The last of the berries

Our summer has been unusually cold and damp.  We call it "the summer that never was".  So when the blackberries ripened it took me by surprise and they came and went in a matter of weeks.  I was able to gather enough to make one batch of jam and my daughter baked  two delicious pies. Yet this morning, as the sun was still shining brightly on our short Indian summer, I tried to pick the last of the berries for one more batch of jam.  It was slow picking as much of the fruit had dropped off the vines or simply molded. I was selective, though, and got a bucketful.  Blackberry picking teaches you to have a soft touch both with the berries and the very naughty and prickly vines.


Once the bowl has been filled, the berries must be washed and drained.  This is the time to throw out the bad fruit, get rid of leaves and stems and coax the worms and bugs to find another home.  Then comes my grandson's favorite job, squishing the berries.  He does this with much vigor and many interesting sound effects. His hands are bright purple when he is done which delights him even further.

I could take you through the whole process of making jam, but that would just be boring. Needless to say, after a lot of heating, adding pectin and sugar and stirring, more boiling, then ladling into jars you get this finished product.  The rich purple color is beautiful and the flavor of summer lasts all winter long.  Besides all that, I know what ingredients have gone into my jam. It also gives me a great deal of satisfaction to harvest something from my land.  By the way, it's also fabulous on ice cream!

I have long admired botanical watercolors.  In an attempt to use that descriptive style with my fairy art I painted this watercolor.  I call it "Berry Buddies".  The painting shows three stages of growth for the blackberry vine.  The flowering stage, the green berries, then the full ripe black berries.  The little fairies are playing on the vines and wearing the foliage of the bush.  It reminds me of when I was young playing with my "berry" best friend, Susan.

THE BLUE BIRDBATH

My mother had a beautiful blue ceramic birdbath.  It was broken.   Over the past few winters it has seen some hard times.  The bowl cracked is so many places, and it leaked water faster than we could fill it.  Something had to be done. My sister and I repaired it with caulk which I'm sure would have worked for another winter, but I thought that wouldn't halt the dis-repair for long.  I decided to mosaic the inside of the bowl.  We went to Goodwill and bought a set of 8 plates that seemed the right color. I stuck a couple in a paper bag and hit them with a hammer until the pieces were the right size. I eventually employed all 8 plates.

I used the rims of the plates along the rim of the birdbath because they were already curved and rounded on the edges.

Then I fit in the smaller pieces starting at the top and working towards the basin.  I glued them with a tile mastic as I placed them. The mastic stayed fairly damp so I could move them if I chose.

I let the finished product sit for 24 hours.  The next day I grouted it with a premixed white grout. First I applied it with a putty knife then coaxed the grout into the little spaces with a dry paint brush. When all the areas were filled I took a wet towel and started wiping out the excess grout.

At times I got a little over zealous with my wiping and had to add a bit of grout. When I removed as much as I could, I started polishing with a dry towel until all the pieces gleamed. I had to tell myself to quit or I'd still be polishing that one last piece.

The finished product back on it's stand.  You can see on the outside of the bowl where it had cracked and been repaired.  I think this solution will last more than one winter.

I hope the birds will like this.  It's bright and cheerful and now holds water proudly.

By the way, I underestimated the length of time it would take me to do this project.  I thought I could do the tile work in 1 day but it took me 3.  Then I had to wait for it to dry before I could grout and then that had to dry.  So really it took me about a week.

On to something new.........