Fruity Cordials

I will pick the last of the raspberries from the patch tonight and head out to a local orchard (Cherry Hill) tomorrow for my last batch of fresh picked cherries. I need a few more pie cherries to dry and maybe make a cherry crisp.

After every batch of jam I've made the past few weeks, there has been enough berries to do something with, but not enough for another batch of jam. What to do?! Then, I remembered a good friend saying something about cordial so I searched the internet for recipes. Be careful what you seek, there are nearly as many cordial recipes as there are people who drink cordial.

The raspberry cordial (on the right) is made with 2 lbs. of whole berries, 2 cups of vodka and 1 cup of sugar. It took about 5 days for the sugar to dissolve and the fruit to start breaking down. You can see a layer of seeds at the bottom of the jar.

The cherry cordial is made with a mix of bing and rainier cherries. I had two large bowls full of cherries and am home alone for a few days. It contains 2 lbs. cherries, 2 cups sugar, 3 whole allspice, 1 cup of brandy and 1 cup of rum. Hopefully the bing cherries will add some of their deep red color to the mix. I don't like the dirty look of the rum/brandy mix. The sugar dissolved better in this mixture, but you can still see a thin film of sugar at the bottom of the jar. I'm sure this is going to be one "sweet" drink when it is ready.

I used these wonderful 2 quart Kerr canning jars that I rescued from my aunt's garage. As a kid I remember her making grape juice in them - it was wonderful stuff. I'm hoping these cordial recipes turn out as well.

Another Beastie

Look who moved into the flower beds!

The kids have named him Fred the Frog. He serenades us from his home among the newly planted hydrangea when the evening air begins to cool.

His nearest neighbor was Tim and Spider, who built a very complex web near the patio door. Tim apparently didn't like it here very much, he "moved out" while we were away from home Sunday.

Mother's Day

Sunday morning I got my wish, a scenic drive up Mt. Spokane to see the sights and take a few photos. There wasn't much of note, but the view from (nearly) the top was fantastic.

Upon our return home, we dug right into our weekend project. There were two stumps from former ornamental Japenese Lace Leaf Maple trees. This weekend we removed one of the stumps and replaced it with a new tree.

Moving the decorative rock is just tedious, made worse by screams from Keeli of "don't hurt the roly-poly" and waiting while she relocates the little bugs. Stubby was really into the digging part, she just wasn't very focused on helping.

When it was time to place the tree in the hole, we realized after dropping it in the hole was far too deep for our little tree.

After we got it out of the hole, Rick left me holding it perched on the edge while he filled the bottom of the hole back in.

The little tree looks right at home. You can see the potten hydrangea under the basement windows. Those will be planted in the coming week to replace some small shrubs that didn't survive the winter well.

May Flowers

The air around our home is aromatic with the scents of lilacs and Russian olive trees in bloom.

Lilacs line the south side of the garden. There is a large lilac "forest" in the traditional dark and light purple colors and one white lilac tree.

Next to the house the clematis has its first blooms of the year. This one is against the east facing side of the house. The red clematis on the south side of the house hasn't yet bloomed.

I am waiting for my favorite flower, the peony, the bloom. The buds are about the size of the end of my thumb this week.

The original start of this flower was dug up from my parent's home when I was first married. Family legend has it my great-grandmother planted it there. It traveled to our first apartment together then back to our hometown (three blocks from my parents' home). Then, after college to another apartment where it lived in a big pot and to our first home. This is the first year since moving to our current home five years ago that it will bloom.

Now, please send good vibes that the wind won't blow the blooms apart the day they open.