Diamonds Aren't a Girl's Only Best Friend

Just about a year ago, the only bright, shiny and sparkly thing I was focused on was buying my wedding ring. With a mid-August wedding quickly approaching, the one whom I adore and I trudged to the jewelry store in mid-July to begin the negotiations. It proved to be fairly painless when he who manages money for a living realized the jeweler was having an early summer sale...besides me, he loves nothing more than finding a great deal. I chose a classic, all the better to offset my solitaire engagement ring. Not one for overly flashy jewelry, I chose an eternity band with diamonds spanning the bridge. Timelessly elegant. Elegantly timeless. Classy even. And, for the benefit of the one whom I adore, on sale!

A year later and the shiny thing I'm focused on?

That shiny disc hanging from my cherry tree? An aluminum pie plate. It and many others are hanging there to dissuade the ravens from ravaging my cherries. Now that sounds a bit naughty, doesn't it?? Ahem. When we bought our little piece of paradise in the OBB we were informed that we had several apple trees, a pear tree and one cherry tree. Well, the apple trees were pretty easy to figure out - the grizzled old trees take up much of our side yard and what with the dropping of fruit from July to October, we most certainly knew where they were. Ditto the pear tree. The pear tree actually looks a lot like an apple tree and in fact it sits amidst our apple orchard. But the fruit is most definitely not apple, rather nasty little woody baby pears that never seem to grow bigger than elf-size. Whatever, I like my pears from a can anyway.

Our cherry tree was a tad more elusive. The one whom I adore informed me the other day that we have over 100 trees on our property! I didn't believe him until I counted for myself (under-employed, I like to keep my mind sharp with strategic and mathematical exercises throughout the day) and he's right - a hundred trees! So yeah, finding one cherry tree amongst 100 possible candidates was more difficult than I would have imagined. Especially because being a city gal, I had never seen a cherry tree that was anything but ornamental with champagne pink blossoms that bloomed every spring...helloooo. We definitely did not have one of those on our property.

One day last summer I was in the garden picking the daily harvest of never-ending zucchini when I looked up and what to my wondering eyes did appear? One bright little cherry hanging in the tree by the shed! One. Cherry. Alone. By itself. With no others. I quickly called to the one whom I adore "Hey! I've found our one cherry tree! Here it is. With one cherry on it!" From that day forward it was forever known as our One-Cherry Tree.

That is until this summer when early on we noticed that our One-Cherry Tree had LOTS of cherries on it. We weren't the only ones to discover the bounty of our cherry tree - so had those ravaging ravens. On the advice of my sister-in-law, a farm girl from way back, who suggested stringing a series of bright, shiny aluminum pie plates through the tree to help keep the bird population at bay. It worked and last weekend we were able to harvest a bunch of cherries from our One-Cherry Tree! Voila!

I made a delightful cherry galette with ground toasted almonds to give it a bit of a it's good for me and really it's not crap healthful benefit. It was mighty tasty. I would make it again if we only had more cherries.

The other bright, shiny and sparkly thing I've been focused on lately?

That's right, ladies & gents, it's a bright, shiny and sparkly Kitchenaide.

I have lusted after this machine ever since I first saw the Barefoot Contessa whipping up her blueberry coffeecake muffins in a Kitchenaide in her beautiful home in the Hamptons. I just knew that anyone worth their weight in cookie dough would have a Kitchenaide. I'm not only worth copious amounts of cookie dough, but maybe brownie batter too, and so the longing for this "grown-up, maybe even slightly professional" mixer began.

I longed and I longed. I had hoped that last Christmas Santa would deliver one under my Christmas tree, but alas, Santa was obligated by the price limit imposed on gifts and the oft-stated criteria of "no appliances for gifts" that has so ruled our household since we two first became one...and so... with lips parched by my thirst for a Kitchenaide, I continued to knead bread by hand and whisk by wrist.

You know what they say about good things coming to those who wait? Well, last weekend, I must have waited long enough because the bright, shiny thing for which I longed for, thirsted and lusted after? It went ON SALE. The eagle-eyed financial guy I'm married to found it in the weekly sale fliers. And just because I've been good and patient and had GIVEN UP MY DREAM of ever owning one, he suggested that perhaps now was the time.

It's not a diamond. It most certainly isn't an aluminum pie plate. But it is bright, shiny and very, very sparkly. And it's mine.

(okay, yes, so not my "best" look, but I was just fresh from the shower and ready to christen my Kitchenaide when it occurred to me I should document it in all its bright shiny-ness before I made my first batch of bread - just to ensure I remembered what it looks like with all its sparkleness once it becomes well used)