A Cool Trip to the Farmers Market

Today was the end of our two-day cool spell. Yesterday and today Norm and I sat on the front porch at mid-day and enjoyed a cool breeze while we drank blueberry-peach smoothies for lunch. Probably will be hugging the AC for the coming week! This morning I went to the Ferguson Farmers Market; above is some of my loot: Calhoun (IL) County peaches from Kamp's Orchard, a humongous cantaloupe from Hahn's organic farm, plus tomatoes, a (hidden) cucumber and interesting summer squash from various other small organic farms. Not pictured: the delicious blonde brownies, dog biscuits (for Ava's visit this week) and cranberry-orange scone from Cosi Dolce, nor the basil/garlic linguine and the sweet potato linguine from Pappardelle's Pasta. We hope to fix the basil/garlic for a company dinner soon. The guy from Kamp's expects to have peaches for at least another month. Looking forward to next Saturday! The freezer will be groaning.

When last week's triple digit temps arrived, the lovely stand of surprise lilies went crispy before I could even take their picture. The native phlox that the previous owner planted, however, appears to like it hot. This grows under our maple tree and the late afternoon sun spotlighted it. Yesterday I trimmed a beloved rubber tree that was almost as tall as I was...very ungainly for a house plant that spends 8 months of the year upstairs in the sewing room, the only room with enough light for it. I repotted it too...I think the jury is still out whether the rubber plant is happy with its new look. While I was at it I neatened the other house plants on the porch and trimmed the geraniums; then I swept up a lot of debris that blew in from earlier storms. The outside front of the house actually looks decent and welcoming now. Until the next round of storms, we can enjoy it.

Norm spent part of the day cleaning our guest room (we might have guests, you never know) while I tackled 4 loads of laundry. Tonight we uncovered an occasional table between our recliners that was buried in 4 months worth of magazines, half-solved sudoku puzzles, and notes. It's amazing what you can find that you thought was lost, like an invitation to a birthday party that happened back in July....oops.

Tomorrow I'm going to present a video from the Quadrennial for our Sunday School class, and I hope it goes over OK. It's hard to believe that happened 6 weeks ago!