Today I am making strawberry jam. The strawberries are sitting in sugar right now, getting all syrupy and delicious. Doing things like this, processes that are generations old, makes me feel like my grandmothers and great-grandmothers would be pleased with me.

We harvested this bunch of onions today. They aren't big, and some are ugly, but they are all very onion-y and will be tasty in soups and sauces. Yummm.

So, for the past few weeks, my hanging flowers on the porch had been dying, and I couldn't figure out why. I watered them properly. They were getting enough sunlight. They were even getting the right *temperature* of sunlight. Last night, I found out, when a bird flew out of the basket as I touched it. This morning, I discovered eggs in her nest.

It seems that this mother bird, for whatever reason, found a hanging plant basket about 3 feet away from human beings was a safer location for her nest than any of the 4 trees on our lot OR the bajillion other trees in our neighborhood. And she stayed even when I had been watering the plant nearly every day! Determination.

This was our house before we bought it. The porch, anyway.



This is our house now, 6 months later, after having lived here 5 months.





We put up a new fence.



Our blackberry bushes are even making blackberries.

We've done considerably more work on the inside of our house, on major things, like the floor and the walls, and refinishing everything, but the outdoors are more exciting.