Sunday, May 8, 2016

Blossoms and Sheep

I love apple blossom time. The smell is pure delight. This one is a "Sweet Sixteen", a prolific bearer of sweet juicy apples. They are great for juicing or for applesauce. 

The blush white apples and

the pink crabapples. This beauty (Spring Glory) is gearing up for a huge crop this year. We use the juice from these as well. The red cherry-sized apples from this one are so beautiful it is hard to harvest them and lose the view.  

 The "President Lincoln" lilac rarely fails to perform. It is the most beautiful lavender blue and has a wonderful lilac fragrance. I bought it several years ago from a roadside stand. I wasn't sure if it would survive, it was so pathetic looking. But wow, it turned into a treasure!
Aunt Bea and Mavis were sheared today. Tom did the job for me as I was having trouble getting a shearer to come out. It was not a professional job by any means, but the sheep are much more comfortable and I am relieved. They are much blacker underneath than I thought they would be, and I'm happy about that.

 
They produced a LOT of wool. Most of it is really not suitable for spinning this time, but they will do much better on these warm days.

The rhubarb harvest is going great. This is only the second year for this new patch, a split into 12 from 3 very small plants. I've picked 3 times so far and already made a quart of concentrated juice, 2 desserts, and frozen 8 quarts raw.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like fun! And Bea and Mavis look relieved as well. :)

    ReplyDelete