Cherry Blueberry Jam and a Long Put Off Chore

This weekend, I whipped up a batch of the yummiest jam I've ever made.  I've never made Cherry Blueberry Jam before but oh MY, it's DELICIOUS!  It tastes a lot like blackberry jam which I used to make every summer "back home" on the West Coast.  It's my new favourite jam of all time :)

This jam looked really runny when it was time to pour and I thought for sure it wouldn't set, but set it did.  WHEW!  I'm making a point of filling some of those tiny jars with each type of jam I make so that I will have a varied selection of jars to tuck into Christmas gift baskets.  

We finally had a warm dry day in which to remove all the hardware off the back door to give it a coat of paint inside and out.  Last summer, we replaced all our steel exterior doors with fibreglass doors.  They are better insulated to keep our energy bill down and cut down on the ice buildup inside the door in winter.  Yes, believe it or not, we had ICE on the inside of our doors in the wintertime!  The steel conducted the cold and when it met the warm moist air inside, ice would form.  Not good.  Anyways, we painted the new door last summer, but unfortunately, the door had a flaw and needed to be replaced over the winter, so I was back to square one needing to paint the replacement door.  With the heavy and constant rain we have had, finding a dry day when we weren't already busy with something else, was not easy!

 Here's the outside of the door all painted.  We chose a grey colour for our doors because it hides greasy, muddy fingerprints like a charm!  Lest you think I'm kidding, I actually chose my carpet colour based on the colour of coffee and tea with cream and the colour of my dog's hair (all of which sadly make contact with our carpet on a fairly regular basis).

This door is really neat in that it's got a huge pane of glass to let in more light.  Along with the light comes the hot sun beating through in the afternoon.  To solve this, we chose a glass pane insert with mini blinds between the 2 panes of glass.  They can tilt in either direction and also be completely pulled up out of view.  No dust or maintenance and they don't clatter when the door is opened and shut a bajillion times/day (which it is).  This is an excellent solution and it really keeps the house cool, but lets in a ton of light when we need it.

Kelly was busy with his tractor for the better part of the weekend, dealing with some grading issues at the back of our land.  That bucket attachment that he bought a few weeks ago has already paid for itself with the amount of work it's done.

As far as the garden, it's really kicking up.  I've been busy out there and we've been eating from it each day.  The beans are just about ready and the peas are now plumping out beautifully.  Nothing tastes as good as the first peas eaten out in the garden!  Pics to follow soon :)