Auggie on the front porch.

This last is my favorite: Auggie, the plants, the front porch … classic cat on the front porch :) !!!

It is incredible how fast we can go from green and lush to dry and crisp.

AND, this week is to be in the 90’s with Friday forecast to reach 98F. YUCK!

Tomorrow morning, A/C #3 will be set up.

Meanwhile, this morning:

I made red raspberry ice cream!

And we like it!

We like it a LOT!

So. Weekend # 3 for pickles.

This weekend, I broke in a new steam canner and I am sold on steam canning: less water, faster to canning temp and it holds 7 quarts vs the 4 pints of my small batch stock pot.

My local organic farm has been offering a “pickle pack”: 7 pounds of pickling cucumbers, a batch of dill and a bulb of fresh (vs cured) garlic. This makes 1 batch of the sweet and spicy pickles I like and 1 batch of dill. The last 2 weekends, I took 2 mornings to make the 2 batches.

Today: I sliced and brined all. Then, walks, play, breakfast all around and finally processing.

I took the 2nd batch of jars out of the canner at 11:30 a.m. Another walk and play session, clean up the kitchen and just after noon, I was D.O.N.E. An enjoyable process and all jars sealed.

As I started this morning, 51F. When I finished, it was 70F. With an exhaust window fan, the house and kitchen stayed cool – YEA!

It is supposed to be a warm week: 91-94 until Friday. And I think I’m ready for a break from weekend canning.

Still … it was a beautiful process … have a look!

That is the dill for the dill pickles, on the left: so pretty and so fragrant!

Nothing to do with pickles. Spearmint on the front porch.

Again, nothing to do with pickles … Auggie on his morning rounds.

We end with a clean kitchen, pickles all sealed in jars and joy in the process of preserving good food!

We’ve got pickles!!

After 2 days of upper 80F temperatures and 1 night of clouds, so not much cooling … last night was clear and cool. I was up at 1:00 a.m. shutting down A/Cs and fans, opening windows and even going outside briefly with Emmett.

This morning, it was 55F at my house … wonderfully cool. We had a short “business walk”, some play, treats and coffee and then I got my big camera to talk a long, slow walk to enjoy the morning.

I invite you to come along and encourage taking your time and using your imagination to hear the birds, feel the breeze and just notice the light, shadows and colors.

Happy Friday!

Peace to all.

Afternoon

Evening

It is clouding up, but supposed to clear and cool.

Having just crossed the 1 month in, 2 months to go: Summer … my least favorite season … we also had our first 90F day. BUT, 90F in town, 88F at my house and with a humidity of 27%, NOAA says the heat index is only 85F. Whatever, it feels hot to me.

But, I set up A/C #2 yesterday morning. Test run yesterday and all is well so today we are very cool!

Meanwhile, on Sunday, pickles DID happen.

Monday morning dills to the left, Sunday sweet and spicy to the right.

The “sweet and spicy”! The dill did happen early Monday morning. To date, 2 batches of dill and 1 of sweet and spicy. More to happen this coming weekend and I have a new steam canner to hopefully streamline the process a bit. I really enjoy preserving. I think I rebelled at the process as a child and then did not do any until the last several years. I like the process as well as opening a cupboard and seeing jars of food that I like, that is preserved from a local source. I also freeze and ferment. It is especially meaningful in the current uncertain time, to know that I have good food.

Food insecurity is part of our current time. Even before Covid-19, but much more now, per my reading. If you have food and resources, consider looking into your local food bank or online organizations to share whatever you have extra. I am thankful for every good meal that I have and I have GREAT meals: healthy and delicious. I do not take my meals for granted.

Changing topics: productivity! So far, I have continued on my productivity streak: yard, house, paperwork, cooking/baking/food preserving and WORK! All while getting out with Auggie and Emmett, of course.

But, in the work arena:

Go big or go home!

So, a week ago Tuesday, I was troubleshooting a bit of code that was working in one place, but not another … well, that’s what it seemed like. As I was trying to see what was different/wrong, I got frustrated trying to set up windows of code and corresponding windows of the user interface. I got as far as I could and then called on a work partner for help. He would be available in 15-20-30 minutes.

In my frustration, I said to myself: “if I had a bigger monitor…” In 15 minutes, I went to the Dell site (my monitor source), found a very WIDE monitor on sale and bought it! It arrived last Friday.

I am very happy. I can fit 3 “screens” across and 2 up and down. It is a curved 34 inch diagonal monitor. I like the way it looks as well.

In the heat of Summer, we are out and about as much as we can be … early in the day.

So.

We are all about JOY. And gratitude. And giving to others. And trying (not always successfully) to not be angry about other’s choices …

It is Wednesday evening. We are on the downhill run to another weekend!

Happy, happy to all to who visit here!