vampires vanquished

 I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time cooking… oh, donˋt get me wrong cause Iˋm not complaining, far from it, but I do sometimes wonder how people manage to feed themselves with less effort. It must be a super-hero skill.

This morning I made: 2 batches of egg bites (feta; roasted red pepper cheddar); an onion dip; the filling for jalapeno poppers and mushrooms; and a whole whack of crostini using homemade bread. Carm helped with the crostini by cutting perfectly even slices of bread and then when toasted, rubbing each piece with a clove of garlic - the flavour is fantastic, a perfect way to showcase fresh from the garden garlic. Iˋm not especially efficient so was at it until 2pm. But itˋs not like I had people to see, places to go.

Last night I planned a simple supper… that ended up taking me well over an hour to make! First was the chicken (thaw, slice, marinate), then the zucchini (pick, slice, roast), and finally the garlic herb dip (scour internet for garlic recipes, make garlic compote, pick and chop herbs, squeeze lemon, look at recipes for ideas, stir with sour cream and mayo). Make that 2 hours for our simple supper!!!! 

If meals started appearing like magic I think Iˋd go into a depression 🤪

Yesterday we harvested the garlic - 100+ giant heads - enough for planting in the fall and if Iˋm careful, to get us to the next harvest. Itˋs our best crop so far with big bulbs and huge cloves. In all these years of having enough land to make a garden, I never realized how satisfying it is to glean food from the land. Weˋve been eating summer squash/zucchini like crazy and loving every bite.

One of the branches of the apple tree crashed to the ground yesterday - we had tears in our eyes as we collected a trugˋs worth of half ripe apples before dismembering the fruitful sentinel.

I ventured out of the house a few days ago to go into some actual shops. Iˋm shopping starved and wanted to buy everything. I didnˋt completely lose my mind but it was a few trips to unload the car 🤪😱 

Awesome!

“jumping in the pool right after getting up - before coffee even”

“catching sight of another infant squash”

“trying on a pair of shorts that I bought and finding they were way too big”

“Adia didnˋt grab the food that I accidently dropped in front of her - such a good dog and a far cry from her greedy ways of when we first got her”

"pulling a huge bulb of garlic from the earth"

"picking two big yellow summer squash"

you shouldnt cook bacon naked

 I wouldnˋt have been surprised if a passing car stopped to see what was going on… I was flat on my back in a field of Queen Anneˋs Lace, the celebrant of late July days. I wanted one photo with the flower silhouetted against a blue sky, alas, the sky wasnˋt all that blue but my wet clothes were worth it.

Adia (I almost wrote Kabira) was playing nearby, fascinated by the jumping grasshoppers. Occasionally one would fly away and sheˋd leap and bound after it. I laughed out loud.

The sound of bees feasting on the patch of wild flowers almost drowned out the unwelcome sound from the road. I walked carefully, not just to avoid a sting, but to avoid trampling too many flowers.

Awesome!

“having a shower on the back deck with water warm from the sun”

“puttering around the back deck before I even had a coffee”

“peaceful easy feeling after waking up a little discombobulated”

“knowing that a pot of black beans is cooking in the IP”

“on the same vein, having a fresh zucchini salad marinating in the fridge”

“Carm coming home with bags of the lovely cookies Kirsten brought last weekend”

watch with glittering eyes

 I had a few more ˋmomentsˋ yesterday, these ones cancelling out the hopeful times I had yesterday… on the news they were talking about the Delta variant. It is much more contagious and dangerous than the original covid-19 virus. Cases are rising exponentially in the US, mostly affecting unvaccinated people. The same thing is bound to happen here. Will we be in lockdown again? 

With the dew still on the grass I toddled around the backyard, first checking the zucchini. There are lots that will be ready for harvest in a day or two. Beside it is a sprawling squash plant with only 1 embryonic squash growing. I wonder if there will be anything to harvest as surely some wild thing is likely to come for a meal.

Carmˋs tomato plants look overgrown and wild but there is lots of green fruit hidden among the leaves. Back on the deck I crouched and stuffed my face with little worlds of flavour. Two different varieties of cherry tomato are planted: one with bright red fruit, the other gorgeous orange. Biting down on them popped a sweet yet acidic explosion of flavour onto my tongue.

Music is playing… ˋPeaceful Easy Feelingˋ as I write this. My anthem. The words donˋt all shake out, but the refrain and the notes evoke a, well, peaceful easy feeling!

I was looking for when we harvested the garlic in 2019 which meant reading thru Julyˋs awful events. Iˋm not ashamed to say that I shed a few tears. Iˋd forgotten how hard Spike took Bella and Kabiraˋs deaths - Iˋd forgotten about the nights and days that he lay staring into space whimpering. My memory of their deaths have mostly been replaced with fond remembrance of what good dogs they were and I no longer feel the gut wrenching pain when I think of them. Well… except for today… it seems that I captured my feelings well enough to re-experience, (if only for a few minutes), the anguish. Iˋm glad that Spike canˋt read.

Awesome!

“Spikeˋs head resting on Adiaˋs legs as they both slept peacefully”

“cherry tomato flavour bombs”

“Adia following me as I went about the yard”

“an acre of Queen Anneˋs Lace and purple clover”

“the first giant bulb of garlic drawn from the earth”

“cool refreshing water”

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

Roald Dahl