Trying to pause for a moment and catch up after several busy days. Today was my younger son’s pre-K graduation as well as his birthday party at Bounce U. Plus we finally got a new dishwasher installed. Yesterday I had to go food shopping, get my sister’s shower invitations address-labeled, stamped, and mailed, and then bake cupcakes and a cake for the birthday party. Sunday, we all went to Terhune Orchards for the afternoon, Saturday was the yard sale, and Friday my son had a baseball game and we were prepping for the yard sale.

No complaints, everything went well, but now I need to deal with the piles of yard sale stuff still on my porch (it is not coming back in), the new toys/gift bags/empty boxes/gift cards associated with my son’s party, the dishes that have been sitting around, the laundry that never happened, etc.

Right now I just want to write about Terhune Orchards.

Sunday, I just wanted to get away from the house and the yard sale stuff, and the weather was fantastic, so we drove up to Princeton to Terhune. We had been there once before when my oldest was little.

Terhune features a farm market, seasonal pick-your-own fields, a trail that winds around the farm and into the woods, and farm animals including an albino peacock. It’s not an all-out farm-a-palooza like some other places we’ve been, but it was quieter and cheaper and I really enjoyed it.

Eggs in the henhouse

We had fun just wandering around the stuff that was still growing (cherries, peaches), picking fruit off the ground to examine, and chasing the free-range birds (quail? pheasants? not sure). We also had an impromptu game of football on the front lawn of the farmhouse. By the time we thought about going to pick strawberries, they were picked out for the day, so I bought some at the market. Baby girl noshed on them the whole way home (well, until she fell asleep).

The one plant I was in the mood to buy — another hydrangea — they did not have. But I enjoyed just admiring the gardens and the plants for sale. I didn’t get a picture of the front garden of the farmhouse, but it was lovely, a real cottage-type garden.

I came home and sat and looked at my back yard and tried to picture it totally taken over with plantings. Because that’s what I want next year!

Speaking of my garden, I have been on the lookout for a female pumpkin flower. I had noticed a lot of males, but no ladies. Today I finally spotted one. I’m thinking that I may need to do the pollinating myself, since I still am not seeing many bees around. (Cue the Marvin Gaye/Al Green music.) I learned about all this here.

My new corn patch has sprouted, my tomato plant has flowers, and there has been rain, so I’m a happy gardener.

On the kitchen front, last week I made my own chicken stock for the first time, with the carcass of a rotisserie chicken. Mmmm, it smelled like Thanksgiving up in here. Now I have 10 cups of that in the freezer.

Skins and peels and tops, right into the compost

I don’t remember too much else about last week. Just all the dishes I had to hand wash.

More on the yard sale and the birthday party later.

Edited to add: I forgot to say that Terhune is located on Cold Soil Road. How’s that for assonance? It kept popping in my head during the day. Cold Soil Road.