Los Flemings

Wednesday afternoon we drove over to Jean's Berry Patch for some strawberry picking. It went a lot faster than last year's blueberry picking excursion in Florida. I was a little shocked when our berries were put on the scale and came in at nearly 14 pounds! We've eaten 'em straight from the bucket, chopped 'em up on our cereal, baked strawberry bread, shared with Sam's class at school (they made smoothies) and frozen a gallon bag full. We welcome any other recipes.




Before

A lovely spring weekend here in NC. Saturday was Heartwood's Spring Fling family picnic and fundraiser. We had a great time with the games and cook out. And one of the big items at the silent auction turned out to be the canoe excursion provided by Ben & Sam's Canoe Adventures.

For an afternoon experiment on Sunday we tried 'bouncing raisins' as sent to us by Dandy.

In case you're curious and want to try it at home.

You need:
4 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons baking soda
1 tall, clear glass
1/2 glass of water
8 or more raisins

Fill the glass half full (or half empty depending on your outlook). Add the vinegar and the baking soda to the water. The mixture will begin to fizz. Drop raisins one at a time into the mixture. The raisins will sink at first, but after a few minutes, the raisins will rise to the surface. The raisins will then sink back to the bottom of the glass and will continue to "bounce" back and forth in the glass for about an hour.

Sam and I joined a group of family's from the UU Fellowship for a weekend at Shelter Neck near Burgaw (just outside of Wilmington). It is now a retreat center but was one of the first UU churches and schools in NC. (the old school house is pictured to the left)



We bunked up in the old farm house (picture below) and enjoyed hanging out with the other families. The kids were mostly entertained by the neighbors' goat pen and a basset hound that roamed the grounds. There was lots of space to run around outside and in the evenings we had campfires and all the fixings for smores.




On Saturday Sam and I took a little float trip on nearby Holly Shelter Creek with another family. But the biggest excitement was the storm that rolled in late Saturday night and brought torrential rain and high winds across the state. As of today (Thursday) there are still folks without power in western NC. The wet weather made for soggy packing up on Sunday morning. We lingered to help with the clean-up and to see if the weather would break. Fortunately when we left there was a hint of sunshine and we had a pleasant drive. home (one of the resulting puddles below).





Mame had a busy and exciting weekend of clinicals that included being walked through 95% of her first combined spinal epidural procedures (you'll have to ask her for the technical explanation) and a major trauma case. In between shifts at the hospital she did her best to get ready for yet another test on Monday afternoon (which had a positive result). She's encouraged by the fact that they are done with class lectures for the semester and only have two more tests to go before the summer break.

These tomato can stilts were inspired by a visit to a friends house. They had a pair made from molded plastic. One pot of chili, one batch of lasagna and some old rope later and Sam was clanking around on our patio.

Last week was Sam's spring break and between a trip to Mt. Pleasant at the start and a baseball game yesterday we've crammed in a lot of fun without much time for blogging. So here's a little summary now that school's back in session.

Friday 3/30 Sam got to hunt eggs on the last day of school before he and I piled into the car for the trip to Mt. Pleasant to visit grandparents and great grandma Adelle. Unfortunately, he was battling a cold and instead of staying for part of the week made the trip back to Cary on Monday for more convalescing. He was a lot better by Tuesday afternoon but we mostly stuck to the house.



Wednesday 4/4 We packed a picnic lunch and headed to downtown Raleigh for some music. The Opera Company of North Carolina is holding open auditions and on Wednesday's offering lunch hour snippets on the Fayetteville Street Mall in advance of their production of La Boheme. The weather and music were beautiful but Sam was most fascinated by the cranes working in the background on the renovation of Raleigh's Civic Center.

Wednesday was also the last night of my intro to computers class. The students were very kind and thanked me for my efforts.

Thursday We made the long awaited pilgrimage to Little Red Hen Enterprises to purchase our first pound of red worms for a worm composting bin. The bin is fashioned from two Rubbermaid tubs (one nested in the other). More to come on this as we get more experienced.


Friday was another egg hunt day. First one organized by the town parks and rec department. It took place in a field about the size of a basketball court. Kids and parents rimmed the field 2-3 deep and they crowd cleaned up every egg and piece of candy in about 1 minute.

The second hunt was hosted by friends from UUFR at their neat home in Fuquay-Varina. They also had dyes for the kids to do eggs. Sam's holding his batch (also note, quality hair cut by his mother).







Saturday we woke to a late spring surprise - a dusting of snow/ice on our roof and in our back yard. There's one more night of freezing temperatures predicted for tonight and then we should be back to more spring like temperatures. After a busy week and in the face of cold weather we took some time to spruce up indoors. Sam was a great help with the vacuum, cleaning windows and tackling spots in the carpet.






And to wrap it up we ALL made it to a baseball game on Sunday. Even Mame, who was caught up on her studies (although she brought along some notes). Florida State came to town to play NC State. So we got on our FSU hats and went out on a chilly, breezy afternoon to watch the Seminoles come from behind to win two out of three games for the weekend.