Busy Summer Days

Thursday was a busy day. I had to get up early to bring Anneliese to the Vets to have some x-rays done, which meant that I had to be up, dressed and out the door by 8:30. This I was able to accomplish, despite the fact that I am really a pajama worker.

I do my best work in my pajamas!

When I got home from dropping Anneliese off, Arnie looked at me like I had committed a crime! Where was his sister? What had I done?

To take his mind off of her absence, Hubby and I took the three dogs out to the garden and pulled weeds, hunted down the latest zucchini and cucumbers and tossed the balls for the three pups.

By noon the woman who is selling our peaches stopped by to collect the peaches she needed for that days Farmer’s Market, and I was able to get some of her home grown garlic. This stuff is to die for, it is that good!

About three o’clock we called the Vet’s and they said to come and get sleepy Anneliese. So we got Arnie and piled into the car and drove to pick her up. She was so sleepy still, that she put her head on my arm and drifted back off to sleep.

Dinner was an easy meal. Pork chops, the last of my freezer applesauce, baked new potatoes, and zucchini and summer squash tossed with olive oil and garlic and sauteed with a little basil.

Arnie is happy to have his sister home. They slept next to me in my chair all evening. They truly are best friends.

Mari, Mari, How Does Your Garden Grow?

I’m really enjoying my garden. Especially the tomatoes. We have so many and I have played around with things to do to use the tomatoes up before they rot.

I have made real, from scratch, spaghetti sauce. I have sliced the tomatoes, placed fresh basil with olive oil on them and topped this with thinly sliced mozzarella cheese and broiled it. We’ve chopped them and put them into sandwiches. You name it, we have added tomatoes to it.

Am I sick of tomatoes? No. I love them. Especially home grown ones.

The Butternut squash is flourishing! We will have many very large squash to store for the winter. Butternut squash are one of my favorites, so this makes me exceptionally happy!

The corn will be ready to eat in about a week. We probably have 2-3 dozen ears of that.

Hubby had over 200 pounds of peaches from our Reliance Peach tree. Yes a truly banner year for peaches.

Even the cucumbers are doing well. I can see another batch of Moon Glow pickles coming up.

The only thing that hasn’t thrived are the Eggplant, and I suspect that I started them too late. Next year I will start them inside and early. Very early. What I would not give to grow my own eggplant!

Yes, I love this time of year. Harvest time. I love eating the fresh vegetables and it’s about this time of year when I begin to plan my next garden.

Next year I will be doing…

Nothing Much

Chop, chop, chop!

I spent the morning pondering whether nor not I had enough cucumbers to make my Moon Glow pickles or not. I stared into the vegetable bin and counted and tried to guage their size.

I decided that I did and so I began to peel, scoop and chop the cucumbers up, with the assistance of the lovely Emily!

We spent about an hour doing this before we found that we had exactly the correct amount of cucumbers needed for the batch! The cucumbers, onions, peppers, etc. are now soaking in a salt water solution until the morning.

I wasn’t in the mood for much more domestic work, but I’d promised Em that we would make a pizza for lunch, so we did do that. Nothing like a home made pizza.

After lunch I was totally lazy and lay down with the puppies and fell asleep in my chair for an hour or so.

Dinner was a trip to Canoe for salads and some sweet and sour calamari with friends.

I’ve Been Mugged!!!

Did you ever have one of those days? You know, the kind where by the end of the day you think perhaps wearing a necklace of garlic might have been appropriate? Well, Monday was that sort of day. Let me tell you about it.

The day dawned hot and humid. I dressed in my “going to the doctor in the summer” outfit, and Hubby, our friend from Germany and I headed to Boston for my eye appointment. Actually, while I had my eye appointment, Hubby would show her a little of the beautiful city of Boston.

We arrived early and off they went. I’d decided to grab a nice cup of coffee, walk around a little and then grab a sandwich and go to my appointment.

I walked over to one of my favorite coffee shops. A month ago a friend had given me a gift card for this store and until now, I hadn’t had a chance to use it. I went in and talked with the nice guy working there, and then selected my coffee and ordered a cup to go.

I stood at the next counter fixing my brew, and a young man came up next to me with his cup of coffee and started to fix his. What happened next shocked me! You see, in this high priced coffee shop, I was mugged!!!

The man looked at me and then poured his coffee down my shirt!!! I reacted quickly and pushed myself backward, but the hot coffee got the front of my blouse! I stood there for a moment, and the staff yelled at the man and charged toward him, but he turned and fled.

It was then that I realized I’d been mugged!

Not in the usual sense, of course, but mugged nonetheless. I was frazzled by the attack. I was wearing a pretty cream colored blouse and suddenly it was drenched in coffee. We got a container of Tide and I went to work in the ladies room sink. I washed and scrubbed and soon the coffee was gone, but the shirt was soaked. I tried to put it back on, but found I was looking very much like the obscene loser of a wet T-shirt contest!

The staff felt terrible and they gifted me with extra coffee beans and even a sandwich, but I was soaked. So I went to a gift shop nearby and bought a navy blue t-shirt with the word “BOSTON” printed on it. I suppose to commemorate the days events.

I then hoofed it over to my eye appointment and got some really great news! My vision, without glasses is now 20/20 in both eyes!!! The only glasses I need are for reading. Best of all, my eyes have both healed well and Dr. W. is thrilled with the outcome.

I then called Hubby as I left the office so we could meet up at The Parker House. I had started to walk when all of a sudden, the sky opened and it began to pour. With no umbrella, Hubby and I soon were soaked (our friend had a rain poncho).

We headed back toward the car and I realized I needed to get my parking stub validated for the parking garage. So while Hubby went to the car, I raced back to Dr. W.’s office. I walked in and the office staff looked at me! I looked like a drowned rat! Her secretary smiled (she knew the entire coffee story) and giggled a little and said, “Do I want to ask?”. I just laughed and said that today even Mother Nature wasn’t giving me a break!

Despite the strangeness of the day, I am happy with how it all ended.

Chchchanges

Hubby has been taking a lot of pictures this past week and unfortunately I am in them. I say this because even though I have tried very hard to lose some weight, I am not doing at all well. And at way over 40 years old, the changes to my body are not good. Not good at all!

It’s summer. The one time of the year when you feel like eating hot-dogs and hamburgers, barbecued ribs, and all sorts of summer foods that are not conducive to reducing the waistline.

I try to eat a little less, perhaps choose a salad over eating all of the fries, but it is hard. I also have found that during the summer I love to cook and then, of course, I cook what I eat.

It would be far better that I not enjoy eating and just the cooking part of all of this.

But, I digress.

Hubby, taking pictures and me in them. Bah! I thought perhaps there might be one or two that were fairly good, but today when I downloaded the pictures I saw something I hadn’t realized.

August 12 007

My stomach now looks like I am pregnant. My backside, well we just won’t go into what “IT” looks like! Talk about depressing! Now Hubby assures me that this is not the case and it was just a bad angle, but I am feeling self conscious, and when I feel self conscience I tend to eat.

August 12 016

Not a good remedy to the current problem.

So I guess I will have to do something drastic, like go on a starvation diet. (Only kidding!) I just don’t want to let this get out of hand so that little children begin to think that Santa Claus and I are related!

One positive thing about my current appearance, my hair is getting long. Maybe it will grow really long and I can hide under it!

This & That On A Summer’s Day

Why is it that I have these great urges to cook elaborate meals when it is so hot? Saturday I made the most wonderful “Herb Crusted Standing Rib Roast” for dinner, (see cooking archives) which required me to heat the oven to 450 degrees! There I was checking the roast with the sweat pouring off of me. I think I must be a little crazy for doing it, but it tasted so good and was worth all of the heat to cook it.

I have also recently cooked a turkey breast, and then you all remember a few days ago I had the Lobster. All cooked during the heat wave of 2007!

It seems we have had this heat for so long, which is why, when I got up on Sunday and found the temperature outside was a cool dry 55 degrees, I grinned from ear to ear!

Sunday is due to be the perfect New England summer day. Dry, with temperatures expected to only get into the low 80’s. I can handle that. So what is my plan?

I want to take the puppies for a walk, go to the grocery store and buy a few more Lobsters (they are on sale again for $5.99 a pound!) and some fresh local corn on the cob.

I really am a fall and winter person. As much as I enjoy the sunshine, I also enjoy the cold and a good rainy day once in a while. This summer we really haven’t seen too much of that.

I remember one summer when I was a teenager on Cape Cod. It was so cold and foggy and rainy that all the tourists stayed home. For me it was the best summer of my life, although I think I was the only person on Cape Cod that felt that way.

I think the perfect summer would be sunny days with temperatures in the upper 70’s and lower 80’s, with rain at night that would bring the temperatures down for great sleeping.

Perhaps the next time the position of “Mother Nature” comes up, I should apply for it! Then I could direct the snow to the ski areas, the rain to the parched crops and sunshine to those places that seldom see it.

I think I see a new career looming in the future! (LOL)

Getting Back Into Gear

It was a big day on Tuesday. Once we had gotten up, showered and eaten breakfast we grabbed our coolers, and headed to the big grocery shop 25 miles south of here.

The list was long as we needed every kind of food possible, including dog food. We went to three different shops before loading the back of our station wagon (sorting the cold food into the coolers we had brought with us, as it was very hot again) and headed back home.

We drove around our house to the back door (something we do not do often as it requires us to drive on the lawn) and unloaded all of our parcels. Hubby made his lunch while I put everything away. Then I made a salad for myself.

After that I just wanted to rest, but there was still so much to do. Clean the kitchen, give all the dogs their heart-worm medication and do their flea and tick liquid.

It was then my phone rang and my caller ID told me it was an unknown caller. Since I was feeling daring, I picked it up. It was Emily!!! She was calling me from the Hawaii airport while she waited for her plane to L.A.

We talked about the pups and what she had been doing in Hawaii and how much fun she was having. But, she can hardly wait to get home. I told her how much we’ve missed her and how much the doggies have missed her too. Another week and she will be home! Yahoo!!!!

Since we were feeling flush at the grocery store and perhaps a little like we deserved to spoil ourselves after all that driving to Canada and back, we bought two Maine Lobsters for our dinner. Heaven!

Done!

I have finished reading “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“!!! Yay! If anyone wants to talk about it please email me. The address is in the sidebar. Please don’t leave any spoilers in the comments because I’d hate to ruin it for anyone who is still reading.

Home From Canada!

We were up early on Sunday, had showers and breakfast and packed up the car. The doggies said goodbye to the Super 8 Motel and off we went back to Digby, Nova Scotia to catch the ferry to St. John, New Brunswick. It was very warm and rainy when we left, but by the time we reached Digby two hours later, the rain had stopped and a thin layer of fog sat out over the water.

We waited in line for the ship and eventually we were loaded on the upper ramp in the ships belly. That was quite interesting. We put the pups in their crate and went up to have lunch in the ships cafeteria. Hubby had stuffed scrod and I had the fisherman’s platter. Yum! All my favorites!

Then we found seats in the lounge and I got to read Harry Potter. The first good read I have had since I left last Wednesday. Oh it is sooooo good and now I am about 100 pages from the end and I am reading very slowly so I can enjoy every bit of this book!

Once we docked we drove to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, where you cross back into the USA. We waited in line for about half an hour and then crossed with no difficulty.

After that it was a long trip across Maine and back to New Hampshire. Before our trip we had gotten a talking GPS and for the most part “she” workedgreat. Although we could not get her to work in Nova Scotia. However, in New Brunswick and Maine and New Hampshire she did very well. Before our next trip in September I will have to think of a good name for her.

Hubby did all the driving on this trip, and I did all the cuddling of puppies. They did very well, not only in the car, but in the motel, at the family reunion and meeting all the strange people in Hubby’s family! (LOL)

We arrived back at the house at 10:25 last night and we were greeted by two very happy doggies! Fritz and Greta were so happy to see us and Fritz, more than Greta, was happy to see the puppies.

Today will be laundry and unpacking day. And perhaps, if I am lucky, I will be able to finally finish Harry Potter!

It is so good to be home!