Put the WHAT WHERE?

John had a phone call the other day that went on for a bit. Then he came into the living room, shaking his head and told me that he had to go down and put the rats in the freezer.

What? I said, as I so often say due to my increasing deafness.

He repeated, RATS. IN THE FREEZER.

Further questioning revealed that the call was from our son Justin to say that our Gran House tenants had asked him to intercept a delivery of frozen rats for their pet snakes. And to, you guessed it, put the rats in the freezer.

But Justin wasn't home when the delivery call came. So, he called John. Who went and put the rats in the freezer.

Now that's what I call a full-service landlord!

 

Point and Shoot

 

New Camera!

New to me anyway. Through the intervention of my friend Cory and the generosity of my nephew Coop and great nephew Jack, I am the proud possessor of a Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ80.

It belonged to Jack but ever since he got a phone with camera, it has sat idle. So, he gave it to me.

Now I've got to learn its ways . . .

                                                        

                                                 

                                                     
 

Hot Weather Cooking

Hot days and nothing sounds better to me than a salad.  This one is spinach, cucumber, yellow bell pepper, grape tomatoes, and red onions, topped with a couple of crab cakes sauteed in butter and the whole drizzled with homemade ranch-ish dressing and a squirt of Sriracha. With some leftover focaccia on the side.

The crab cakes are from the grocery store freezer. They're tasty but are mainly bread. Very few crabs were involved. I keep them around for a quick meal. 

The salad dressing evolved from my trying to clean out the blender after making mayo. After I've removed the easily get-at-able mayo to a jar,  I chop up three of four cloves of garlic and add some herbs--fresh oregano, parsley, and basil in the summer--dried dill in the winter. Add to the blender jar where a fair amount of mayo is lurking. Dump in a bit of yoghurt and whir it all up--makes a delicious dressing that doubles as a vampire repellant. 

Ahhh . . .

John's efforts in cleaning up the goldfish pool and area have been rewarded and now we can indulge in a favorite evening meditative activity--watching the goldfish.

 

Summer Solstice--Turning

Here we are at the turning of the sun and I realize ( too late) that yesterday's sunrise shot would have been perfect for today. 

So, since I can't show the turning of the sun, here's (groan) another turning--I showed it a while back but now it has a finish on it that really brings out the patterns in the wood--which was a piece of oak firewood.

This is definitely one of my favorites.

 

A Delicious Day

Really! After the heat of last week, Saturday night was so cool I almost got up for a blanket. But I had Jenny and a cat next to me as well as a pillow over my feet, so I didn't.

Sunday continued gloriously cool--low seventies. I felt inspired to do some Father's Day cooking and ended up with a feast--Grilled Chicken with a marinade/glaze of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), regular soy sauce, sriracha, garlic, and white wine in which ginger root has been soaking. Potato salad, green beans vinaigrette, devilled eggs (mayo, stone ground mustard, tandoori seasoning, and India relish,) heirloom tomato wedges, and fresh peach galette.  It was good. 

And there's enough left over for an encore performance tonight!  

What a fine day!

 

The Fathers in My Life

Here's to them! 

 

Here and There

Paddlers on the river

Amaryllis gone to seed

A gaggle of geraniums

Josie tending to thirsty plants. . .

And a welcome afternoon rain that dropped the temperature considerably.

 

Summer in the South

Josie took control of my phone yesterday and was snapping pictures everywhere. I deleted many after she left but this one above, I realized, epitomizes a rural southern summer--iced tea and a tick jar--if you have indoor/outdoor dogs. (The Jenny pictures are Josie's too.)

A tick jar filled with half dish detergent and half water (put the water in first) is an excellent way to dispose of these nasty little hitchhikers. Far less wasteful than flushing, not as germ-spreading as crushing, and once in, the ticks can't crawl out. They drown quickly. It's a simple solution to an on-going problem. If the jar becomes too yucky looking, flush the dead contents and begin again. 

Ahh, gracious Southern living.

 

Well, That Was Short-Lived

 Tuesday's rain and blessed relief is just a memory. Wednesday was pretty awful--I think the technical term is 2FH.

But with fans in every room and gallons of iced tea we made it through the day without stabbing or biting anyone. 

We will endeavor to persevere.

Heat Wave and Blessed Relief

After a scorching Monday, we were braced for more of the same. Imagine our delight when a morning storm blew in, with welcome rain and overcast skies for the morning.

The watering I'd planned to do could be postponed for another day and we could enjoy being outside, watching for glimpses of the goldfish.

They are shy little boogers and Josie had my phone much of the time, so I got no pictures of them. But we spotted at least six of the dozen John added to the pool.

But, oh! the joy and relief of rain!

 

This Is What I Did

Daddy brought me up in the Kubota and Otter followed. Jenny was very happy to see her, and they ran off together to do stuff in the woods. 

Meema watered her plants to help them grow. I got wet to help me grow.

I helped by taking off the brown azalea flowers.

Later I used Meema's phone to take lots of pictures. These are just a few of them because I like to take pictures of EVERYTHING.

Bobadog.

Hollyhock.

This is a hollyhock fairy that Meema showed me how to make. I put the eyes on.

And this is my Castle People having a Big Fuss because the King is paying too much attention to the Blue Lady and the Queen doesn't like it. I had to talk to them and put them in timeout.