Snapshots of Summer

   This morning has had a bit of a slow start. Some people waste time watching too much TV. My weakness is reading articles on garden and home improvement, and wandering in the garden. Early in the morning,  I like to pour my coffee in a largish mug, put on my wellies and a hat, and do some inspecting and thinking.

The cucumber and squash patch, before I put down straw mulch this week

Lately there has been a veritable hum of bees around the cucumbers and squash, one of the nicest sounds in the garden since it means pollination and the hope of good fruit.

Nicely mulched!

Pollen Party at the squash patch

Cucumber blossoms are equally attractive, but more of a solo activity.

You have to be quiet and careful when working around these little honeybees, but they pretty much mind their own business. The droning is a bit loud when they are altogether, I must say!

  The bees are not the only ones happy in the garden - I stepped up the watering and fertilizing efforts, with some cheering results. It has been a bit slow this year. The garden soil, I suspect, will need some serious amending at the end of the season.

Cucumber salad, coming right up.

Downright perky Romas

Hey wait - not so happy sight: the culprit, if found, shall be immediately deported!
(Caterpillars suspected.)

Cooler weather has allowed the swiss chard to finally take off.

Paired with tomatoes - salsa anyone?

   The orchard was started this year as well. To my surprise the peach tree went right ahead and gave us a bunch of peaches. A bit of neglect (I forgot to keep watering the poor thing) and young years means the fruit is awfully small. I'm slowly getting educated on peach trees, pruning, and the like. I think we can still stew up a peach cobbler out of these, however!

Pretty colors

   The plant kingdom is not the only source of endless preoccupation in the back yard. We also have a rather large suburban wildlife population. Mostly rabbits, a few voles (we'll need a barn owl soon to keep those in check) and lively population of robins, cardinals, purple and gold finches - and a hummingbird.

At one point, you may recall, we had a whole litter of these cute little guys.

  In general, the rabbits have stayed out of the garden. They like to lounge around, however, and look innocent, hoping I will leave something open to them....

Suspicious. I do believe THIS is the guilty party for climbing over the rake and shovels to eat the newly planted dill.

...and this new face... er, tail was a total surprise (at 9am) and NOT so welcome!

  Every morning, really, I sit outside and watch. It's better than having pets - highly entertaining, barring those times our relationship waxes confrontational.

   Right in the middle of summer garden busy-ness, we discovered a part on the freezer needed replacement. That was finally done, but now it needs to defrost for 24 hours and restart. Hmmm... For someone that routinely uses freezing as my go-to method of preservation, this slightly more complicated than restarting the computer. I found 7-8 quart bags of pumpkin, 4-5 of blueberries, 2 of strawberries, 2 of zucchini, several pre-made apple and peach pie fillings, not to mention the broth, soup leftovers and other random items. (Apparently, I not only baked much less than anticipated in the past year, but I have overlooked the potential for instant dinner out of the freezer. We've been getting creative.) The freezer discovery then lead to checking the pantry - only to  uncover 3 pints of canned applesauce and some other items... and then taking apart the baking cupboard to maximize the Utilization of Ingredients, such as miscellaneous specialty flours and flaxseed.

Disclaimer - we have not actually eaten ALL this ourselves.

   So between last weekend and this, the kitchen heated up with pumpkin-applesauce bread with whole wheat flour and flaxseed; pumpkin-zucchini muffins with some oat flour and flaxseed, blueberry cobbler from Bisquick and whole grain baking mixes -without the flaxseed. Strawberry shortcake appeared for Sunday dessert: same Bisquick, strawberries from the freezer, a bit of sugar and tapioca flour, which is a nice substitute for cornstarch. (I had thought I was out of cornstarch. I wasn't - did I mention I needed to reorganize the baking cupboard?) Eventually, I ran out of sugar (!), so found that substituting sugar in the raw or brown sugar added nice depth of flavor to nearly everything.

But in all this, there stood the Camaro.
Indeed, I have been called upon now to bleed the brakes, stand guard with the fire extinguisher as the engine started for the first time in 4 years, and check the brake lights. Repeatedly.

FOUR wheels on the ground!

 Jeff just finished rebuilding the rear axle. The welding is all done. The engine is being tuned...
There's a dearth of spare parts in the house!

When things don't behave well in a car.. better safe than sorry.

License plates attached!

Looking good.

   The latest report tonight, after Much Ado About the Engine, is that is DID finally start and stay running with the bit more (ahem, hours..) of tweaking... And for the first time in many years moved on it's own out of the garage! Now it's on to the paint shop... while I go back to that pumpkin and come up with some new recipes.

  

Mt Washington, NH, June 2014

  Hmmm. Another vacation sounds nice.

 But who needs a roadtrip when we're having THIS much fun at home?

 August 3, 2014

Of Owl's Head and other Summer Snapshots

Today will be five weeks since we headed back from the East Coast! I cannot completely account for where July went, but this post and the next few will be a glimpse of where we've been and what we've been doing.

Owl's Head. The name is intriguing. Is it a biological or geographical reference? There is some dispute about this point, but nonetheless it is a lovely promontory on the Maine coast just south of Camden- was our destination after the aforementioned excellent coffee. When approached by sea, you can reportedly see the outline of an owl's head or face in the cliff rocks.

It is marked by a lighthouse, a tiny lobstering village and - a Museum of Transportation, which we squeezed into an hour before closing. Such things cannot be overlooked.

 So glad we didn't take the stagecoach from Chicago to Maine.

Or the gypsy wagon, despite the excellent decor and traveling stove packed inside.

What do you want to know about the history of racing in the US? 

   Find it here.

Checking out the vintage collections and the history of wheels in general.

 The stuff of engineering dreams....

   The question always is: restoration or replica?

And when in Maine: is there a ratio for horsepower to moosepower?

Pondering that question, we drove a winding road out to Owl's Head Lighthouse state park.

 Perfect views...

 More wild roses!

 Now owned by the coastguard and battery-operated, the lighthouse still is functional and on occasion open for tours. It's also a quiet, restorative sort of place.

 Hike down to the cove, and take in the ocean waves and sea shells.

 The harbor and village look serene, but business is brisk based on the number of boats and trucks.

I tried so hard to capture one good shot of the millions of roadside lupines we saw everywhere. Being that they are typically roadside (ie, we are moving), even this really does not capture the vibrant hues.

    Speaking of classic sights in Maine, the only place we saw loons were in the Camden Harbor, our next stop that evening.

   A good long walk on the windy breakwater...

     And beautiful views from the Camden Lighthouse. It was the perfect evening to be out on the water.

Dinner by the water, on board or on the rocks.

We opted to have our (delicious) seafood on land, saving room for gelato - because, why not??

Gelato is not generally known as a Maine delicacy, I believe.

Apparently, some would argue that point. 

I would be happy to eat it in either location.

   The next day was our last day in the state of Maine, so we took our time - a leisurely morning at our tiny cabin before heading up to the mountain views in Camden State Park.

  

 Bay Leaf Cottages. Tiny and quite comfy.

 A good hike deserves a good view!

 We were not disappointed.

 Looking eastward...

 Looking downward! (You never know what you will find.)

And if you look hard enough, you can almost always find a local vineyard!

 We had to stop, of course, as local wine and beer tasting has become a bit of a travel hobby. I highly recommend the blueberry wine as a dessert wine. We are still sipping on the other lovely blends we found here. As you can imagine, Maine's growing season is not very long. The vineyard, moreover, is not very old. So many of the blends include grapes from Washington, Minnesota and New York - varieties suited to the northern clime. The restored barn makes a very pretty tasting room and shop.

A perfect summer day in Maine.

Then we were back on the road, heading inland again!

 We don't see these much in Illinois.

Nor these!

And that's it for Maine. Onward towards the White and Green Mountains of New Hampshire, and Vermont, and then home.

June 2014