New Hat, Pets, Gardening and Summer Eating!

The River Down The Road (I walk the dogs in that part of the woods each morning!)

Hello Friends! :) !!!!!!!

I'm adding more exclamation marks because summer has FINALLY arrived in the Laurentian mountains! :) I'm sitting on my porch this sunny Sunday afternoon, "glowing" (NOT sweating) in the 30 degree hot and humid weather! I'm drawing and painting, sipping on a white wine spritzer, safely tucked inside my screened-in porch, hiding from the black flies. Ain't this the life? :)

The girls: Charlie and Marlene - smart lassies, keeping cool under the cedar trees!

Lazy Leo enjoying some top-shelf relaxation on the porch. :)

Dana and Baby Oscar are choosing to hang out in my office this afternoon - it's a bit cooler in there.

Handsome Jack - always keeping me company! :) ♥

Because I just can't seem to control myself...I made another raised bed the other day. I wanted a special spot to plant yet more lettuces.

I had some leftover 2x10's so I fashioned them into a raised bed, filled it with soil/compost and planted Romaine, Iceberg and Buttercrunch. We had a little pex piping in the basement, so I made a few hoops so that I can cover the lettuce bed if it gets too hot and sunny. The only cost was the soil, I had everything else handy. The three bins to the right are where I planted my potatoes this year.

And...with summer weather, comes summer eating!! After building the raised beds, I was pooped so Alex surprised me with a grilled cheese/tomato sandwich with fries. We ate on the porch, it was really nice!

Last night I was overcome with cooking "mojo" so I made a dinner platter for us. "CLT's" (Cheddar, lettuce and tomato sandwiches), homemade potato salad with homemade mayo, some olives, pickles and store-bought chips (can't seem to perfect my own potato/corn chips yet!). We brought this platter to bed while we watched a really bad, yet strangely hilarious David Spade movie called Joe Dirt.

Have you ever made mayonnaise? I had such a difficult time making it in the past, but I found a great way to make it - success each time! With my immersion blender! You take a deep glass container (like a large wide-mouth Mason jar), drop in a room temperature egg, a cup of olive oil, 2 tsp of lemon juice, some salt and powdered mustard if you like; then stick the blender inside and blend. It's SO EASY and works every time! I'll make a video one of these days! Alex loves it, the store-bought mayo gives him indigestion so this works perfectly. I can't eat it though, I have an egg yolk allergy, so it's (sigh) store-bought for me - which I'm SURE contains some kind of "egg product"...but my allergy doesn't kick in, so I don't ask questions!

Did I mention that I made ice cream sandwiches with my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies? Oooh la la!! :)

Alex got me a new hat!!! He wanted me to have one for the summer, it's a straw hat, a Resistol "George Straight" model. I love it! :) Consider this my new gardening hat! :)

Speaking of gardening, this is my gardening shelf. Alex found an old oar in the basement - we're guessing a previous renter left it behind; so we put some hooks into it for my gardening tools. Isn't it cute?

My "greenhouse" is doing a great job! My tomatoes, beans, eggplant and green pepper plants are doing so well! Yahoo!

Speaking (again) of gardening, this Thursday's art theme is Garden for anyone who wants to join in! (Follow the link for inspiration and ideas)