Blackberry Galette

You need to make one of these, seriously, you do. So easy, so quick. I think the oven heating to 400 degrees took the longest. I found these beautiful photos here. I just have to say, this blogger takes some of the most beautiful photos I've ever seen, and she's from Portland, so I immediately loved her blog. Check it out and see if you agree. Some of the outdoor photos make my heart ache to see. She makes me miss home. She in turn got the recipe for the galette here.

C. and S. are outside constructing a play tower. Six feet by six feet and about 6 feet off the ground. Yeah, it is going to be a beast. But S. will only be little for so long, and we really wanted her to have an outdoor space all her own. Yeah, it might make the back yard look weird, but who cares? Funny thing, the weather is truly spring-like: one minute sunshine, the next we're all scurrying to put the electrical tools away. It even hailed a few minutes ago, and now it is sunny again. There are, however, some very menacing dark graphite clouds hanging on the horizon. I imagine it will only be a matter of time before construction is delayed and my two favorite people on the planet are back inside - feeling proud, accomplished, and soggy. Those two!

I'm stocked up on books for the week, Bill Bryson's, In A Sunburned Country - about his travels in Australia. He is hilarious, by the way. I just read his, A Walk in the Woods - his take on walking the Appalachian Trail, and I giggled all the way through it. Also, The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine - not because I'm interested in wine per se, but I've been reading a swath of non-fiction and anything like this really interests me as of late. I picked up a copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm to read with Miss S. We're in the midst of By the Shores of Silver Lake. I've been teaching a method of writing to several groups of kindergartners that is (in part) lauded by a man named Andrew Pudwah - gosh what a name. He is not a teacher by trade, but he did educate his own children at home. He himself was educated in Japan in the Suzuki method, and he has a company called, Excellence in Writing. Part of his idea is that children should be read to (not a surprise) by their parents - ideally at least an hour a day. And good literature. He is kind of a throw-back really. His ideas align much more with the way children used to be taught, with a huge emphasis on elocution. I'm a fan. And when I stopped having S. read with me (she reads plenty on her own and on her own at school)at night, and simply read to her, her reading level jumped three grades. I'm not saying that it was that entirely, but I truly think it has helped. Ah books and writing! Two of the finest things in this world.

I'm inside baking and cleaning and making a few things for a certain birthday girl in Utah. Hope your weekend has been lovely.