Happy Monday to all!

I'll freely admit that it's a little unnatural to be this happy on a Monday, but there have just been so many wonderful things happening that it would be hard not to be. Here are a few of them.

This is sort of what I'm talking about. I went to Hilary's on Saturday for her crafty birthday party, which was lots of fun. On the way, I passed by this place, which just made me want to move there immediately. Who wouldn't want to? And Hilary also happens to have a mulberry bush outside her apartment, and so I got a nice sun-warmed handful to savor. I haven't had mulberries since college, I think!

But there were more berries to be found this weekend. Some wonderful person, unknown to me, planted juneberries all around the Aon building, which just so happens to be the building next to the one where I work. I don't actually go around the outside of that building often, or really at all, so I hadn't realized how many bushes there were. There are a lot. Clearly no one is picking them besides me and a few birds (shriveled up berries still on the bush are a good indication that they're not being harvested) so I helped myself. I think I picked for about half an hour on Saturday and an hour on Sunday.

This is what I ended up with on Sunday. To learn more about juneberries (also known as Saskatoons or serviceberries), you can visit this page from my friends at the NDSU Extension Office. (But a brief note on stuff that's not found on that page: Juneberries look like blueberries' purple cousins, but they're not. Blueberries, and huckleberries, belong to the Ericaeae family, but juneberries are in the Rosaceae family - the Rose family.) My immediate plans are to freeze most of them, because even I can't eat 9 cups of berries in only a couple of days. But I do see juneberry muffins in the near future, and those of you fortunate enough to work in my office will be invited to sample when that day comes. Everyone else, well, I'm sorry. I'd offer to take pictures of them, but I doubt that would help.

In other news, I had a lovely lunch outside at Millennium Park today. My usual spot is on the grass you can see behind these rosebushes, under the shade of whichever tree doesn't already have someone sitting underneath it. There are many shaded spots I could go in the park, but I love this one because of the roses. I'm sure you can see why.


Today I got buzzed by an enormous dragonfly, at least 3" long and 4" wide, almost entirely black except for two bright blue spots on each wing. It was very pretty, and just gave me one more thing to be happy about.

Baby Afghan #3 continues, and I'm happy to report that it's quite warm. I was waiting for an indoor concert on Sunday, sewing in some of the (many) yarn ends, and once the music started, I realized it was COLD in there. Really, really cold. So I pulled the afghan up over my shoulders and arms, and it kept me very comfortable. Success! Hooray!

Some day I'll actually post pictures of Afghan #3, but until then I hope you have a happy Monday as well! (Or whatever day it happens to be when you're reading this.)