Blueberry Hill

 

 

Missouri Highland Farm was a great place to be today. A cold front came through dropping the temperatures into the 60's and cloudy. My husband and I picked over 8 pounds of the tasty little purple berries.

 

 

My flowers

 I normally have more flowers planted by now but I'm happy with what I have at this time.

I planted some sunflowers this year. I have never grown any so I'm really excited about growing them and so far two of them are doing great. I water them often, its so dry in central Missouri. The grass is dying when normally we'd be mowing twice a week.

 

A little late on my post

Yesterday was one year from the devastating tornado hit my home town of Joplin, MO. In all total, 161 people lost their lives. A relatively low number after seeing the destruction the following weekend. People from all over came to help clean up.  My childhood home sustained some damage but it still standing according to my brother who was there after my last visit. God Bless Joplin!

Johnson's Shut Ins State Park

The last time I was at this park, was 1986. A lot has changed as well as I have. I'm a little older and a lot thicker. The park was much nicer than I recalled. The shower houses were nice and plenty of well maintained trails to walk. I think, this is the prettiest MO State Park, I've camped in so far. It was really clean. Our site was very nice. The camp hosts were very kind and helpful. I really enjoyed it there. We had a creek right behind our campsite. I wish we could have stayed a few more days. On the down side, there is no easy way to get there. The hwy's are curvy and narrow in spots. We had a few moments that were scary. But I really enjoyed our trip to Johnson's Shut Ins State Park.

We didn't actually go to the Shut Ins. Dogs are not only, not allowed in the Shut Ins, but even on the trail to get to the shut ins. So we just enjoyed the black river as pictured above. The water was cool and clear. We had a really nice time in the river as well as the creek, pictured below, that was behind our campsite.

Graduation Day

My son graduated this past weekend with a BA in business and marketing. I was so proud of him! The guest speaker gave a wonderful commencement speech. His parents were share croppers and he grew up in a house with no running water or electric. He said his parents made sure he got an education. They told him, "you can't soar with the eagles, if you hang out with the turkeys." I like that! The speaker now lives in San Diego and is in real estate. I think it's safe to say he's done well for himself!

Kansas City Bound

My son moved to Kansas City and he starts his new job today. We loaded the truck Thursday night, got up early Friday, drove up to his apartment and unloaded. The temperatures were in the 90's and it had rained so the humidity was unreal. Sticky! Sticky! Sticky! We have him all settled in. Still has a few boxes to unpack but we had to have some goof off time as well.

We went to the Foundry for dinner Friday, KC market Saturday and Buca Di Bepo yesterday before we left. I love Kansas City. Can't wait to go back and visit him again.

The taste of spring

Or maybe I should say, the taste of late spring.  Hubby and I went up to feed the catfish in the pond. I said I wanted to check on the strawberries and he said he had one yesterday. I have 2 varieties, Sparkle and I think Honeycomb or something like that. Heirloom variety, not the kind you buy at Wally World. You know what I'm saying about Wally Worlds berries; pretty but no flavor. I love my berries but don't think I'll get very many this year. The patch is getting over taken by weeds. I pull them and twice as many come back. The tame blackberry plants don't look they are doing well either. But so far the wild blackberries are covered in blooms and young green berries. Hope I get some nice blackberries this year. Last year was pitiful!