I don’t know why I’m sitting here trying to blog today. I am kind of in a funk and not really sure why. I have no reason to be. I feel like summer is passing me by and soon it will be gone and I won’t have done any of the things I intended to do. I had a goal of keeping my flower beds weed free and it all started out so well. Then the rains came and so did the weeds. I battled them for a while but now I just looked at them this weekend and said go ahead, clog my flower bed, see if I care! I’ve given up. Plus, I think that in my zeal to weed early on I must have pulled out my coneflowers since not one do I have now. Bummer.

It is still not really summer here. More like an extended spring. The pool temperature I think has topped out at 78 degrees on a good day. Yesterday three-quarters of an inch of cool rain fell over much of the day and I’m sure the pool temp will fall by a few degrees too. It’s just sad. I do like the cool nights for pleasant sleeping but I really could use a little more heat. I think we may have broken 80 degrees once or twice. My day lilies did not bloom as vigorously as years past and we’ve not had the dragonflies we normally do. They usually love the lilies. Neither have I seen my little buddies the hummingbird moths, and only a few butterflies so far. We still have a few hanger-on fireflies, still looking for love (most likely in all the wrong places), winking high in the treetops. And the cicadas? I am really not sure they will make an appearance this year. I’m afraid it may be too cool for them. I associate the sound of cicadas with hot weather and it’s not looking good!

There are so many things to blog about that I have just let pass me by.

Like the day we had two trees removed from our front side yard. It was fascinating to watch how quickly and easily the tree removal crew took them down. And how their super-charged shredding machine chewed up huge branches and limbs into mulch in a matter of seconds. We kept the wood from the trunks of the trees and will season it for use in a year or so. One tree was a black birch and when they cut it the smell of root beer, or to be more exact—birch beer—permeated the air for hours afterwards. I can still press my nose to the pieces of wood and smell that wonderful odor.

Like the two tea towels I finished.

Like the rest of the photos from our trip to San Miguel.

Like the somewhat upscale dinner we gave for a few friends of ours on Saturday night.

Like the great walk we took through the old Jungle Habitat with the dogs on Sunday. (Jungle Habitat is a story within itself! Another abandoned New Jersey attraction.)

All likely topics to blog about, but yet, I didn’t. Or haven’t. I need to get on with it here!

Watch this space ...

Edited on Wednesday afternoon to add:
Okay, so I lied. But not on purpose.
I went out to take some photos around noon today and these three things were different than my post above.
It was steamy and very warm. My camera lens even fogged up!
I heard a cicada!
I found one coneflower blooming and several others about to!
So, there you have the latest.
I’m thrilled about all three things above.
Well…maybe not so much the foggy camera lens ...

Beergaritas poolside.

I took this photo yesterday afternoon during yet another thunderstorm with heavy rain. I liked the reflection of my dining room light projected into the darkness outside.

Things have been strange this week. Lots of passings. Poor Farrah. She had the bad luck to die on the same day as Michael Jackson. Her death was totally over shadowed by that dark man. And by dark I am not referring to his color but to what a tortured soul he was. He was brilliant once upon a time. Maybe too much so. Everybody remembers what they were doing in life when Thriller came out. We were living in Germany at the time and whenever I hear songs from that album it takes me back there. Good times. Good memories. Where were you?

It was a strange day yesterday with a mix of clouds, sun, and of course, rain. Only two days this month have not registered any kind of precipitation at all. It’s been one of the wettest Junes on record. We have lots of mushrooms popping up in the yard and I even picked some fresh puffballs to contemplate eating. But, we aren’t completely sure of that even though we know they are edible. They smell wonderful and when cut in half have a creamy looking texture to them. Still thinking.

I mowed around this one the other day so I could take a photo of it. Not eating this one, but I think it’s pretty awesome!

The pool is warming up. Finally! The night before last we took our first skinny-dip. It was heaven. The pool temperature was up to 76 degrees. Still a little chilly but it felt great. We hope to get in some pool time over the weekend in-between the predicted afternoon thunderstorms. Hopefully some grilling can take place on the deck too. We still need to plan out our menus. I don’t want to get too carried away with planning because we are going to the Warwick farmer’s market tomorrow and will hopefully find some nice fresh peas. We did get peas from our CSA but they are too little to actually shell and must be eaten like snap peas.

We have used up everything in our produce box except for the peas. The romaine lettuce went into a wonderful Caesar salad. The recipe can be found here. The dressing was awesome and the homemade croutons are a definite must-do. I forgot to take a photo ... oops. We added leftover chicken for protein. (Leftover chicken from oven “fried” chicken the previous night.) We’ll be making this recipe again!

Last night we used the bunch of spinach in a delicious Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing. Just click for the recipe. This recipe we saw on Good Eats on the Food Network (Alton Brown). And, I did remember to take a photo before devouring it.

The day lilies have started to bloom. I just love it when they are blooming and the dragonflies do too! I took these photos yesterday after a little rain shower.

I love how the stamens look like an orange forest; the anthers covered in pollen, just waiting.

I know this is a strange mix of topics for a blog post, but it’s just what is on my mind this morning. I could show you a photo of how I’m coming on my embroidery but I think I’ve finally run out of steam for today.

When we lived in France this salad was pretty much a staple lunch at any restaurant. Lyon itself was only a 30 minute drive away.
(Lardons [or thick bacon], poached egg, frisee or spring mix lettuces, croutons, dijon vinaigrette.)

Thanks to Chef Rick for this wonderful lunch!

Outside temperature: 79
Pool temperature: 70-ish
First swim of the year! At first we were just going to go in the pool just to see if we could entice Bella back in. I am still kicking myself for not pushing the right button to record when Bella jumped in and swam to Rick on Saturday. Darn it anyway! We were not successful in getting her back in with us. We bobbed around a while on our new cushy lounges while the sun went in and out of clouds. It couldn’t seem to make up its mind. I got out and Rick decided he was going to try to really get wet and swim. He was standing at what I call the “brink of no return” (where the shallow end of our pool starts dropping off gradually from 3 feet to 9 feet). He was stuck there. Trust me, it’s hard to make that decision to dunk yourself in that cold water! So, I asked him if it would help if I got in too. I walked in to meet him and my right foot went a little too far—right off the brink of no return. kerplunk. I was in the icy water. Oh well, might as well swim since I’m in! Rick was annoyed with me because he wanted to be the one who got wet first this year. Trust me, I didn’t plan it. He said the expression on my face was priceless. We swam five laps or so and that was enough. Actually it felt kind of refreshing once you got used to it.

The water so far this year is crystal clear. Last year we struggled so with algae. I hope we don’t have that problem this year. It was a real pain. We have these little bugs this time of year that we are always finding floating in the pool. They look just like a fly Rick used in Colorado for fly fishing: a wooly bugger. I was never sure about the spelling. Maybe it’s a wooly booger. They are always dry, never wet. Anyway, this is what they look like:

I have tons of foxglove that is on the verge of blooming. They must reseed themselves pretty readily because I used to only have two or three and now I have at least ten different plants coming up everywhere. I like them though so I let them go. The bees like them too.

I don’t know what this is. Something in the pea family, but exactly what I don’t know. It’s a pretty tall plant; about 3.5 feet.

The day lilies are getting ready to make their debut poolside soon. I love it when they’re blooming. So cheery and bright.

It wasn’t all sitting idle by the pool this weekend. We also trimmed the forsythia hedge into some semblance of order and the burning bushes in front of our windows have now been taken down a notch. If we let it go we would not be able to see out the windows. After living in Colorado for so long and coaxing things to grow, New Jersey sometimes feels like a jungle. I am always pulling baby trees up and the ferns are taking over the day lilies!

We had a nighttime visitor on Saturday. We had just gone to bed when Hailey and Alex started barking like crazy from the office downstairs. Rick went to investigate (Bella and I stayed in bed) and turned on the front outside light. He saw a big black shape over in the area where we feed the birds. Ho-hum, just a bear. Back to bed. He did think, however, to check to make sure we had closed the sliding doors in the sun room—we had not. Good thing he checked. But the next day while we were eating our breakfast of strawberries and fresh melon down by the pool I glanced up to see the door to the basement standing wide open. Uh oh. (It’s our habit to leave the door open when we are outside with the dogs in summer. They get hot and go in to the basement to keep cool and out of the sun.) Bravely I went in to check it out. No bear. whew. But how stupid to leave the door open all night! I’m sure the bear would enjoy cozying up in there without our knowledge! I think we need to do a full door check before going to bed from now on.

Bella says:
hey mom, you and dad can go in that big water bowl as much as you want but I think i’ll stay on the sides and look cute. don’t the new flowers make a lovely backdrop for my head?