaller and sweeter and much closer to the ground than highbush berries and researchers seem to think they have more health benefits than their highbush cousins. But wild blueberries don't grow here in Vermont, so I have to make do with the highbush ones. It was definitely an interesting morning when we went picking. I felt a little traitorous to the wild blueberry industry, but I still had a good time, and I've been enjoying the fruits of my labor just the same.

Here are some of the shots from our morning in the blueberry field.











I love the textures and colors in this one!


A similar shot in different lighting with interesting results...