Wednesday 3 July 2013

My July

This month started as good as the last one ended! At the end of June, in this post I showed you that the cherries on the tree in front of my house were almost ready for picking, and on Sunday, RJ helped me pick a bowl full which we enjoyed together for dessert.

When he came into the kitchen for breakfast on Sunday, he so liked the view of how the cherries grow right up to the window pane that he wanted to take a picture of it. And therefore, I proudly present my guest photographer RJ :-) 



You can tell this side of the house is facing North and does not get as much sun as the East-looking part, where the branches of the tree are chock full of sweet, juicy, dark red cherries. Yesterday during my lunch break, I took the ladder out and picked a small bowl full for my parents, trading them (the cherries, not my parents!) in for a bowl of freshly picked raspberries from the allotment.

Looking at older entries, almost exactly a year ago I wrote about cherries, too; you can find that post here.

July can't get more delicious than that, can it? Well, it did yesterday, when for lunch at my parents' I had new spuds with curd cheese and salad, and my Mum's home-made strawberry cake for dessert.

Earlier on Sunday morning, before breakfast, I went out for a run. I was amazed to see how quickly the rye (or barley? I never can tell the two apart!) has been growing - it has taken on its beautiful golden colour already on some fields. (No, I don't take my camera with me when I'm running; this picture was taken with my mobile.) 



In less than two weeks, I'll be on the plane to England. It will be lovely to see my family in Yorkshire again; I'll be staying with my sister-in-law this time. No doubt I'll be visiting the places I like so much again (such as Fountains Abbey), but I also hope to discover new territories that have been unchartered in my mind's map until now. 

23 comments:

  1. Lovely photos of the cherries. Actually I bought some yesterday (for a bit of variety in the berry diet!) - they were imported from Turkey though. Can't imagine any Swedish ones will be ripe yet.

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    1. There was one year when a late frost killed off almost all cherry blossoms in Germany, and all cherries you saw in the shops were imported from Turkey. They were good, but very expensive. I am glad that this has not happened this year!

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  2. I looooove cherries. I love to eat them. I love their colour. I enjoy pictures of them. I used to love climbing the cherry tree in a friends garden. What more can I say?

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    1. That you love spitting out the stones, GB?

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    2. Frances, I love spitting out the stones, too! But RJ stopped me when I announced that I was going to spit them as far as I could. So, at least as long as he was around, I didn't ;-)

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    3. When I was a child (which, mentally, happened after I turned 60) I used to curl up my tongue and fire the stones. We used to have organised cherry-firing competitions. I can't believe that I'd forgotten about that. As it is now if I'm eating cherries in the countryside in NZ and have the roof off the car it's a very good way of disposing of the stones if there's no one around. Not that I'd ever tell anyone that I do that.

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    4. Not that you'd tell anyone, no ;-)
      I wonder who would win if you and I entered a cherry-firing competition. You have probably more practice than I.
      Plus I was being a real lady and did not even spit out the stones when I had another bowl full of cherries for dessert all on my own on Thursday night with nobody keeping me in check.

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  3. Cherries and strawberries, two of my favourite fruits. Cherries don’t really grow here, they are always imported and very expensive. Do you hang ‘pairs’ on your ears like earrings? I used to do that when I was a child.

    Sounds like you had a delicious couple of days. Once you’re in Yorkshire you’ll perhaps make for the stodgy puds I like them too, although do they tend to land on the hips quickly.

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    1. Of course I hang cherry pairs on my ears, Friko! I can't resist that! It made RJ laugh and I was forgiven any stone-spitting attempts.
      I'm sure I'll have plenty of good nosh in Yorkshire. My sister-in-law is a good cook, and I'll probably be out for many a meal, too. Landing on the hips is not much of a problem; I plan to do LOTS of walking, and I usually lose any extra pounds as fast as I gain them.

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  4. What a wonderful time you had, and will have. I love cherry time. We don't have it so much where I live, but in Chautauqua it's cherry picking time. We just drive seven miles nothe (and 700 feet down) and are in the fruit belt along the southern shores of Lake Erie. And I will go to Chautauqua Sunday and be there most of July.

    What a delicious summer meal at your parents. I wonder when you say curd cheese if you mean the already hard curds, or the soft curds we call cottage cheese here in the US. I never saw that in Germany. Or do you mean something like quark?

    Have a wonderful trip to the UK!

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    1. Thank you, Kristi, I will! (Have a wonderful trip)
      I meant quark, but thought if I use the German word, most of my readers won't know what I am talking about.
      Chautauqua sounds great, you'll have a fantastic time there for the next few weeks!

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  5. Oh, I love those cherries! And I am with RJ, I love to see them growing on the tree too. How wonderful that is right outside your window.
    How exciting to be going to England! Will you be anywhere near Saltaire when you are in Yorkshire? Only I read about it on Attic 24's blog and also saw it on an Antiques Roadshow. I would love to see it!!
    (And please tell me that you will try to read some of James Herriot's books before you go to Yorkshire!!) :-)

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    1. Dear Kay, I have no idea where Saltaire is; I'll be staying in Ripon with my sister-in-law and visit places around that area. I'm there only for 8 days, so I won't be travelling far once I'm settled :-)
      I've been to the James Herriot museum on my last trip to Yorkshire, you can read about it on my blog - or haven't I posted about that? It's in Thirsk, in the house where the real James Herriot used to live and have his veterinary sugery, and Thirsk is only a few miles from Ripon.

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    2. Kay (and Meike!) if you want to see more of Saltaire I recommend visiting this blog: http://saltairedailyphoto.blogspot.se/ by 'jennyfreckles'

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    3. Thanks, Monica, I'll have a look!

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  6. Hey Meike!
    Saltaire is in Shipley which is near Bradford,I think that is right. It is south of the area where you will be, but I totally understand about not going far from where you will be visiting. We do the same thing when we are in England, we sometimes think that we will visit such and such a place, but then...we get to seeing family and friends and whoosh...the time is past and it is time to come home.
    Yes! I remember very well your post about the James Herriot Museum but I also remember that you have never read any of his books! He described the landscape so well that I just was hoping I could sweet-talk you into reading one of his books!
    (I have ZERO persuasive powers, I think!) I know those place names of Ripon and Thirsk from his books. I hope people will re-discover his books again and appreciate them.

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    1. Kay I read many of his books when they were published. They were very amusing. I would be interested to see if they have dated but somehow I suspect I'll not get around to it.

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    2. Oh yes, that's all closer to Leeds, where I'll change trains on my way there and back. The journey is a relatively long one: Almost one hour on two different trains from Ludwigsburg to Stuttgart airport, then the flight Stuttgart-Manchester which takes around 1 1/2 hours, then on the Transpennine "Express" from Manchester to Leeds, then a local train from Leeds to Harrogate, where my sis-in-law will pick me up. And the same on the way back. Both times it will take the better part of a day for a distance that does not even look so big on a map.

      It's true, I never read any of Herriot's books. Does it count that I loved watching the series on TV when I was a girl? Little did I know back then that I'd marry a man from that area, and would see those places for myself!

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    3. I have read or listened to one or two of the books but mainly I too love the TV series - which I now also have on DVD.

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  7. Cherries are one of my favorite treats. I don't have a cheery tree in my yard, but I do have some left in a bowl in my fridge...another benefit for July.

    Looks like a splendid running path as well.

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    1. It's really good for running out there, just the right mixture of long flat stretches and gentle slopes up and down. And I can always vary my route a bit, make it longer or shorter depending on how I feel and whether or not it looks like imminent rain.

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  8. I didn't comment on this post about the cherries at the time, but they are my favourite fruit and I am so envious that you have a tree growing them. I grew a tree from a pip and it has lots of cherries but rather tasteless, cause i didn't get a cultivated one... wish I had realised that 20 years ago! :D

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    1. I've just been over to the nice old lady whose garden all my blog readers know - it's the view from my kitchen window. She talked to me the other day when I was on the ladder picking cherries, and I thought she'd like some. So I took her a small bowl full, and she was totally surprised and asked me in. For the first time, I was able to see her beautiful garden from ground perspective! Her house with the conservatory is not bad, either :-) Turns out it was her 82nd birthday Saturday (she looks 10 years younger!), and she said she'll treat the cherries as a birthday present.

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