*berries galore!

OOPS.. I forgot to give these beautiful blooms the show they deserve in my last post.   These pink blooms on the raspberry bushes are simply beautiful.  The green growth you see here is the new canes on our raspberry bushes and as I understand it.. we will likely not get fruit this year but will be abounding next year.  I will keep you posted on that front.  We do have one bush that has berries on it, but clearly the canes are from last year and not this years new growth. 

Having our own berries growing here on the farm will be a huge money saver for our family! Raspberries are one of our favorites, followed by blue berries and black berries which can all be found growing here and there at Erilyn. 

*early in the morning

WE ARE HOME!!  Husband, wife and son all under one roof - permanently!  (thanks so much to each of you for praying us through)

No.. he is not hunting Easter eggs.  Hiding eggs here and having a hunt would truly be a lot of fun though.  The basket was brought along for the collection of dewberries.

A few crazy days before Henry and I left to travel to North Carolina to say "good bye" to Fayetteville, we walked our property with basket in hand to check on the berries that grow rampantly.   Had we known that we had so many dewberries which are a form of blackberries we likely would not have purchased and planted black berry bushes. I suppose this will only lengthen the window of our black berry harvest.  Dewberries come ready for picking late April or early May while the blackberries are harvested later in the season.  It is said that in the early morning that while the dew is on the berries, you an see the reflection of the sky on the berry.  I will be out there tomorrow morning checking this out! 

Yesterday I picked 3 pounds of the delicious dewberries and many, many red ones were left for another day.  We will likely have to walk the area again tomorrow and pick again.  Having planted raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, we couldn't be happier!  It fits right into all of our plans, or perhaps we are fitting into all of HIS plans.

I was completely amazed at the growth in the garden when we drove back on Monday evening.  I last looked at the gardens on Thursday night after watering time and then I laid my eyes on some incredible growth over just a few days.  Peas, beans and squash are all blooming, the tomatoe plants are starting to load up with fruit as well as the squash plants.  I was both surprised and thrilled to find this....

Beautiful summer squash in full bloom and production!  YUM!  I cannot wait (hardly) to have some squash casserole, fried squash, stewed squash... what else?  

*rain bops

Beehive Rain Bops were calling to me today while we were in this little shop getting Henry's hair cut.  Aren't these adorable?  The shop had them priced at $20 per pair, much cheaper that where I found them here.  I am not sure I want rain boots with heels, but I thought these were adorable. 

*peaceful Erilyn in a picture diary

Today as I woke, it was me with all of today's responsibilities at my feet and mine alone. My mother left for her Georgia home yesterday morning. Although I am looking forward to having our place just to ourselves when Eric get's here for good in just a few short weeks, I miss my momma.  She has become my companion in my darling husbands absence.  This past month or so has been a time of adjustment for me and momma.  By the end of her stay in her RV here at Erilyn, we started to move in almost perfect harmony with each other.  I will miss her while she is away, but I know this time is also needed for our family to meld together and get back into our normal routines as we, together make this our home. 

The weather here has been simply lovely. I know the days will come when I desire to turn the heat down a little bit, but for now the warm 80 degree weather warms my back as I work in the gardens. 

Our property is covered with Jasmine and we can hardly wait for it to break forth in bloom.  Ohh the smell will surely be intoxicating.   We have had to trim, cut away and drastically prune much of the Jasmine here at Erilyn.

The garden was planted weeks ago and everything is growing wildly.  We have only had a few days of rain here, so the sprinkler runs off of our well to water the gardens. 

There is no way I could make a post about the property without including the barn. When my dearest friend Franziska visits we are going to make a quilt square to hang on the front of the barn. Can't wait!  To learn more about quilt barns simply google it. 

These girls are doing awesome!  They will be ready to provide us with delicious eggs by the end of May, just in time for Eric to get the chicken coop built. 

Every morning, afternoon and evening you can count on the melodic sounds that reverberate throughout the property. In addition to many birds we also are a home to many squirrels and hoping to invite bats too.

These girls, born on February 19th are growing in leaps and bounds.  I never knew chickens could be so much fun.  This is the other chicken tractor built by Henry and Summit while Summit was here on spring break.  Both are fairly easy to move and are serving their purpose quite nicely.

Amaryllis abound at one end of our home.  I love Amaryllis because of their beauty, their ability to be cut and brought indoors without weeping or wilting.  I have two vases indoors right now, one of which I cut and brought in several days ago which are still going STRONG.

Three of our six cats, enjoying their domain!

I love this capture, I took this last night as the sun was going down.

We had added one bee hive to our property too, more to come on the hive in a future post.