Through the Gate

Sometimes it feels like I always want to go through the gate. A little excited to see what's just out of sight while a little apprehensive about what I might encounter.

Read a quote recently, and can't remember where...
"Life begins at the end of your Comfort Zone."

To get there you have to go through the gate.

I want my girl

Sometimes it hurts so much I can hardly bear it. Even after more than a year. How do people survive? Why do we hide our grief?
I want my girl. I want to give her a hug. I want to sit around in our jammies and drink tea and chat. I want to go shopping and find fun lunch places. I want to share the books we've just read. I want to hear how her day went.
I want my girl.

90 degrees in the shade

This is not our normal weather... but the tomatoes sure are loving it. And the cucumbers and the zucchini, and we actually have some green peppers setting on. :)

I'm loving sipping iced tea in the shade on the deck.

Zuchinni for dinner

Zucchini with Pasta

6-8 small zucchini, shredded or julienned
2 Tbsp butter (the real stuff) or olive oil
1 tsp garlic
fresh ground pepper
2 cups uncooked organic whole wheat rotelli
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Start the water boiling for pasta.
Saute garlic in butter for 30 seconds, add zuchinni and cook until barely tender, stirring to coat with butter.
Cook the pasta al dente, drain and toss with the sauteed zucchini and half (or more) of the Parmesan. Season with pepper and serve with the remaining Parmesan.

This is one of our favorite summer recipes. It's easy and quick and is especially good with fresh-from-the-garden zucchini. :)

Creating Peace

Your tranquility can surprise you today, as you may be coping with a great many challenges at this point in your life. You may instinctively be using your home as a sanctuary where you can recover from worldly stresses, even if you have never before regarded your personal spaces as a refuge. The feelings of peace that spread through you as you rest and relax in a room special to you or your garden can be the perfect antidote to the tension you carry with you during much of your outer world existence. To make these spaces even more inviting and serene today, take a few moments to beautify them before settling in.

From my inbox today... after a morning out in the garden.

New Paint

We finished painting the living room today, complete with nice accent wall. The colors are lovely! Very calm and soothing. Continued work on the flooring is next. We may be done before September...

And for the record, we have eaten tomatoes from our garden three nights in a row! Yay for sunshine, warm weather and Tumbler tomatoes.

On the Boardwalk

Had a lovely afternoon with my hubby. He realized that crabbing season opened yesterday, so decided we need to go crabbing this afternoon. Just came in and said, let's go. So off we went to Taylor dock at Boulevard Park. It's a lovely boardwalk trail along the shore. I had fun watching the silly gulls who were just sure we were going to give them the bait, and were not at all shy about it. It was wonderfully warm with a light breeze to keep it from getting too hot.
A fire boat stopped just a bit out from where we were sitting, and practiced it's spraying. Fun to watch. There were a lot of sailboats out in the bay, and the people watching was great! It's a well used boardwalk/trail, folks of all ages and types, bicycles and walkers and runners in groups, by themselves, with dogs. One couple had their ferret on a leash. Made us smile. Almost as much as the two girls who gave us the Spock peace sign going and coming back from Woods Coffee with their iced mochas. What a riot.
My managers daughter and her adorable family walked by; they were out treasure hunting and then going to the beach. I got to see their sweet new baby in person. What a doll, just a cute as his older brother.
We had fun with some new to the area folks who were totally mystified with the crab ring... they stayed and watched for awhile. And a couple of kids who really wanted to wait, but mommy had to be somewhere and had to pry them away.
The crabs were not cooperative, so we came home with just a bit of eel grass on the crab ring... no crabs today.

Sometimes you just need to go do something totally unplanned and enjoy yourself. I need to do more of it. It's good for the soul.