dropping tempertures and eating strawberries

In the past few days the temperatures have really dropped around here and it feels like winter! I'm running all our heaters and just blew a fuse for the first time this season. Ahhh, the joys of living in an apartment that wasn't wired according to my electrical needs!

This afternoon the girls and I bundled up and headed outside. Technically speaking, I think the bundling and un-bundling took almost as long as the total time we spent outdoors. But it was worth it :)




In stark contrast to the cold temperatures, strawberries (grown in local greenhouses) are coming in season... they've been around for a few weeks or so, but the price has just started to get "reasonable" and pretty soon the streets will be full of strawberry sellers. Today I paid 10 RMB for a kilogram of strawberries... that's about 75 cents a pound. And the price will drop to half of that at the peak of the season!

In her little play kitchen Julianna has been making strawberry pie, strawberry cupcakes, strawberry everything - it's definitely the current cuisine theme :)

Oh yeah, I never buy less than a kilo at a time. The four of us can consume a kilo of strawberries in less than 24 hours :) Who wouldn't - with a basket of goodness that looks like this on their kitchen table?!?!?!