I spent the day processing sour cherry jelly.
We just discovered sour cherry jelly this year. Previously, I had turned up my nose at the sour cherries that grow around here. Some people like them. I just think they’re sour.
And then our friends dropped some off for us. Apparently the sourness doesn’t bother my kids. They LOVE them. Especially the jelly and the dried ‘cherriesins’ (raisin cherries?) that taste like craisins.
So, when we got a call that another friend had some cherries to pick, we decided to work that into our nature study week.
The kids pitted, I processed, and heaven was canned…
We did tuck in some watercolour work. The kids chose some of their sketches or observations or creative tweaks from our studies this week, and painted:
I must have been looking the other way when the dinosaur came by.
I was going to paint up a sketch of the pond we’d visited earlier this week.
But the jars of cherry jelly were demanding more attention:
Inked:
I think I might prefer the uninked more this time. Hm.
So, fun fact. Canning, painting, teaching, parenting, and making supper does not provide great headspace for thinking.
I went to add a few speckles around the background. Then I decided I didn’t like the dots, so I tried to turn them into splats by blowing on them. Which did not create cool splats. It created wormy red lines everywhere.
I tried to love them.
But I couldn’t. Sorry Bob Ross.
So I did some quick touch ups digitally. I still think the background could use some pizzaz, but I’m not sure what and I’m not brave enough to try again at this point, lol.
Speaking of Bob Ross, he helped me entertain the kids this morning…
Learn and snuggle, little friend.