A Bike Ride Treat

Yes, my bike is pink...I live in a total "male" household and this would keep them from riding my bike!!

Grabbing the bikes from the garage (yes, mine needed tires pumped up and dusted), Benjamin and I were off for a bike ride before the heat beat down on us. I was adding more sand into my sand pail...one scoop for exercise, one for memories and one for inspiration.  We were going to add even more scoops with the inspiration we would find.  Off we went through the trails, past the huge pecan trees, loaded with pecans ripening for the fall.

Around the hiking trail, we were gaining speed and laughter as we came around the corner to our inspiration.

Muscadine grapes.  Wild grapes falling off the vines.  Memories went rushing back to days at my grandmother's farm and picking wild grapes. We stopped. Benjamin got off his bike and we started to pick grapes.  We filled the bag that held our water bottles.

Benjamin kept saying, "this is fun!"  I was excited over the possible jelly and juice I would can with these  free grapes.

The sun beat down and Benjamin's curiosity waned, so I took him home.  I grabbed my hat...yes, the one which limited my climbing through the trails while camping.  I would announced, "No, I can't go that way... my hat won't fit!"  It sure covers my face and eliminates the heat.  So with hat and bag, I went back by myself.

What abundance!!

Be honest... did you think of this scene from I Love Lucy?  I did.

What joy!!!!!!

I didn't have to stomp my grapes...just toss them into the food processor.  Press them through cheese cloth for jars of juice.  Bring juice to a boil and add limited sugar and pectin....put in my favorite jars....jelly!
Yes, you have to wear gloves with these grapes because they make you itch...THAT childhood memory came flooding back with the itching.

Juice and then Jelly....I still have a quart of juice left.

Now I will not tell you if I was successful with my jelly jelling...but I will say that we put a huge scoop of inspiration into our sand pail.  We now have half a bucket of sand...now to enjoy filling the second half of the bucket as summer starts to wind down.  What fun it was to bring back past memories and tastes of my own childhood days as I remember sights and sounds around my grandmother and mothers' tables.  Now my children will have the same.

Have you had an unexpected inspiration this week?