Category: Front Porch Musings

Posted on

More light and shadow

This afternoon.

Bob.

Light and shadow.

*** 8 days, maybe more…90-93F. The nights cool to upper 50/low 60’s. BUT, we are having a Yellow Jacket year… I have traps made of meat hanging from skewers over soapy water in mason jars and have been drowning over 100 yellow jackets daily. I fear for the boys being stung – especially Bob, so we’ve all been inside except for a couple of hours in the morning. Bear and I go out – carefully – at noon and dinner and then at 9-10 ish p.m. And I take Bear for some Jeep excursion when I can break during the day. Hurry up, Fall!!

Posted on

Put the lime in the coconut, then you feel better

I made coconut cupcakes this morning.

And a bit of coconut cake with batter that didn’t fit in the dozen count cupcake pan I have.

Then, Bear and I headed out and about in the Jeep with the goal of finding a spot to park Wild Thing…maybe next weekend…for an overnight.

This time of year…blech…too MANY persons are about.

It is hot…or hottish depending on your perspective. Today, it was hazy like it was on its way to hot.

Me…I am cranky.

I turned to Bear and said: “Bear, the best place to be is home! Home is quiet and cool and shady. Let us go home!”.

We went home.

And I think Bear agrees with me.

He scooped out a cool spot on Beardog Hill – AWAY from the cilantro :) !!

Me…I sat on the front porch and looked through the woods at the beautiful blue sky. And I listened to the quiet.

Bob selected a cool, quiet shady spot also.

I guess we are a cool, shady, quiet kind of family.

Maybe we will stay home for a bit in the shady quiet of our own woods.

And have coconut cupcakes and cake with coconut-lime frosting.

Lime and coconut and woods and shade – it makes us feel better.

Posted on

Friday snippets

We’ve been enjoying some not too hot, beautiful days with cool nights so good for sleeping and crisp mornings that take us outside for several hours before my work day starts.

This morning, it was 42F to start out the morning.

I had a gorgeous Copper River Red Salmon filet thawed.

Braised salmon with fresh herbs. A bit of this was breakfast for Bear, Bob and I and the rest into the frig for salmon tacos and stir fry over the weekend.

The herbs!!

They continue to flourish gangbusters…

My baby cilantro grew up.

Two weeks ago, I gardened. Really!! I braved the hot sun for an entire 10 minutes to clear a patch of soil on Beardog hill.

And then…and THEN!!! – I PLANTED SEEDS. Yes!! Cilantro seeds.

And now there is baby cilantro on Beardog Hill.

If the resident Beardog stays off this little patch, I may have a summer’s worth of cilantro and more.

This is an experiment.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Beardog chose a softer place for naptime than yesteray’s concrete.

And so did Bob. And Bob’s ears are already improving again.

It was an excellent and productive work week which culminated in meeting a project deadline at high noon today. Hoo-rah!

A Friday pizza was in order.

Pizza on the grill.

Friday snippets.

Posted on

Beating the heat, cont’d.

When it is hot, you need to drink plenty of water…

…and stay in the shade…

… tonic water is water, isn’t it ?? And does it count if there is a little gin in it ??

I bought a small bottle of gin several weeks ago as a gin and tonic sounded good, which is funny as I think it was over 10 years ago that I had my last…made for me by my mother when I met my folks in Utah to ski (on snow!). Anyway, my first G&T was very refreshing but a day later, the 2nd had a funny taste. Flat tonic water AND I looked at the label and was surprised to find the Schweppes Tonic water had high fructose corn syrup in it. A google search, some reading of Amazon reviews and I ordered the above Fever Tree sampler. I’m throwing my vote in with most of the Amazon reviewers – I like it! I haven’t compared it to Q Tonic which is the other brand without hfcs but don’t think I need to. The Amazon reviewers who compared voted for the Fever Tree and I really like that it comes in small glass bottles – 1 bottle makes 1 drink so no leftover to go flat.

*** A sad week. The loss of the 19 firefighters is heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers for their families, friends and fellow firefighters as well as for families of the firefighters in the midst of western fires. If it is difficult for me, I cannot imagine what it is like for those closer.

Posted on

Canola

I use it as little as possible now, but it sure makes for a pretty picture.

***Canola is a GMO RoundUp ready plant and Monsanto holds a seed patent.