Minot to Bassings

We've had no problem crossing the fun items off our short August to-do list.  Last week we had dinner at the beach, and Saturday we tackled the kayak from Minot to Bassings Beach.  All in all, it was about a 25 minute trip around, but it was our first time taking the kayaks out on the ocean, which was a little intimidating. 

We started on Minot Beach, went around the tip there, between Minot Light and the Adams estate, and landed on Bassings.


I was too busy being paranoid about sharks to take any pictures en route, but here's a shot from Bassings Beach of the Adams Estate, with Minot light in the background. 

The Adams estate was once John Quincy Adams' summer home, and is still privately owned.  There were about 25 cars in the parking lot.  Can you imagine having access to a house that size, inviting 30 of your closest friends for the weekend?

After some sandwiches and beach time, we went back through the marshes, the way we usually kayak.  At high tide, we were able to ride the kayaks right in to the Minot Beach parking lot.
 

Much more relaxing, plenty of photo ops.  (Here's me resting before we've even really started going.)

 

We also picked up our new sofa this weekend, and installed the seagrass roman shades.  The living room is starting to come together, but I have some decisions to make about painting tables and lamps, and a couple other small projects to complete.

I hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Dinner at the Beach

We're less than a full week into August and we've already accomplished one of our five goals for the month.  It was difficult- ordering the pizza and salad, opening the bottle of wine, and then sitting there, watching the sail boats,

and a seagull torture a crab,

and the moon.

 

We're such over-achievers, we'll probably do it again before the month is out. 

Have a beautiful weekend!

Garden Vegetable Pasta

I was hoping to add a zucchini to this, but we had a couple the other night, and the rest are too small yet.  Still, our harvest made a nice weeknight dinner. 

Garden Vegetable Pasta

1 baby eggplant
2 baby scallions
8 cherry tomatoes (red and sun gold)
1 large garlic clove
fresh basil
fresh ground pepper
olive oil
kosher salt
grated parmesan

Like any good pasta, it started with generously salted water, and ended with grated parmesan and lots of fresh ground pepper.  As far as I'm concerned, that's all good pasta needs.  Maybe a little olive oil, and some garlic.  Anything you add after that is usually good, but never necessary.

I peeled, sliced thin, and salted the eggplant, then let it sit while I prepared the rest of the veggies.  I sauteed the garlic in some olive oil, and added the eggplant.  Once it started to brown, I added the tomatoes and scallions. 

Meanwhile, I drained the pasta, and drizzled with olive oil.  Then I added plenty of parmesan and fresh ground pepper, and topped it with the vegetables and thinly sliced basil. 

 Perfect.  The baby eggplants are really flavorful. 

After dinner I spent a little time browsing the well-timed seed catalog that came in the mail.  I'm working on my plans, and hoping I can find room for a few things I hadn't planned on.  Bibb lettuce? Peas? Swiss chard?  I need to place my order soon, including our garlic for fall planting.

August Plans

We were in Wellfleet on Saturday, enjoying what summer is all about- good weather, good friends, good times.  I had fun playing around with Instagram, an iPhone app I just downloaded.  You can select from fifteen different filters, like "Lord Kelvin," "1977," and "Earlybird."  Unfortunately, I can't remember which is which, but they still look cool.

I had high hopes for these picture of the guys playing bocce, but either the sun or my finger got in the way.

Every. Single. Time.  Our friend took this very nice photo with a real camera.

We had lunch in Chatham with family on Sunday, then drove home, checked the vegetables, and went to the beach for an hour or so in the early evening, where we talked about our August plans.

Here's our list:
1. Dinner at the beach.  We haven't done this since July 3rd, and we'd like to do much more of it in August.
2. Kayak from Minot to Bassings Beach.  It's a short trip, but we've never done it, and this is the month.
3. Finish staining the porch.  There are some porch upgrades that go along with this.  Stay tuned.
4. Living room revamp.  We've got new shades to install, a new sofa on the way, and a couple small projects to wrap up and make our living room a place we want to live in.  I can't wait to share the finished product!
5.  Plan and plant the fall vegetable garden.  I'm determined to get some arugula without holes in it.  We've got some kale, carrots, and parsnips to plant, and maybe a few more things.

How do you plant to spend the rest of the summer?

Happy August 1st!

A Tiny Harvest

We harvested a couple of baby eggplants, and four ripe cherry tomatoes last night, to go with some steak on the grill.  The tomatoes went in a salad, and we grilled the eggplant alongside the steak.  They were delicious.

I'm hoping we'll get to harvest a zucchini soon, but the largest still didn't look ready to go with our tiny feast.

And the cucumbers are just getting started.

We had our first blossom on the butternut squash today, but it will be many months before we will be enjoying those.

The plant has tripled in size in the last week or two.  It's exciting.

I have been feeling like the vegetable garden has been slow to grow, but it's kind of nice to know that this is just the beginning.

Have a nice weekend!

Ten-Minute Tidy Up

I haven't had much time to do anything around the house lately (and therefore have had little to write about).  Every time I have pulled into the driveway for weeks now, I have been eyeing the rock wall in front of our house, vowing to find time to do some sprucing up.  After all the ubiquitous orange daylilies are gone, we're always left with a bunch of sticks that take away from the view of the remaining daylilies.

I spent, literally, ten minutes snipping stems, and some of them were dry enough to just pull out of the ground. 

And now everything looks much better.

I planted six coneflower plants this spring, to extend the blooming season around the rock wall.  Four out of six started out okay, but now something is eating them. 

I'm hoping with a little care they'll be established and thriving by next year.  Those I planted in a side garden last summer are looking very healthy. 

The white one in the back there is called "Milkshake," and they are my favorites, if I have to choose.

Do you prolong doing little chores that would take only 10 minutes to cross off your list, like folding the laundry when it comes out of the dryer, or going through the mail?  What's the one you never find time for, but gives you the biggest sense of accomplishment once it's done?

When Turkeys Fly

It's been 100 degrees and humid, and when we got home last night, all of the plants were wilting.  Also, somewhat oddly, it was quite windy, and there were branches down all over the yard.  We went out back to inspect the vegetable garden, and found our largest and fastest growing cherry tomato plant on its side. 

As I looked over the rest of the garden, something felt remiss, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  And then one of these fell from the sky. 

And then another one.  And we looked up.

Can you see him?  How about here?

Or here?

He was about 60 feet up there, so kind of hard to see, but we photographed him for a while, wondering if he was stuck.  We see turkeys in our yard almost every day, and I've seen them run FAST, and I've seen them fly over a stone wall, but I've never seen one 60 feet up in a tree.  Should we call Animal Control to save him?  Would they care?  I also began to wonder if he was responsible for the toppled tomato plant, or even eating the edamame, which I had blamed on the deer.  Did he fly up there because I startled him, because he was guilty?  If so, I would be content leaving him there.   After a while he mustered up the courage (or got tired of being photographed), and made a break for it, rather adeptly. 

Okay, that's a really poor action shot, but it's all we've got.  He flew across our yard and our neighbors yard into another tree of equal height.  We went about restaking our tomato, vowing to get cages next year.

Sometimes I wonder if all of the trouble is worth it, when things just don't grow, or the vegetables you were looking forward to eating get eaten by bugs or large animals first, or when you have to spend half an hour in the late evening being mauled by mosquitos while you carefully tie up tomato vines.  It totally makes sense that we have grocery stores.  But then I get to see a turkey in a tree.  And every once in a while there's the excitement of finding something new. 

Itty, bitty eggplants!  There are about a half a dozen of them, and the biggest is only an inch and a half long, at best, but I think they've grown since last night.  I wish I could remember what variety they are.  I usually save the tags, but I can't find this one.  I think they were called "fancy."  I plan to keep a close eye on them, and harvest a few small ones as soon as they're big enough to eat.

Have a great weekend!