The Cherries are Ripe!!!

I was pre-occupied when Scout and I were walking today. I had promised to bring for desert for supper tomorrow night. I had bragged that pies are my specialty. I had just made one yesterday - the blueberry, strawberry and rhubarb. This finished off the fruit, I had in the house. My dilemna was what to fill the pie with and without driving the hour to Deer Lake to the food store. It just didn't make sense to spend two hours in the car.

As we walked along the trail above the beach, I noticed the cherries were ripe!!! That solved my problem. I can make a cherry pie. While Scout was nosing about the beach and swimming, I climbed on the rocks picking cherries. Luckily I had some unused poo bags in the my pocket. All in all I picked seven cups worth.

The toughest part was pitting the cherries. I had to slit every one open to make sure there were no worms. By the time I was finished pitting them, I knew how to tell if a worm was inside without closing inspecting each cherry.

I overnighted the pitted cherries in the refrig with a little lemon juice and sugar sprinkled across them. Since the cherries are tart, I sprinkled sugar lightly across the bottom of my pie shell. For the filling, I mixed six cups of cherries, 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of corn starch, and 1 tsp of vanilla. I put a lattice lid on top and again sprinkled a little bit of sugar on it. What a beauitful pie!!!

       It was the hit for supper and was talked about for days afterwards.

Unlocked Doors

Downtown Woody Point

Since we feel so safe in this little town, we do not bother to lock our doors. There is not much crime here. The crime of the summer has been the large flower pots in front of a business downtown were stolen. The flowers were dumped out. It happened in the middle of the night. Someone heard two or three men talking outside their window, but didn't think of investigating. Because of the location and because no one heard a car, it is suspected they had a boat. The general consensus around town is that it was not someone from here, but possibly someone who was staying across the Bay. Regardless it was not the kind of "surprise" you want first thing in the morning.

We have experienced a few "surprises", ourselves. The custom here is to just walk into someone's house and not bother knocking. I have literally jumped and let out a scream of fright when someone walked right in talking to me. I cannot bring myself to do that. I tend to knock and then open the door and yell hello. I usually get a response along the lines of "what are you standing outside for"?

One day when walking through town after hiking the community trail, Ken stopped us to tell us there will be a surprise when we get home. He said he had a large screen television he was giving away. Larry and Una told him we do not have a television and took it for us. He said it was at our house. It was a bit unnerving knowing that someone had been in the house when we were gone and left a television.

Another time after being away all day, we came home to find a bottle of Grand Marnier sitting on the table. Neither Mike or I had left it there. It was quite a guessing game figuring out who left that for us.

One morning I woke up and went downstairs to put on the coffee, I was surprised to find a wrapped paper plate on the counter. It held two slices of birthday cake. We still do not know whose birthday it was. Again, I felt a bit uneasy knowing someone had been in the house while we were sleeping.

Yesterday, I came home from walking the dog and found a note inside on the hall floor. It was from two tourists we had met the day before. They were just saying good-bye before they moved on and wanted to give us their email address. This time I was not phased that someone had been in the house while I was out. I was just sorry that I missed them.

Despite my feelings of occasional unease, we will continue to not lock our door. How can we? I mean people seem to be putting things into our house, not taking away. And isn't that how it should always be in life? To give more than you receive?