Tuesday

Well it was another cloudy, rainy at times day with temps in the 70's. After our quiet times and some fresh fruit and nut bread for breakfast I headed out to check on the gardens. No damage last night and the rain gauge showed we had about a 1/2 inch yesterday. We got ready to head over to our "mountain mom" to pick wild black berries. On the way in to her house a red tail hawk was on the ground beside the driveway when we noticed he was setting on what looked like a fresh killed rabbit. He tried to fly off with the bunny a couple times but it was too heavy. What great pictures if only we had brought our camera with us. The hawk flew off into a tree near his kill and waited until we passed by.

We picked about 2 1/2 gallons of berries in about 2 hours, enough to start a 5 gallon bucket of must for some blackberry wine. I will add the sugar and yeast tomorrow. The field where we picked was just loaded with ripe berries and tons of red berries waiting to ripen. There should be plenty for jelly and cobblers. After lunch we headed out for a long hike and ran into our old friends and neighbors, Ann and Sandy Cline. They have been traveling around the country in their motor home and today was the first we have seen them this year. We visited and caught up on all that's been happening since we last saw them last November.

Nancy sauteed some onion, garlic and Zucchini squash in olive oil which we spooned over white rice. I fried up some Balsa fish on the grille and Nancy cooked some fresh apples in cinnamon and butter. Yikes was that ever a good tasting supper. After cleaning up we headed down to Jodi and Geralds for games. We started a game of Spades of which the guys were ahead when Ray and Audine came by so we switched to Sequence and once again the gals handed it to us guys with a win by a 6-4 margin. I can't believe they are that good or lucky. We played until nearly 11 PM. Tomorrow we are off to Galax, VA. for some shopping and to meet with dear friends from Florida for lunch at Flossie's. LATER