Lovin' Sunshine

From the sounds outside my window this morning and from personal observations, I'd say this hasn't been the easiest week for mothers. 

In a nutshell, moms are missing their children. 

Once or twice a year, depending on the cattle owners here in the neighborhood, it gets noisy. 

I'm guessing weaning time may have begun yesterday in the cattle herd across the road.  

Lots of mournful moos out there today.  

On the human front, I don't know if the moms are mooing, but I do know firsthand that oodles of separations between parents and their children occurred this week. 

I have a feeling the cows across the road have a little empathy this morning for the moms and dads who sent their kids off to college this week. 

Separation can be painful in most cases. 

In the case of mom moo cows, the noisy sadness usually lasts a day or two. 

Actually, right now, as I type, there's not a moo in the air.  Could be, like Dr. Fauci, their vocal cords need a break. 

Anyway, it's a bit of a crisp sunny morning today, and I've got plum juice to preserve.  

We've hit another stage of summer harvest.  In my plum department, picking took about 20 minutes with a lot of trips up and down the ladder.

It's not a good year for plums here, nor for apples.  I've read that the Lovestead is not unique.  

Still, I enough plums appeared on one tree to make all those ladder trips worth the effort.  

I picked about a gallon from that tree, while the other three are empty. 

Usually, I pick and pick and give away and pick some more and then take all those to the Food Bank.

Not this year. 

This year's pickings went into a kettle yesterday, and today the juice will get cooked some more and then poured into jars.  

It will be the first batch of jelly for this season.  When fall comes, I'll probably bring out lots of frozen raspberries and blueberries for more jelly. 

Gardening-wise this year, I must report a "so-so" year, but the good news is that Bill and I may be able to share one cob of corn. 

So far, that's all that has appeared on my dozen or so stalks of corn.  One year I had the most beautiful stalks and not ONE ear of corn.  

So, we're making progress. I check on my other stalks (which are also beautiful) several times a day---almost wishing those ears to appear. 

I'm holding off on potatoes and hoping for a better-than-usual crop.  That hope is based on the fact that the deer haven't chomped off the plants and blossoms have been popping out in the past couple of weeks. 

Fingers crossed.

Anywho, the sun is shining brightly on our Lovestead, and with cooler temps, it's a downright wonderful time of the year. 

Since it is SUNday and we do have sun, I'll leave you with a classic and some travel.

While looking for this classic, I discovered a group called Music Travel Love. 

These two brothers are part of a family group from Canada called the Moffats---triplets among the four brothers. 

Well, two of the brothers have gone on their own, literally, recording pretty songs in pretty places around the world.

I love the concept, and since we still can't travel outside the "GREAT Land of the Free," I think their idea offers a nice substitute. 

We could all use a little more sunshine in our lives.  

Enjoy.