Fruit and a Friendly Snake

January has been hectic and relaxing at the same time somehow? We have been coming and going a lot but that has meant lots of time with family that we don't often spend a lot of time with- the girls have been loving it. While we have been at home in between it has been just that, at home, no playgroup, no meetings and very minimal shopping. It is nice just to have time at home.

Over the last couple of weeks the fruit trees have been ripening and this year it has been a good harvest. We have had plenty of plums and this week a great crop of apricots to harvest. Lots have been eaten fresh and some have been bottled for later. This year I did some of the plums with rhubarb- really yummy with quite a heavy sugar syrup. I did some plain apricots yesterday and will probably do more next week. I have lots more of the smaller size 20 Vacola jars this year thanks to my dad who picked up a few boxes for only $10 at a clearing sale last year- a real bargain!!

Yesterday we had our first snake in the yard for the summer, luckily it was a carpet snake. We usually get one each year, I think it may be the same one. This is a picture of it a few years ago heading under the netting and into the aprioct tree, couldn't get one yesterday as I had to run inside with Lyssie- I tend to panic a bit. I was just glad it wasn't in the apricot tree when I was picking apricots yesterday!