….make for fabulous landscaping!  Last year when I needed some quick and cheap bushes for the front of our house, I chose currant bushes.  Mostly because when I priced the ordinary boxwood, they were $25 each for a 2 gallon, really small plant!  I wanted something fast, don’t we all?!!  Plus, I’d rather grow something that’s edible.

After just a couple months of planting these last year, they doubled in size.  And this year they came back in full force and loaded with currants, red and black.  Might I add that each bush was a whopping $12 each!  That’s more like my kinda price.

The currants started to ripen last week and man are they beautiful!

The first batch was small, but I smashed them with my grandma’s old berry masher…..

And then I froze the juice from that batch that I’ll add to this week.  I found a great jelly combination last year…..mulberry and currant berry jelly!  Both ripen at the same time.  They are tedious to pick because of their small size, but so worth it in the end!

I’ll end with what I saw while smashing berries.  The “girls” always give me a smile no matter what they are doing.  I added a new drinking tub to the yard.  Guess it’s a “bath” tub now!

Yup, the ducks are still around and kicking.  Most mornings I see a stray cat that likes to cross my yard to get to another yard.  She doesn’t seem to even notice the ducks.  The ducks sure notice her and sit upright and at attention until she passes.

They spend most days and nights on the search for bugs.  Easy entertainment!

And this week I finally pulled up my spring leftover spinach and lettuce.  They come a runnin’ when they see the green stuff hit the ground!

Speaking of my garden, I just counted 40 tomato plants today.  THAT, could become insane in just a couple of months.  I’ll let you know soon enough!

 My daughter and fiance had stopped at Ivers in Seattle after flying back from the wedding.  And she thought she had gotten away from all the crazy ducks!

Number #10, KIM! Because, I decided to rate our fabulous weekend wedding and I gave it a 10!!

MARRIED!!  More to post later, but first I need to tend to my ducks, my garden, and life in general!