Last weekend was the annual open farm day at Alpaca Farms, a sweet little farm tucked away a few miles out of town http://www.alpacanation.  I just love Llamas and Alpacas as they are such funny, but cute, animals with such sweet faces.  Just look at these cuties:

 
 
It is a fun excursion for the entire family as they have activities geared towards kids, plus great food, and lots of Alpaca goodies to purchase. 

 
 
Aren't these just adorable?  They were so incrediably soft and so cuddly!  As well as pre-made items they also had yarn.  Each skein stated which Alpaca it was from and the colors were from a soft white to a black.  It was so heavenly soft and scrumptious!  Isabel got the cutest little finger puppet for filling out an information sheet that asked 20 questions about the Llamas and Alpacas. 

After our stop at the farm we headed out to find more goodies for canning.  After a stop off at Edwards Farm, our fav farm, where we got beautiful basil, more tomatoes, and some yummy plums, we discovered this darling place:

 
SpringCreek Berry Farm.  Gotta love it!  The gentleman running it was very chatty and full of information.  It is mainly u-pick and will be top on my list next year!  We got a very generous dozen ears of corn.  The trees were heavy with apples and Bella risked bees to pose for a picture under one of them:

 
Look at all those apples!

We decided to take an unexplored (to us) back road on our way back and came across these great trees:

 
I love these trees, they are so very Dr. Suess type trees!  Wickedly wild and silly in their crazy appearance. 

Back home and ready to start yet more canning.  Here is part of what I accomplished:

 
I just love pickled beets!!!  I use the recipe my grandmother always used.

 

Also made some killer basil garlic tomato sauce.  My pantry is filling up quite nicely with the past few week ends of canning.  Next is apples, applesauce, and some peaches and pears.  I had taken a few years off canning, so really enjoying it once again.  Nothing like rows and rows of jewel toned jars lining the shelves to make you feel so very virtuous!

Aside from the canning, I have been busy knitting up mittens for the grandkids.  I like simple easy projects that allow me almost instant gratification while allowing me to play with different yarns.  Knitting is such a great way to unwind at the end of the day.  I have been working my way through numerous Brit TV series and just finished up Clatterford which I loved.  Next up is Father Tim.

Now time to head out to Bennington Lake for a nature power walk with these lazy gurlz:

 
Blessings!!

Patricia