Our first field trip this weekend was right around the corner to the farmer’s market, where along with some gooseberries (blech…very tart) we found a small box of pickling cucumbers and some dill, just enough to make a quart jar of fridge pickles. The cukes were cut up and are now merrily marinating in a bath of water, cider vinegar, garlic, salt, and peppercorns. We tried a few tonight and they are well on their way to yumminess.
Field Trip #2: We were at the library a few nights ago (looking for Under the Dome, Part 1 of which I read yesterday, laughing at all the Western Maine references I grew up with) and noticed they had passes to the Tower Hill Botanic Garden for check-out. I’d been wanting to go for awhile, so we borrowed a pass and trekked out to Boylston this morning before it got too hot. We had a nice walk around the property – there’s about a mile or so of a loop trail that goes out through the woods. It actually wound up being quite a nice day, albeit windy, which helped keep the bugs at bay but also made it difficult to take pictures. This hummingbird got swooped around on the wind so badly it looked like it was parasailing:
Mostly, though, it was more of the usual:
