We're over a month in summer and although the temperatures have been blessedly 'moderate' nature is starting to look somewhat parched around the edges already.
The big thistle in my 'lawn' is flowering profusely now and the bees are buzzing in and around it ..

                                     

Some of the flowers are already spend and their fluffy seeds are starting to fly in the wind. 
I try to catch some of it before it can spread and I've seen the Goldfinches going for them as well!                                                                 

                    

                                           

The pond is receding rapidly which gives room for the annual appearance of Penny-royal, also called mosquito plant or pudding grass, on the banks:

           

Penny-royal is a pungent mint that spreads rapidly along the ground which grows in flooded or seasonally wet areas. 
Their tiny leaves send out the aroma of mint when brushed or stepped on and its lavender flowers are very attractive to bees.
I picked some for inside but the smell might be a little too pungent ... we'll see.

The first blackberries are ripening. They look better than they taste though, most are still a tad too sour:

                          

The temperatures have been on the rise for a few days now and today we reached 85F.
Thank goodness for AC!
The birds are happily splashing in the birdbaths, from which until now they've mostly only been drinking ... 

        

 I guess they get hot as well ...

                           

                           

We went Blueberry picking at Wallace Farm on Friday, when it was a surprisingly cool, overcast day.

The bushes were overloaded with beautiful, large and ripe berries which made for very easy and fast picking.

                                                                    

It took us only an hour to pick the 2 gallons we'd set our limit to! Despite having a little freezer in the shed, we just don't have enough space for more.
After washing, freezing and packaging we ended up with 12.6 pounds, 0.6 more than last year, which (if we're a little frugal, but hey, I'm Dutch) should get us through the winter.

Talking about winter, I baked something we usually only eat in winter, and very specifically only at Old/New Year's .... oliebollen!

In my hometown of Den Helder in the Netherlands there's a yearly 'Kermis' (Fun Fair) that takes place in July. 
Besides all the rides and other food stalls there's always an 'oliebollenkraam' and I would never miss the opportunity to get some.

Each year I say I'll bake them in the summer, to keep up that tradition, but I never do.
But guess what? This year I did! (Only a little late since the Kermis was 2 weeks ago but who's counting?)

Yum, yum, yum!

I 'only' made half a batch (12 balls), which was a lot faster than the full one I make for New Years, and it was so easy to do that I really don't know why I never did it before ..

Next year .. no more excuses!

 

I'd kept my eyes on the u-pick farms around us and it seemed to be about the right time to go out and pick some of our favorite fruits to stock up the freezer so we drove to Dallas for a visit to Perryhill Farm.
We'd gone there last years as well and were happy with the quality, ease of picking and their prices. 

          

The raspberries were a little disappointing, they had obviously already been picked over, and we had to work a little bit harder than last time to find the best ones. 
It took us 2 hours to do so, but we ended up with a decent haul.

The peaches were absolutely gorgeous and the trees were loaded so we had to restrain ourselves after 20 minutes to not end up with more than we could handle (like we did last year!).

Last year we'd brought buckets but the peaches ended up rather bruised by their own weight by the time we got home, so this time we took some (cookie) sheets with us so we could transport them in a single layer, which worked much better!

We ended up with 13 pounds of raspberries, almost twice the amount we got last year, which was exactly what we wanted since we'd ran out a little too early!

The peaches came in at 29 pounds, a little over half of last year, which was perfect as well since we still have quite a few bags left in the freezer!

It took me the whole weekend to get everything peeled, sliced, frozen and bagged but they're done! 
Next up are blueberries, which we're going to pick at a farm close by and blackberries, which grow everywhere around us in the wild, so those we'll get for free.
Since we've started to make smoothies for breakfast three times a week we go through a lot more fruit than we used to so it's nice to get them a lot cheaper this way and, most important, free of pesticides!

                                 

This little cutey is a Red Robin. 
He's looking kind of lonesome there which is because his sibling decided to take the plunge and leave the nest ... and ended up at our pick-nick table!

 

       

I stepped out the front door and there he was .. he stayed absolutely still while I observed him for a while and took some pictures.
I finally decided to go back inside and watch him through the window. 
He started to move around a bit and when a few minutes later one of his parents showed up with a beak full of worms he fluttered to the ground and followed him/her around to be fed and be guided to safety.
I hope he learned to fly a little better quickly!

 

Another youngster showed up on my walk this week. I hadn't seen this white mare for a while but this time she showed up with this pretty foal: 

 

          

 

I also hadn't been to the river for a while. Not since a cop had stopped me and told me I wasn't allowed to walk alongside the railroad to get there.
I've been using the road instead but its really too dangerous to do so. 
There's no sidewalk, the speed limit is 55 m/h and with two saw-mills nearby the logging trucks are quite scary to encounter!

So I too the risk of getting stopped, and possibly be fined this time around, and walked beside the railroad again.
It was a Saturday, on which there a NO trains at all (this is the train-track from the mills) so there is no risk at all, but I guess its private property .
Oh well, I was fine of course, or lucky .. no cops!

                                                 

                                                 

   
The river, and the little waterfall, was beautiful as ever, still with quite a lot of water running and I came across a pretty doe, who was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her.
 

She just suddenly appeared .. and wasn't very scared at all. 

  

This large native Thistle I decided not to mow down this Spring, just to see what it what do, is starting to flower and it looks like the butterflies appreciate it!

                                                                                                             

I've seen bees upside down in the flowers as well, covered with pollen and I even saw a Hummingbird drinking from it!
Apparently they have a high sugar content and they are also drawn to the plants to collect soft thistle seed fuzz, which they use as a safe, natural material to line their nests.

I'm glad I saved it, I think it's a nice feature-plant as well.

Let's see, what else did I do than peeling and slicing peaches for hours ..  o yes, I baked a Clafoutis!
Huh .. ?
A Clafoutis is a french pastry/desert, often made with cherries, but peaches (or any fruit) are fine as well.                                       
 

                

It's basically a simple batter of milk, eggs, sugar and flour (and maybe some almond extract, cinnamon or vanilla). The fruit goes in first and than you pour the batter over it.
The batter will rise and immediately fall when you take it out of the oven and what you get is a sort of cross between a flan and a dutch-baby.

Deliciously light and not overly sweet and just perfect with a nice cup of coffee on a beautiful sunny morning in the shade of the RV.

                                           

Temperatures have been holding around 70 for almost a week now but the last couple of days we've been creeping slowly towards the 80s and it looks like we're going over that in a couple of days. 

       Oh well, I knew it was coming ... 'only' 2 more months of summer (if we're lucky)!

Yesterday, the 4th of July, America celebrated 250 years of independence!

We thought about maybe attending the celebrations in the town of Independence, which is about 45 minutes to the south from us, which would probably have been fun but in the end we decided against it .
They anticipated a lot more than the already 20.000 people they normally get, it being the 250th, and traffic and parking most likely was going to be a zoo, so we stayed here in Willamina for some good old, small-town-America, festivities.



James went golfing, as he does almost every year, and I walked into town for the little 'fair' or 'vendor row' as they called it.
The weather was gorgeous and there were a lot of people strolling around the colorful booths ... Tie-dye anyone?

                          

                        

Quite a lot of people were decked out in red-white and blue. I totally forgot to make an effort ... shame on me ..

                                            

The hamburger chef at Coyote Joe's showed off his patriotic colors ...


  
I wasn't interested in the car-show and we'd seen the lumber-jack activities last year so I went back home and spent a lazy day reading and relaxing. 

When James got home later that afternoon we threw a nice rib-eyed steak on the BBQ:

                                


He at least had golfed with a red-white and blue golf ball which by some miracle he managed not to loose! Must have been a great round!

                                      

Father cuts the meat ...

              

Together with some sweet potato fries and James' mom's overnight salad it was a meal fit for a king ... and a fine one as well for a 250 year celebration!

(Which reminds me : on Monday I'll celebrate my 4th year of being an American. 
  Not quite 250 years but I can hardly believe it's my fourth already!)

                        

At dusk we drove into town to attend the traditional fireworks the city of Willamina puts up every year. 
People come from all around to see them because for such a small town their fireworks are famously 'out of this world'!

They sure didn't disappoint this year and were even better than last. They probably put in some extra effort it being the 250th celebration and such ...

                                         

                                   

It's been another quiet week otherwise. We're having great weather, temperatures around 72F are about perfect for summer, at least in my eyes!
I wish/hope it would/could stay like this ....

I put some 'new' (leftovers from when we lived in Newberg) outside carpet down at our pond-side patio. 
It had started to look a little ragged:

         

It took some mickey-mousing to make it work, it's a true patchwork, but it looks much better than before ..

           

Walking into town on Saturday the berms were pink with wild Sweet Peas:

                   

And on one of my morning walks I found these bright red Bane-berries:

                                      

They are a shiny, cherry red and look appetizing, but are highly toxic and can be mistaken for edible berries.
The name “bane” actually means 'something that causes death or a deadly poison'.

I've not spotted too much wildlife lately. 
There's a few Quail showing up almost every evening at the feeders to pick up the spills ...

                                                

... and the chipmunks are getting friskier by the day ... one of these days they might come close enough to eat from my hand!

                               
                                                                                                 

We've also seen a Tanager for just a minute or so but unfortunately I didn't have any oranges out so he quickly disappeared. Too quick for a picture!
I actually have a special feeder for them with little bowls for grape-jelly and pins for oranges but they come by so seldom that it all dries up and shrivels so had to take it away.

I think that was about all. So far I don't hate this summer but I'm crossing my fingers and toes since I don't think it will stay this 'cool' for much longer ...