Whew! Who turned up the heat? I guess I should be careful what I wish for. Temperatures soared this weekend into the high 80’s and with the humidity of 99% to 100% it felt more like the 90’s! Our good friend Carolyn was down visiting us from Rhode Island this weekend.

Even with the predicted heat we dressed up in our medieval garb and went to the Renaissance Faire. As you already know, I love dressing up for the Faire! Just a wench at heart I guess.

I don’t know how they wore the clothing they did back then and not keel over from heat prostration! We managed to catch a few shows, have some libations and lunch and walk around a bit, but four hours was about all any of us could take of the sun and heat.

I’m not sure why this guy they pulled out of the audience to assist Dextre was smiling. I don’t think I’d be smiling with a guy tossing fire brands over my head while squatting on my shoulders, would you?

Then we came home and went to a resort where the three of us bowled; Rick and I played nine holes of golf and a game of table tennis; Rick went wake boarding on a ski-doo, participated in a bike race and played frisbee with a dog; and Carolyn flew an airplane around the island. Pretty cool, huh?

On Sunday we went to the Warwick farmer’s market. It was the most crowded I have ever seen it! What was strange was to see the varieties of apples and even a few pears showing up already. The summer-less summer has everything confused. We bought everything we needed for our pear salad for lunch right at the market. These plums looked yummy but we didn’t buy any. I just liked the way they looked.

The rest of Sunday was spent floating around the pool. Heaven.

And, oh, in case you’re wondering about that great resort we went to on Saturday, you can check it out here:

We never had to leave our comfortable air-conditioned home!

Had you going, didn’t I?

Sometimes it just hits me in the face how beautiful it really is here in New Jersey. Forget about the crummy summer we are experiencing with all the rain and 100% humidity. (Hey, it’s good for the skin!)

Yesterday I drove to our CSA to pick up our share. I took the back roads instead of the main road. The back roads are twisty and turny with plenty of hills. I pass all kinds of styles of houses nestled cosily in the woods. No cookie-cutter housing developments here. Some make me want to stop, knock on their door, and ask I can come in and tour their home. My Mom was always wanting to do that. I think she would have made a great realtor. Has it really been two years since her passing?

I also pass two or three (or is it four?) small lakes with their clusters of houses. Some are log cabins which must go back to the days when this was a popular place to come in the summer from the city. Now they are permanent homes for some lucky family. I love the look and feel of these small lakeside communities. My favorite is Lindy’s Lake. There is so much foot traffic going back and forth from houses to the private beach that they put out orange traffic cones. As I drive slowly by keeping a sharp eye out for stray children, I get a quick glimpse of kids swimming and splashing while the moms chat in small groups or sit on beach towels in the sun.

Also yesterday there was a bear parade down the street in front of my house. Patches had the kids out for a stroll. I stood in my driveway and tried to snap a few photos. They were on the move so the photos are not the best. First came Patches.

and then the three amigos.

The went into our neighbor’s yard and then their woods, coming back out on the road again. Patches was curious about our new driveway (We had our driveway resurfaced on Monday and the asphalt smell is still very strong.) and she came over to have a sniff.

She was probably planning on coming into my front yard but she knew I was out there so she changed her plans and took the family on down the road.

It was midday and very hot. I was pretty surprised to see them out and about. But that would not be the only bear encounter of the day. Oh no, not the last.

Several hours later I let the dogs out after their meal. Bella didn’t show up at the door to come back inside and I knew she must be up to something. The dogs never want to stay outside when it’s as hot as it was yesterday. I went out to see what she up to and I could see her back by the fence. I called her. She ignored me. I walked a little further and could see she was just sitting there at the fence intently staring back into the woods. Hmm ... very suspicious! Sure enough, there was Patches sitting at the base of a large tree, and looking up I could see the cubs in the tree. I got Bella back inside and went out with my camera, hoping to get some shots of the cubs up the tree.

Patches was laying down when I approached the fence. She picked her head up and looked at me. I went to the fence, and standing on a rock, positioned my camera on the top of the chain link, preparing to take a photo of her. She stood up with her front legs on the tree as if to climb it and I figured I was making her nervous and she was going to call the cubs down from their perch high above. As I stood there, quicker than lightning, another bigger bear came charging at her from somewhere on my left making scary noises. I didn’t get my photo but I nearly peed my pants. Where did that bear come from? Patches went up the tree and there was a lot of vocalizing going on in bear talk. I was still standing there dumbstruck when the bigger bear turned in my direction, looked straight at me and started walking at a quick pace towards me and the fence. I have to admit I was pretty scared (especially not knowing what kind of scene I had just watched the bears play out). So what did I do? I backed away as quickly as I could keeping my eye on the bear at all times. I knew it could come over that fence in a heartbeat if it wanted to. (And speaking of heartbeats, mine was pretty rapid right about then!) The big bear got almost to the fence and then turned around and went back to the base of the tree where Patches and the kids still were. Holy crap! I have never witnessed anything like that before. I stood there in the yard for a little while trying to peer through the trees to see what was going on. I saw a cub come down the tree and the bigger adults moving around, but no more confrontations. I left them to it and went back inside to call my neighbor Aileen to be on the lookout for them in case they headed in her direction.

I don’t know which bear it was, but it was big. Much bigger than Patches because she looked like a cub next to it!  Yikes.

When I told Rick my story he had this to say “Gee, too bad you didn’t get it on video.” Not gee Lynne maybe you should be more careful or how scary or anything like that. No. He’s wishing I had gotten it on video. Well, now that I think about it and my heart rate is back to normal again, I’m thinking how very cool it would have been to have it on video. Think I should try again?

We’re back now from our little shore trip. My brain feels mushy today. Maybe it’s all that salty air I took in while on the beach, or maybe it’s just the high humidity and heat we had yesterday. And, after three blissful days of not having to take care of the dogs and cats I find it hard to get back into the routine again. Thankfully the dogs are sleeping a lot, catching up on lost naps after the hectic pace of being in the kennel with lots of other dogs.

We had a great time and our neighbors were gracious hosts as always. We probably ate and drank too much but it was all good. The weather cooperated (mostly) and gave us sunny warm days for lounging or walking on the beach. We did get rain overnight on Saturday and into Sunday morning, but by noon on Sunday the sun was out again, although it was pretty steamy.

Here are some scenes I snapped while walking on the beach.

aah ... the Jersey Shore!

Whether you’ve heard of them or not, New Jersey is famous for its tomatoes. So what’s not to love about tomato season? This year however, tomato crops all over the Northeast are being threatened by the dreaded late blight fungus. Already Pedro (our CSA provider) has had to pull 80 otherwise healthy tomato plants from his crop of 240. Not good! I opted to buy my tomatoes from the farm stand where I buy them every year. However they grow them they did not seem to have a problem since their table was full of big, juicy specimens.

Here are the ingredients of our dinner last night. Fresh Jersey tomatoes, a few grape tomatoes that I picked from my own plants yesterday afternoon, fresh local sweet corn from the farm stand, and a handful of basil leaves also picked from my own basil plant.

The sweet corn just got boiled and buttered, eaten just like it is. The tomatoes went into a tart easy enough for even you no-cooks out there.

First I salted and peppered the tomatoes so they would release some of their juices before going into the tart so they wouldn’t get the crust too watery.

Then I took a sheet of thawed puff pastry and rolled it out to an appropriate size. Next, Dijon mustard got slathered on the pastry but not too thickly. The mustard was then covered up with a layer of sliced Swiss (I like to use Emmenthaler) cheese. The basil leaves (left whole) came next because if you put them on top they would just get crispy. Just sprinkle a good handful around. Finally, the last layer are the tomatoes. Bake in a 400 degree oven until the crust is browning and the cheese is melted. Here is the result:

Easy and delicious! I can’t promise yours will be as good as ours was since you’ll be lacking the secret ingredient (Jersey grown tomatoes), but I bet you can find some equally delicious in-season tomatoes near you. Don’t use tomatoes when they are out of season or you’ll really be disappointed with the results.

I love tomato tart!

(P.S. For those of you wondering, I’ve kind of given up on my CSA blog entries for now. We are not getting very much right now and it’s not the kinds of things that make for good recipes. Poor Pedro, this year has been a challenge so far.)