Bee balm in bloom.

We had a good weekend. Mostly the weather cooperated except for Sunday when we woke to rain and thunder, and it rained/drizzled for most of the day.

On Saturday we took Mia and drove down to Lake Mohawk near Sparta. The weather was picture perfect as is the boardwalk at the lake. Perfect temperature, blue blue sky, a slice of pizza for lunch.

Baby figs!

We ate well over the weekend:

BBQ baby back ribs, coleslaw, and homemade baked beans.

Goat shoulder tacos and sweet corn. For a more detailed description of the goat tacos, see Rick’s blog entry, Get your Goat, Part 2.

Frangipane fig tart (seen here before baking).

Yesterday’s lunch poolside: grilled eggplant sandwiches stuffed with goat cheese. The baby eggplants were sent via priority mail straight from my sister’s garden!

At last but not least, Papaya Margaritas! These were seriously good!

Yesterday was a good pool day and we spent most of the day either bobbing around the pool or sitting in the cabana reading. Even with the rainy Sunday (we needed some rain) I can’t complain one whit about our weekend. Hope yours was good as well!

Pool temperature upon checking first thing this morning: 70 degrees. It’s struggling more than usual this year because of the filter glitch last week and not having been covered up by the (new) solar blanket. Today and tomorrow’s daytime temperatures are supposed to soar into the 90’s and dip down to only the 70 degree mark overnight, so that will surely help boost the water temperature. We need to take that first swim before Rick leaves for Shanghai on Friday! Maybe our first swim will be a skinny-dipping night swim this year ...

Last night the fireflies were out in force. Over the past week we only saw a few feeble flashing lights in the grass, but last night they seemed to be everywhere. As you know, they are one of my favorite things. We saw one bat swooping around too, which is a good sign. I keep hoping to see as many as we had the first two years we lived here but that may not be possible. I don’t know where their numbers stand or if the white-nose fungus that was plaguing them is still a problem.

It’s obvious that we have a pesky bear in the neighborhood. On Sunday when Rick was washing Mia in the driveway, Finn (the neighbor’s dog across the street) started barking like crazy. We looked up to catch a glimpse of a bear in their woods. He decided to not come down and visit us and turned around and went up the hill in back of Kim’s house. Yesterday morning we awoke to our trash all over the street (and Kim’s too). Like I said, pesky bear. One that likes to knock over trees and sleep on them and turn over garbage cans. I have yet to get a good look at this bear!

Our house remodeling is coming along but still not finished. My sister arrives next week and will be the first one to try out the new bathroom. Hopefully the paint will be dry by then ... (Just kidding, sis!)

The wild rose bushes have gone really wild this year. They are everywhere along our little road!

And they smell wonderful! This one is trying to take over a tree and it looks like it’s having great success.

The concord grapes that are growing wild along the road are coming along nicely. Last year it was so dry they became raisins right on the vine. Hopefully this year we can at least grab a handful while walking the dogs.

Fingers crossed for swimming soon!

More vacation blogging coming up next time!

That’s what it’s been like around here this week. Lots of things going on. People coming. People going. Everyone is going somewhere except for me.

You see, Rick has been traveling since last Sunday. First to Cannes, France and now Bucharest, Romania. We’re separated by bad internet service and seven hours. By the time I get up his day is half over with. He’s eating out at nice restaurants and I am eating hot dogs.

We are in the midst of yet another remodel job: the upstairs guest bathroom. Every morning promptly at 7:30 Tim arrives, so I need to be up and showered, dogs and cats fed and scooped by the time he comes. This is not my normal routine. Sure, I get up because the dogs wake me up between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m., but I usually sit around in my robe and check email before I shower for at least an hour.

I can’t really go anywhere while people are working in the house. I’ve had plumbers and electricians here this week plus the landscape person to look at some shrubs they planted last year that didn’t do well over the winter and need to be replaced. There are always questions to be answered and decisions to be made because things don’t always go exactly as planned. So I’ve been kind of stuck. Once they leave I scoot out to the grocery store and pick up whatever I need. Not exactly exciting or satisfying. I’m not really complaining. I know the end result of all this will be wonderful. It’s the getting to the wonderful part that is a bit painful.

Then there is the Johnny story. Before we left for vacation Rick mowed for the first time. He got too close to the edge of the flower bed and hit a rock that got sucked up into the shoot. We thought it was okay, but when I started to mow last week I didn’t get very far before I noticed an odd, hot smell and all of a sudden the deck was not cutting the grass anymore. When I looked underneath the mowing deck I could see a belt hanging down. Great. Rick pulled the deck off to see if he could fix it himself but the belt needed to be replaced. We called John Deere and made an appointment for them to come out and fix the belt and check Johnny out to make sure the rock had not done more damage that we couldn’t see.

In the meantime we really needed the grass to be cut since it had really grown in our absence. So, we called a local lawn service that we’ve used in the past and he was able to come right over that same day. Only problem was, while maneuvering in a a tight space in the back yard he bumped our brand new fence gate and broke the hinge! He promised to get us a new one.

The earliest that John Deere could come out was Friday. Johnny’s string of bad luck events continued since they had sent Justin (the repair person) out with the wrong belt. And Johnny’s blades had gotten nicked pretty good from the rock and needed sharpening. So he ended up taking the whole mowing deck with him. My grass continues to grow daily. sigh.

While he was here working on Johnny, the lawn service guy showed up with the hinges. So, I had Tim cutting tile right outside the front door, the John Deere guy in my driveway and the lawn service guy all at the same time. See? Three-ring circus!

This week will be even more hectic since the painter will be here too. And the pool is getting opened. And Johnny is due back. And they will be replacing the shrubs out front. And they start the remodel on the downstairs powder room. And Rick is due back mid-week (yeah!)

All these things are good things but they all require me to be here at the house. (Well, except for Rick, but how would he feel if I wasn’t here to welcome him home?)

So there you have it. Tomorrow I will be by myself for Memorial Day and I plan to BBQ myself a juicy hamburger, make a small portion of potato salad, and have an ear of white sweet corn. Hope you all have great things planned for the holiday!

I am taking a break from vacation posts today to share this.

Yesterday morning when I let the dogs out in the back yard at around 6:30 a.m. they started barking and looking towards the front yard. I looked out and didn’t see anything, but they kept barking for a while longer. (I can’t see all of the front of house from the windows that I looked out of.) I guess I should have known something was up but it’s been so long since we’ve seen any kind of bear activity. I didn’t think too much of it, or at least not enough to go outside and check.

A few hours later I went outside to let the plumber in the garage (we are in the middle of a bath remodel at the moment ... oh joy) and noticed one of the little trees that we planted last year was knocked over and smashed in. Take a look.

I couldn’t believe my eyes! My tree! What the $#@#? It’s supposed to look like the other tree in the photo seen here. I was almost in tears.

That’s when Tim (who is doing our remodel) said “bear.” Sure enough, there were the footprints in the mulch—big ones—leading up to the tree. We are thinking that the bear made himself a cozy bed and just curled up and slept there.

Why my tree? Those trees aren’t exactly cheap! Mr. Bear checked into the Hilton instead of the Motel 6. Thanks a bunch ...

New Green. Nothing really comes close color-wise in my opinion Crayola should have it as one of their colors.

I call these tree caterpillars. I don’t know what kind of trees they are, possibly elms, but they are messy when they drop and they look exactly like caterpillars.

When the forsythia party is over there is nothing left but yellow confetti.

The other day the blue jays decided to come en masse to the feeding area. I think at one time I counted around 14. See how many you can find in this photo and don’t forget to look in the bushes and the tree. They are beautiful birds!

We had a few “firsts” this weekend. The first time the yard was mowed and the first hummingbird to arrive! I think this little guy is early since it’s been so cold so far this year. Yet, there he sat on the clothesline announcing his arrival and waiting patiently for his feeder to be hung out. Do you think the same birds return year after year? How else would he know where the feeder should be?

Before the yard mowing I managed to snap the wild violets growing in one area of the front yard. I love violets and I love that they grow in my yard!

And with the yard mowing came a delightful find! Morels!!!! And growing in a spot we never thought to look for them, right alongside the edging to the back yard. Remember my “Morel of the Story” post a few years back? If not, I think you should take the time to follow the link and read it! We haven’t seen morels since that year so we were really excited.

While Rick was mowing the front yard I heard the mowing stop and went to see what the problem was. Rick was off the tractor and walking toward me with more morels! These were growing right in the grass in the front yard!

We froze some them and a few went into our risotto. Delicious!

I know they look ugly but they are as yummy as they are ugly!

For the next few days my mind will be whirling with all I have to do to get ready to leave on Thursday for our trip to Nicaragua and Panama! I am not ready!!!