Medals, Garden Mmmm, and.....OUCH.

Summer. Amidst the 'open days' there is a busyness that seems to fill the hours. This has been a busy, but fun weekend. Today we have painted, organized, cleaned, hunted for things, watered, watched the nephew, and now I need to go wipe mildew off a closet ceiling. (I will need to change out of my favorite black shirt first). At the moment the hot summer breeze is drying the towels on the swing set 'clothesline'. (The towels are a bit crunchy, but I love avoiding the use of the dryer in the summer for blankets, quilts, sheets and towels.)

A bit of the 'busyness' that has filled the weekend....

The kids have been participating in a local track club and the coach wanted all of the kids to do an event or two at the Track City Classic. Daniel was a bit reluctant to put his brand new shot put skills on display, but he was a great sport. The Classic has 'sweet medals', the coach pointed out and, as a bonus, it turned out that Daniel had the guarantee of a bronze medal....there were only three competitors in his event. Here he is pitching the shot put. (El Professor corrects me....he's 'throwing' the shot put. Apparently, you don't 'pitch' a shot put.)

El Professor, Annie, my nephew Rory, and Daniel heading for the stands.

The garden is always a part of summer, and now that summer is heating up the garden is growing in leaps and bounds. We are mostly harvesting lettuce, zucchini, raspberries, and sweet onions, but the basil is beginning to be usable. Waiting in the wings....tomatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, cilantro, dill, apples, kiwi, plums.


Zucchini, sweet onions, chicken, and a wine/teriyaki sauce made a wonderful summer dinner.....

....with some Trader Jo's whole wheat cous cous.

We're enjoying watching the kiwi produce for the first time....

....and the Million Plum Tree is beginning to sag a bit with the weight of the ripening plums.

The fact that I snapped El Professor walking into the track meet and BBQing is amazing, given that the weekend started off with a bit of a calamity while on a fun afternoon trip to a coastal river about an hour from home. This river is such a great summer destination. It is usually a bit cooler there, the water isn't Snow Run-Off Freezing, there are a lot of rocks to scamper about on, the current isn't Scary Rushing, and the river is loaded with crawdads.

Crawdad catching is such a fun way to spend a hot afternoon. Rory, my nephew, and El Professor were Crawdad Man and Crawdad Boy. They were into it!

Annie and Rory donned swimming goggles and went after the crawdads with the full body dunk. The little critters didn't stand a chance.

The great afternoon adventure took a bit of a turn, though, when El Professor slipped on those fabulous river rocks and went into a rib-catching hole. He felt his rib crunch. Thankfully, we were right by the little 'wide spot in the road' store where we could get some ice and call the 'wide spot in the road' doctor whom El Professor met several years ago. When it was determined that we could/should get back home I drove as quickly as El Professor could stand-- the bumps and curves of the scenic highway where painful. When we got into cell range (an hour later...what is it with our cell phone out of range adventures this summer???) we called my orthopedic surgeon brother in law who had us come straight to him rather than to the ER. (We called him back to ask him to put on a pot of bowling water while he waited for us.....)

It was determined that El Professor most likely broke a rib. But given that it was such a beautiful summer night and since El Professor was in a world of hurt, he and my brother in law sat together and enjoyed some good red wine and cigars. (A bag of ice also helped.) I have a great brother in law. (While they were doing this, guess who had to be the Boiler of Crawdads?)

On a funny note....as El Professor was calling the 'wide spot in the road doctor', he made it very clear that we were not to dump the Hard Caught Bounty back into the river. As it turns out, they were great dipped in melted garlic butter. (Although, if this was our only source of protein, we'd be in big trouble.)

El Professor will most likely spend much of this week sleeping on the futon, propped up on pillows and nursing his painful ribs.