Saturday morning the boys and I hit the Amherst Farmers Market, bright and early. The farmers, the bakers, the cheese makers, those are my kind of people. Everyone is so sweet and everything smells delicious, even the dirt. We picked up some tomato plants from Simple Gifts Farm in Amherst - that's the farm we bought a half-share in this year, so you'll be hearing a lot about them as the summer goes on. We also bought some super-delicious cheeses, a loaf of bread and some bacon and sausage, rhubarb and one quart of organic-grown-in-the-ground-in-a-green-house-strawberries. Oh my! And Oh Crisp!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday after a long weekend of work, Stephen opened the pool. Every year the children greet this moment like a second Christmas Morning. For two weeks Declan has been eyeing the pool longingly, trying so hard not to ask "when?"
I was sure they'd last about two minutes...I didn't realize Stephen had had it running for a week through the solar heater...they lasted a full hour...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will conclude the weekends adventure with this. A small defeat, but I was so unprepared for it. Royal icing flowers for cupcakes. They call them drop flowers, as though they just "drop" out of the pastry bag. Easy, right? The first scoop of frosting was so stiff it almost broke my spatula. I pulled a muscle in my hand trying to squeeze it through the pastry bag, seriously. So, I added more water. "This is more like it!" I thought. Oh, how naive. I actually had trouble getting the third pastry bag out of my hand, which had contracted into a perfect claw...maybe royal icing is a bit too advanced for me...maybe the person who authored that Wilton cake decorating brochure is some kind of sadist... For now I will be grateful that I can type with one hand...
