Dreaming of Future Foraging

I made two dozen applesauce muffins this morning out of the last of the applesauce made from free apples given to me last summer.  The wild blackberries were gone in January after discovering how great they tasted in pancakes.  This August I hope to double the amount of blackberries foraged for as we love them and only have had Mom's blackberry jam to tide us over.  One dozen of these muffins went into the freezer as my stepson is coming for a visit next week and we will need some snacks.

I love watching robins and their little dance they do listening for bugs and worms.  This one scored breakfast this morning in our backyard.

This guy, called a Pacific sideband snail,  was spotted by hubby scaling the siding on our house.  We detached him and pointed him in the right direction out of the sun.  We have seen lots of snails at the beach but none in our backyard until now.  He was quite large and to give some scale here he is on hubby's hand. Yes, that is a big weed he is sitting on and dead rhododendron petals.  I did some weeding the day after this was taken.

Our yard is teeming with life - most of which we don't see until we slow down and look.  Kind of like smelling the roses....