Harvest time (well, enjoying the harvest of others)

OK, this is getting pretty bad -- more than 10 days since the last post! Well, those 10 days have been filled with the start of school for the kids and the start of classes at the university for me and for John. We have weathered all of those new beginnings fairly well, but I am amazed at how quickly time is passing, how much each day is full of work, school, meetings, errands, housework, and (thankfully) friends and family, too.

I hope to catch up on a few photos today. First up -- strawberry picking with our friends S, L and L the week before school started. S has one of the most incredible gardens I've ever seen -- she is always stopping by with gorgeous zucchini, beets, carrots and more (I know -- just the kind of friend you want stopping by). This week brought savory onions and garlic... heaven. She just has an incredible way with growing things -- a talent I seem to fully lack. She gave me two pots of tomatoes when we came back and they started off looking SO good... and ended up looking like this:

I know. Not pretty.

At any rate, one morning S asked if the kids and I wanted to meet them at Broxburn Farm, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, east of town, and is a haven of incredible fresh soup, pie, and sandwiches, as well as a farm store with delicious tomatos, peppers, lettuce and other produce, and a pick-your-own strawberry and raspberry patch.

We had a great day -- and I think they should have weighed all of the kids before they started picking, because they were allowed to just help themselves to as many strawberries as they wanted while picking. Delicious!

The raspberries weren't quite ready, although we found a few. We finished off the outing with a trip to the farm store (tomatos!) and in the cafe (pie!). Anyone who comes to visit us in Lethbridge should remind us of this great place. It is off the beaten path a bit, so we forget about it from time to time. But it is definitely worth remembering.