Summer Joys AND Heat

We are enjoying the season in spite of record temperatures, and very grateful for rain last night! Will it be enough to turn the brown lawns green? Maybe not. Nor will it affect recent bans on burns and fireworks.

Sunday, as planned, Sam and Kristie provided us an excuse for another family gathering.

"It's a boy!"

See the blueberry filling? I don't think Sam's expression means anything. Just caught him rubbing his eye. They had fun revealing confirming to us all what they had long suspected.

Monday is often my big writing day and/or a day to catch up from a busy weekend. It is then especially fun to go to the meal at Chef and Karen's.

The table was laden with wonderful foods from their abundant garden yield: several dishes using greens, even the risotto is green; a mix of root vegetables; and two Alabama specialties.

Please notice the kale crisps on the middle platter and one on my plate. Wonderful! Brush kale with olive oil, season with salt/pepper to taste, and toast/crisp in oven 10 minutes. So thin, crunchy, tasty! The kind you can't stop eating and don't even realize you're getting your fill of greens.

Tuesday, forecast to be the coolest day we'd have all week, Michael tackled the all-day job of spraying sealer on the deck.

Wednesday our Food for Thought ladies Bible study group met for lunch and shared about our summer so far.

In the evening we went to Malachi's last game of the season. I don't know if he was sad that they lost or relieved that it is over.

Thursday was our record hot day, in the triple digits, so we stayed indoors.

How do you like these flowers? Do you recognize what they are?

Friday we met our new greatgranddog, Kayla's Lily.

In the afternoon we tried to support our town's new initiative--a weekly farmer's market including local crafts. So Mike took a few boxes of his pottery creations. We were about to set up when a severe storm blew in suddenly. We had to wait it out in the car for an hour. It cleared up nicely, but not very many customers showed up. We had a great time talking to the other vendors, however.

More storms rolled in through the night. Some friends suffered damaged vehicles and/or homes from the fallen trees.

Saturday
Today was an exciting day. A group of us, welcomed this summer's three Basque students with a dinner at Dane and Laurie's house. It made us miss our Amaia and those from other years.

 After dinner the young folk had fun playing a Basque card game that they call Scum.

That's our week. The next will be very different as we will be camping in Illinois at the last Cornerstone Music Festival.