Red, White, and Blueberries

GROAN! I know - that was horrible. We did learn what the colors of the American flag represent - do you know? Red - courage; White - purity, innocence; Blue - loyalty and fairness.  Hmmm...I am not at all in a mood to delve into what I think about all that just now...so, back to blueberries!!

 My mom, also known as Mormor, is here for a week, and we have been having such a lovely time.  Before the heat hit, we meandered out far east of town to a farm where we could pick no-spray blueberries.  We have picked blueberries all over the world, my mom and I: on a little island off of Sweden, when I was seven, and most recently at the foot of Mt. Si, in Washington state.  This was a bit less dramatic than those locales, but no less beautiful, in its own Queen Anne's Lace and Chicory sort of way.  We also hit the jackpot on some raspberries, which were not supposed to still be around but deliciously were...

Those lovelies made it into some jam last night.  Might have to go pick some more...

We had a brief visit with Dan on Sunday morning - Mormor is here at the right time, as Dan is in the thick of directing a summer show with the Ohio Valley Summer Theater.  We chose to spend our time at the garden (of course).  Kale, onions, basil...

Then there was the parade.  It was the Fourth of July, you know, and we are in the heartland, so there is a parade.  Mom, Ani and I headed down to watch, while Dan and Eliza walked the parade to promote the show.

Most of the event of the parade was watching the traffic cop try to stop the traffic moving through the intersection.  The rest of the parade goes by pretty quickly...

I think the tractors are my favorite.  I will let you imagine the 9 fire engines and the two floats of little princesses from the impoverished town just north of us.

I missed good pictures of Dan and Eliza, too busy waving and spraying them with water. I did get this patriotic cowboy!!  But what this parade really needs is a marching band!!! Can you imagine a parade with no band???? I have half a mind to pull one together out of those of us who played band in highschool...you'll have to wait until next year to see if I'm successful!

We spent the rest of the day trying to stay cool...red (strawberries), white (vanilla yogurt) and blueblueberries...(we got the idea here!)