Vegetables in the garden are ripening at an increasing rate.
Each meal now we must make the choice between turnips, beets, Romano beans, Slenderette green beans, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini, or yellow crook neck squash. Sometimes we have multiple vegetables.
This evening it was green beans pan fried with minced garlic and a dash of sea salt.
And none of our six kinds of tomatoes are even ripe yet. Summer can be glorious.
This is what retirement looks like.
Cassius is a retired racing greyhound. He must have been a good racer. He didn’t come off the track until he was four years old. He won 18 racers, and placed and showed in others.
Given his prey drive, I imagine he enjoyed racing. Even so, he is the picture of peace and calmness with our cats and other dogs.
Cassius still enjoys a quick sprint around our fenced pasture and likes to play with his jolly ball. But his favorite thing is sleeping on the couch while maintaining body contact with his mama. That’s me.
We could all take a lesson on how to chill from retired racing greyhounds.
Dogs enjoy hanging out on the patio at our house too.
Actually, they enjoy hanging out with us.
If Zekie knows I am out here, he will bark every few minutes until I come and get him. As you can see, this makes him very happy.
They especially enjoy laying on the futons.
Or laying in the shade.
Hanging out with the pups makes me as happy as it makes them.
Japanese beetle season has arrived. They are eating my roses, our young trees, and my new blueberry bushes. I have been squishing them but I cannot be everywhere at once, and besides that…eeewww, gross.
So, today I set up two Japanese beetle traps. I looked at the box and wondered, do these things really work? Or is it just something that sells because people want it to work?
I opened the box and assembled the two plastic pieces. Check. Then I attached the collection bag. Check. Next step, remove the backing from the pheromone bait and attach. As I held the bait and figured out how to seat it on the plastic fins, a couple flying things hit me in the head and bounced off. Then another flew at me and got stuck in my hair. Yup, Japanese beetles!
I used the wire provided and finally got two traps installed in the yard. The trap nearest my blueberry bushes had about 100 beetles in it by this evening. So, I can report that the traps do work. Just wear appropriate headwear during assembly!
It is so hot!
So, I found a recipe for a dessert that does not require using the oven. Pictured above is Stuffed Sweet Focaccia Bread.
It is cooked in a pan on the stovetop. Recommended fillings are peanut butter, chocolate, or Nutella. I improvised and used apricot preserves, walnuts, and brown sugar. It came out quite well. I will be making it again.
If you would like to try it as well, I found the recipe on Pinterest at the link below.
This is the newest member of our family! Meet Claire. She has been our foster dog for the past 6 months so if you know us, she’s not new around here.
I honestly did make a good effort to adopt her out. Our rescue isn’t doing home checks right now because of the pandemic. Over the past three months I did speak to previous adopters about her but the time and situation wasn’t right for any of them.
Mercifully, after speaking to the last potential adopter last week, they decided the timing was not right. I say mercifully because after I got off the phone with them before they had decided, I fell apart at the thought of Claire leaving us.
I don’t know if I’ve changed? Or I lost my edge after taking a year and a half fostering break after Zekie came to us? Or if it’s due to the fact that I’m home all the time now? Or if it’s just Claire. But the thought of her leaving is unbearable.
This does mean that we are on a moratorium from long term fostering for now. We will still be available for fostering those shelties that only need one or two weeks here.
So Claire is home! As you can see, she is quite happy about this. And so am I.
This evening’s supper included beets and a turnip from the garden. I don’t know the particular kind of beets, because we planted a pack that was a mixture. The red one on the left was long and skinny. The candy cane striped one was red on the outside peel. And on the right is the turnip.
I sautéed them all together in some avocado oil and threw in the greens from all three as well. The only other addition was a little salt.
I topped some freshly made polenta with a fried egg and some cheddar cheese. Then I spooned the beet, turnip, and greens mixture over the top.
It was a fine repast.
Here is my recipe for no bake cookies. I have been using it a lot recently because it is too hot to turn on the oven.
With just the two of us, I have been cutting the recipe in half and pressing it into an 8 x 8 pan.
Sometimes, I leave out the cocoa and press a handful of chocolate chips into the top while still warm. Today I used 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 almond extract. Substituting Nutella for the peanut butter would be delicious too.
Enjoy!
I took a quick jaunt around the property this evening to see what was newly in bloom and here is what I found.
Yuccas and a blue hosta.
My hollyhocks are in full swing now.
Pink oriental lilies.
And a second round of blooms on my new dianthus.
Summer is a profusion of new gems in the form of flowers. Each bud opens and reveals the magic inside in its own time.
Earlier this season, I shared that hollyhocks are biennials. Flowers that don’t bloom until the second year. And that I didn’t know what color this one was. It was the lone survivor from a pack of seeds that were for multiple colors.
Well, it turns out that it is pink! Pastel pink with darker centers. The blooms are opening up on the stalks more each day. I have planted three more this year that I raised from seed. And I have no idea what color any of them will be either!
Sanctuary Acres 