Whose idea was this weather?

Okay, I just stopped by to complain about the weather. A couple of weeks ago it was 103° here in Minneapolis. 103°! In early June! In Minneapolis! That is just crazy. There have been tornadoes and thunderstorms too. As a matter of fact we had a slight touchdown less than 2 miles from us on Tuesday. Poor Walter and I had to hit the basement for a bit.

The only good thing about all of this weirdness is that it gives me time to make jam. For you see my friends have started to call me Rhubarb Ronda. I have accumulated about 12 gallons of frozen rhubarb that I am now making into various yummies. So far I have made Rhubarb Wine, Rhubarb Vodka, Rhubarb Bars and Rhubarb Jam. Today I am going to make one final double batch of Rhubarb Jam and then I need to find other things to do with rhubarb. I am considering making Rhubarb Mead and maybe just some plain Rhubarb Syrup for flavoring beverages and such. In the back of my head I have an idea for Rhubarb Hard Candies. I can always keep the rhubarb frozen and make bars and such throughout the year.

Of course the other thing the odd weather is good for is giving me time to sew. I am making headway on my handkerchief project. The sewing machine has decided to co-operate and I have found a quick way to finish each one. I had been folding each edge, but that was t-e-d-i-o-u-s. Now I am just zigzagging the raw edges. I mean we are just going to blow our noses on it right? If I were making them for gifts then I would fold the edges and make them all pretty. However, I have two more sheets to do after I finish this one, so a nice zigzag will do!

So, I have been busy with all sorts of stuff this spring, but I just have not been reporting them here. I try will to change that over the next week or so. Assuming that is that we don't have a freak summer-time blizzard with an earthquake at the end.

Walk: March 30 and March 31, 2010

My walks for the last couple of days have been very short. I have been having knee pain. I don't want to hurt myself, so I have been taking it slow. I maybe walked 1.5 miles yesterday and maybe one mile today. Because I did not walk that far I have not taken many pictures. I liked the picture of my neighbor's tree (lower right), with the woodpecker holes, very interesting. (At least I think they are woodpecker holes.) How do you think the leaves under the oak, in the lower left, ended up cleared away in a circle like that? The bluebird was a mailbox ornament and the last photo shows the buds on a lilac bush. Buds on a lilac bush, in March! The weather is very strange this year. Very, very strange.