One of my favorite things about living in a tiny old neighborhood is that you're so close to your neighbors. The other day, while watering my victory garden, a neighbor two fences down yelled over to me to introduce herself and invite us to come over and pick cherries from her big old cherry tree. She said she has pints of them dehydrated and frozen and she invites all of the neighbors to come any time and get what they can before the birds get all of them.

We went yesterday and picked a few handfuls but she said  to come back in the morning too, when many of the lower branches would have lots of perfectly ripe ones. After breakfast this morning, the kids and I walked down the alley to gather some lovely red cherries to snack on today. Although I'd love to make cherry preserves or pies, my little ones don't let fruit sit around for any period of time. I love walking through back alleys of the neighborhood. There are so many old gates, fences and beautiful heirloom gardens. Many of these bits have been around since the 30s and 40s. The people that live here do little to change this historic town, adding their own rustic picket fences and vintage patio furniture.




Olivia is already an expert and getting the pits out. Yesterday, while watching Tangled and sitting on her Dora couch, she'd pluck a cherry out of the bowl, give it a squeeze between her thumb and finger and POP! out comes the pit. She tosses the pit into a separate bowl while the other hand pops the cherry into her mouth.

 

I pulled a few branches down so the kids could reach the lower cherries.



 Rhys, the little stink that he is, loves to mash the cherries and toss them to the ground so we stuck the bowl in the branches so he wouldn't destroy them all. He cried, "A cherry bowl!! Up high!"




Once our vegetables ripen, I'm going to drop off a basket of them for her in exchange for these beautiful jewels.