Thursday, April 19, 2007

A real picnic

This morning we went on a real picnic. We were excited to find that the birch sap is flowing. Right away we found two trees dripping, so we set Jaan and Raia's cups under them. By the time our food was ready, they each had a cup full!


"Juice!"
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Jaan was so surprised and thrilled when he saw how much there was.




"Nyum!"
Originally uploaded by fylliska.




Culinary creations
Originally uploaded by fylliska.




More, please
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

After she drank down her birch juice, she went back over to the tree, hugged it and asked it to give her more.



Right now Jaan is outside. I always feel safe when he's out by himself, because Dedushka Volodya watches over him. Among all the babushki around our building, there's one dedushka who sits outside for hours. Today when Jaan got up from his nap, he told me that he wanted to go see Dedushka Volodya, and sure enough, I can see him out there, sitting by Dedushka Volodya, swinging his feet and talking about something.

Overheard yesterday, as I was cutting up food and serving dinner: "Baby, don't fuss. We can eat soon. . . just five more hours."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely adorable--both words and pictures. Thank you so much for posting. Much love to each one....

Mrs said...

So was this a "real" picnic, with fire? Is he roasting a potato?

Wow, no snow on the ground! Is it me, or have you had a shorter winter there? It seems to have passed so quickly.

Anonymous said...

I love the "hugged the tree and asked for more"! How fun! We've never experienced anything like that! And, it's so nice to have all of those babushki and the one, lone dedushka to keep an eye on Jaan! (Wish we were among them!) Lots of love, Baba Julie

Loving Life said...

You were serious when you said they wanted to drink more Birch Juice? I've NEVER heard of that. How do you go about it? Do they really drink it? Does it actually taste good? Strange- but sounds fun!
Fun picnic pictures Phyllis! You're blogs are just a blast to read!
~debi~

Phyllis said...

Yes, a real picnic, because we had a fire! :-) It does kind of look like Jaan's roasting a potato, but no, it's a hot dog wrapped in dough.

Yes, no snow. I don't know if spring is earlier this year. (When did I write about the birch sap last year?) Real winter started later, though, so that made it seem shorter, in a way.

Debi, birch sap is yummy and supposedly healthy. It's probably something like maple sap, which is boiled to make syrup, but I've never heard of birch syrup. Many of the trees in the forests here are slashed, so we just find one that's dripping and set a cup to catch the juice. :-) Oh, it tastes like clear, clean water with a little sweet flavor.

Lindy Johnson said...

You piqued my interest so I searched on birch sap and learned about tapping birch trees. I'm hoping I'm not too late, but fear I am. When I get home tonight we'll try to tap one and see if we get some sap. I'll try hugging the tree and asking nicely!

Anonymous said...

We have been reading the Little House books and they talk about that in Little House in the Big Woods! How neat!!! Phyllis, you're a pioneer, lol!!

Laura

Anonymous said...

Oh how neat! I had never heard of drinking the birch sap either. Makes me curious now. ;-) Raia hugging the tree for more certainly makes one want to try some. :O)

It must feel great to get out and about in the Spring air!