Won't You Join Me?

On the menu is a strawberry and yogurt parfait made with Greek type yogurt sweetened with honey and fresh strawberries.  To make it even more festive, I am taking out the nice silverware and serving it in my new claret glasses. 

Somehow, when I dress it up, it seems so much more satisfying to eat.  I picked up the two claret glasses at an estate sale ten days ago.  As soon as I saw them, I thought they would be perfect for little yogurt parfaits.  And so they are. 

The Garden is a Jungle!

Our weather has been hot and humid.  It seems to be tomato, raspberry plant, squash, and pumpkin growing weather. 

The raspberries are so very tall, over 6 feet, that it is unbelievable.  I hope we can keep the rabbits away from them during the winter.  If the rabbits get to them and eat around the canes at snow level, we will loose everything (more than half of the height of the canes) above.  The more of the canes we can preserve, the larger our raspberry crop next year. 

The tomato plants are almost 6 feet tall themselves.  They are continuing to grow and produce blossoms at the ends.  It seems like it will take forever for the tomatoes to ripen.  Watching for tomatoes to ripen is akin to watching for a pot to boil. 

It looks like the apple tree is growing a pumpkin. 
We may have to rig a sling in the tree to support the weight of the pumpkin.  It appears that there is a second pumpkin. 

The apple tree is also hosting two squash; one of which is in this picture.  Today I took the squash vine off the raspberry plants.  I doubt that will last very long.  It looks like deer have been eating the lower leaves on the vines so perhaps the vines are running into the apple tree out of self-preservation. 

A sampling of the cucumbers - I should probably pick up some fresh dill to make cucumber salad this evening.  We should make an effort to grow dill if we plan to grow cucumbers.  It would make life a lot simpler for us. 

Nasturtium

 

 

 

For a splash of color, a couple flowers.  Thursday I picked up five new perennials for the front garden.  Friday morning I planted them with the hope that they would be watered in if it rained. 

Impatien 

Locusts are singing!!

That is, if you can call it singing.  Monday as I hung sheets out to dry, they were invisible but audible in the trees.  They had their high-pitched buzz saw whines in high gear.  While I hung out the sheets, something was dive bombing me.  For all I know it was the locusts.  The temperature was high and it seemed like the humidity was higher. 

Yesterday there was no relief from the temperature or the humidity.  In addition, I watched rain spread in from the southeast.  Generally our weather comes from the west or northwest so this was a little unusual.  The storm was quite strong too.  Although I could not see lightening, there was a lot of thunder.  The rain only increased the humidity.  Later in the evening we got some more thunderstorms, this time from the west.  Until the weekend, we are supposed to have a lot of heat and humidity.  That always brings the threat of serious storms.

Yup, we are in the Dog Days of Summer.  That is not because the days are so hot the dogs like to lie around in the shade.  The Dog Days of Summer are so called because this is when the Dog Star, Sirius in the constellation Canis Major shows in our sky.  It just happens in my part of the world that August has a reputation of being extremely hot and frequently humid.  For us, "Dog Days" imply hot, humid weather and the lazy, hazy weather of summer.  The plants like this.  The tomatoes and raspberries are growing fast and furiously.  We will have a bumper crop of tomatoes.  I just hope we can keep up with them.

When I have not written for a while, it seems so very difficult to settle back into writing again.  At the end of last week, reconstructions of the Pinta and Niña came to Hudson, Wisconsin on the St. Croix.  They will be there until the end of next weekend.  We went to see them.  The Niña is the size of the original but the Pinta is a little larger than the original.  I do not know about you but I think of them as large, substantial ships.  It was quite an eyeopener to see how small and fragile they look.  The major question on our minds was, "Would we sail into the unknown on the open sea in one of them?"  The original seamen had to be extremely brave or extremely foolhardy. 

The Niña is the slightly smaller one.

The Niña

The ships are black because they have been coated with pine tar as the originals would have been.  This is on the Pinta and is one of the boats that would have been used to take crew to land. 

Theater legend indicates that sailors between sailings were frequently employed as stagehands.  This would explain why backstage pinrails look like this. 

Continuing to Stitch

I continue to stitch on my little project.  I made a serious miscount and had a lot of repair work to do.  As you can see, I am back on track and working along quite well.

The fabric is 28 count gingham linen by Graziano.  It is a kit from The Sweetheart Tree.  I was beginning to become a little concerned because I could not find suitable fabric to make the pocket which this will decorate.  Yesterday, I realized that I did not have to shop for fabrics and that I had the right ones all along.  The floral print will be the lining for the pocket.  The other fabric with the cloud like leaves will be the outside of the pocket.

We have had a couple little visitors, a mama squirrel and her youngster.  Mama is teaching the little squirrel what it needs to know to survive.  Since Sunday there has been an almost nonstop high pitched chatter between the two.  I suppose that Mama is urging the youngster to do something and that the youngster is saying, "Fine for you to say that but I have to do it!!!  And I don't feel like doing it!!!! " 

They are in the neighbor's pine trees just outside our bedroom window.  The living room is behind the bedroom on the same side of the house so we can hear the chattering in both rooms.

Just One More Thing

The lovely etui and accessories came with one more gift.  I saved the best for last on a day when I can savor it. 

It is this delightful homemade plum jam.  It was made earlier this year and looks marvelous and tastes delicious with these biscuits.  The only thing that might be lacking is some real Devonshire cream. 

Stitching Progress

This is my newest stitching project.  It is not necessarily what I would choose to to right now but more a case of must.  It is not that I do not like it because I do, just that I would rather stitch something else.

I actually moderate the Christmas in July Exchange.  Wouldn't you know it?  It is not certain that one of the participants will successfully complete her exchange responsibility.  It happens more often than I like to think.  I always feel very bad about the participant who is left out so I prepare a consolation gift.

This time the participant finally checked in after the due date and said that she is behind.  Well gee, we already knew that because it is past the due date.  Prior to hearing from her, I had begun a consolation gift.  Because I do not have complete confidence in this person, I will continue to stitch until I know that her giftee has received her gift.

This is the project, Pink Carnations from The Sweetheart Tree.  If the original person comes through, I will have this to decorate a fabric pocket for a friend.