Today

There's a large spiderweb outside our bathroom window. It stretches from the edge of the roof over to one of the Crepe Myrtle trees beside the house. The trees are currently in bloom, so when the wind blows the lavender-pink flowers fly around and get stuck in the web. It's truly a work of art. I tried to take a picture, but my phone camera just wouldn't do it any justice.

Here's a close up of one of the blossoms. The flowers are so pretty, suspended in the intricate web. You'll just have to imagine.

I woke up this morning to an eerie looking sunrise. It cast a pinkish-orange glow in rooms with windows facing east, and when I stepped outside everything was awash in color and strange shadows. Once again, my camera doesn't do it justice.

Today would have been my dad's birthday. He would have been 72.

I don't remember this date bothering me too much last year (the first one after he died) but today was different. I'm okay, just kind of sad. No matter how busy I kept myself at work (and there was plenty to keep me busy) I just couldn't shake it. There was just this...heaviness. 

Delayed grief, maybe?

I'm beginning to realize I didn't get a chance to really mourn my dad when he first died. Things quickly got so bad with my mom and me that it kind of took over  And now that my mom and I have severed ties, it's like she's died. Recently I started to realize that all of a sudden (it feels all of a sudden) I went from having two parents to none. 

At first when my mom and I agreed we were "done" with each other, all I felt was relief. Things had gotten that bad. Now that I've had some time and some room to breathe, to process...some of the delayed/buried emotions are coming up. At least, I think that's what's happening. 

It's okay. I'm okay.

It's just been one of those tough days, you know? 

Heat Dome (or, some random circle of Hell)

This summer has been the worst I can ever remember for terrible heat. It's been truly awful, and there's no end in sight.

Okay, I know I complain about the heat every summer. It's just part of living in the Deep South this time of year. But. This is ridiculous, even for us. They say we're under a "Heat Dome".

From The Weather Channel's website:

What Is A Heat Dome? Explaining The Deadly Weather Pattern Behind America's Most Dangerous Summer Days

These expansive areas of sinking air can push temperatures up to 30 degrees above average during the summer while increasing the threat of heat illnesses.

They're known by many names: Heat dome. Ridge of high pressure. Death ridge. Blocking high.

But do you really know what these are and why they can produce deadly weather?

These expansive bulges of warm air can stretch for 1,000 miles during the spring and summer months and provide sinking air over much of the country.

It's that sinking air that is often problematic.

Descending air compresses and warms as it drops closer to the surface. Temperatures can often reach the century mark in the eastern two-thirds of the United States. In the West, these death ridges can push temperatures into the 110s and 120s in the desert.

Days-long heat waves are often the result.

This sinking, warm air also dries out the ground and the air above it. Thunderstorms have a tough time sprouting due to the suppressive motion of the air. Drought can begin or worsen under ridges of high pressure that last for longer than a week. The air directly under such a system can become still with little to no wind.

During the middle of the summer, this can become a vicious cycle of warming and drying.

These domes can strengthen and expand during this cycle until something comes along to push the high-pressure system elsewhere.

Heat is the No. 1 weather killer in the U.S., with hundreds of fatalities each year. Many of these fatalities occur under heat domes.

We've had weeks on end of daily temperatures reaching up to around 100 degrees (37C) with the heat index "real feel" of up to 112 (44C). With the humidity factored in, it's hellish. There's just no other word for it. And there's been little to no rain. Even the nights are unbearably hot. We've been under extreme heat warnings every day since the beginning of the month, and we have a least another full week to go. 

I can't tell you how much I've grown to despise summer!

Now I understand

Just a minute ago I clicked on a headline: US Supreme Court lets Trump Remove Consumer Product Safety for Now. Before I knew what I was doing, I yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?!" at the computer screen. 

I realized as soon as it flew out of my mouth that I do that on a regular basis these days when I read upsetting news stories. It's my go-to expression of outrage. Marco, of course, was right there beside me, listening. 

You know what this means, right? 

It's Donald J. Trump's fault that Marco has learned to drop that particular F-bomb! lol

Neighborhood Watch

 

Yesterday afternoon Poppy caught a glimpse of our neighbor dog, Alvin, getting a walk past our house. She went nuts, leaping around and barking and racing from window to window to try to get another glimpse of him.

George woke up from a nap and joined in the hubbub even though I don't think he even knew what he was barking at. It was chaos for a minute! 

And in the midst of all this noise, Marco watched calmly from the top of his perch, and then finally said:

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

!!

Never a dull moment.

Summer visitor

Taken in the zinnia bed early this morning. 

Wrapping up the (summer) garden

My summer 2025 garden is officially done. With the exception of the pepper plants (that are still cranking out a few peppers here and there) we've harvested everything. Yesterday we pulled up and discarded the worn-out plants and gave everything an initial tidy up. I know those of you from even slightly more northerly climes are probably scratching your heads right now, so let me explain. By this point in the summer, the intense heat and humidity have started doing a number on pretty much all vegetable plants. Our last frost date is early April, so we plant out very early. The plants have been growing and producing for three months already, and now with day after day of sweltering heat, they're just giving up the ghost.  I don't blame them. I'd be ready to die out in this heat day and night, too! Plus, the f*cking stinkbugs have shown up and tried their best to attack and ruin the last of the tomatoes. (I seriously hate them, much more than the hornworms which are much easier to control). 

So anyway, the garden is mostly kaput. I've kept careful notes, and this morning I sat down to "compile my data" :) Here are my results and takeaways from this year's garden.

Tomatoes:

This is always the most important part of the garden to me. I love good tomatoes eaten fresh, and when there's extra there are lots of things you can do with them. Since I really hoped to have some extra this year to can, I tried something different. Instead of growing all heirlooms (which taste great but often struggle with production in this climate) I divided my tomato-growing space in half: room for 8 heirloom indeterminate plants that I started from seed, and 5 bushy young determinate plants I bought at Lowe's. Determinates, of course, set a lot of fruit all at once, early in the season, and then they're done. Perfect for having big batches of canning tomatoes that are ready by the time our hellish South Carolina heat scorches the garden! Check out my results:

Determinates

Bush Goliath: 

2 plants, 

28 individual fruits

Total: 10.55 pounds

Better Bush:

1 plant

10 individual fruits

Total: 2.61 pounds

Heatmaster:

1 plant

11 individual fruits 

2.86 pounds

Roma:

1 plant

24 individual fruits

5.05 pounds

Determinates

Eva Purple Ball

3 plants

43 individual fruits

10.05 pounds

Hillbilly Potato Leaf

3 plants 

8 individual fruits

2.95 pounds

Berkeley Tie Dye

2 plants

14 individual fruits

2.45 pounds

All told, I ended up with 36.5 pounds of tomatoes! And that's not counting the one cherry tomato plant that's given us probably around 2 pounds of fruit (I didn't keep track of those)

Yesterday I also finished up some canning and preserving!  I'd already made 6 12-oz jars of salsa and 6 half pint jars of pickled mixed peppers, and I added 2 12-oz jars of pickled jalapenos and 2 12-oz jars of pickled cowhorn peppers. I also whipped out the dehydrator and made a big jar of dried tomato slices and dried cherry tomatoes. I also dried some tiny, fiery tabasco peppers and crushed them into a jar for pepper flakes.

Picked early to save from stinkbugs, put to ripen on the windowsill. 

In the dehydrator...

Hooray! Ready to squirrel away for winter!

Sadly, these are the last of my (homegrown) slicing tomatoes for this year, along with some zinnias I cut for a centerpiece. 

One of these tomatoes will be sliced within the hour to top cheeseburgers we're cooking on the grill.

Family ties

There's a small herd of deer that live in our neighborhood. Since we're close to a creek and a city-maintained system of hiking/nature trails, there's no shortage of wildlife to see, but the deer are the most familiar. They come out most nights as the sun is setting, and since we usually walk the dogs around that time, we see them pretty regularly. Usually they'll freeze if we walk past them and as long as we're not too close, they won't run. Even the dogs have learned to be very quiet so as not to scare them. 

Last year a female deer kept showing up in our front yard with two little fawns. It was the cutest thing, but I never managed to get a photo. This year, another female (or maybe the same one) has been coming around, but this time she has just one baby, and a young male is often with them.

The other night, I happened to look out the spare bedroom window at dusk and the little family was back! I grabbed my phone and took a picture, and although it's not very clear (taken on a zoomed-in phone camera, through a window and screen, at dusk...) I really, really like the shot:

Doesn't it look like mom and dad are kissing, with the baby between them? 

I sent that photo to my niece, Melissa. I knew she would love it. In return she texted me photos of an "owl family" who live near her home on Whidbey Island. 

We miss Melissa. She flew to the East Coast for a visit last fall and drove down from Raleigh to spend a day with us. We love her and it's so rare to actually get to see her in person these days, that I nearly cried when she had to leave after a few short hours. I'm grateful, though, that she makes time to see me and her "cool uncle Gregg" (her words) whenever she's on this side of the continent. We have so few family members left these days, and the ones we love best are spread out all over the country.

Getting the job done

I don't feel much like celebrating my country today, but I wanted to share this song with you from the brilliant Lin Manuel Miranda. 

THIS is a big part of what truly "makes America great".

In my summer kitchen

It's my summer vacation! I've been off since Thursday afternoon and I don't go back until next Monday. It's nice to have some time away from work, even when you like your job as much as I do.

I've been busy. I blogged about my new stainless-steel cookware the other day, and several of you asked me to let you know what I think of it. Well, I love it! I'm really glad I took the time to research how to properly use and care for stainless steel, because I've had zero problems! It cooks like a dream, and I've had zero issues with food sticking. The first thing I made was braised short ribs, and they turned out great but it's way too hot for such heavy food. Speaking of hot in the kitchen, and the new pans..

I've taken this from my garden:

 

And this:

And turned it all into this:

I'm ridiculously proud of these jars of salsa and pickled peppers!

Sweltering

It's disgustingly hot here this week. High temps around 100F with heat index (real feel) values of around 110F. When I got in my car yesterday afternoon at 3pm, this is what my dashboard thermometer registered:

The actual temperature wasn't quite this high. This is the result of my car sitting and baking in a mostly empty parking lot with no trees and no shade while I'm at work. I think it was really more like 101...still awful. The humidity makes it 1000x worse. Then there was today...

It's like getting into a furnace to drive home. 

Tonight is supposed to be the last night of this heatwave, and as I'm typing this at 6:30pm a nasty looking storm is brewing outside. There have been warnings all afternoon that there's lots of "storm fuel" in the atmosphere after three days of such heat. There's a threat of hail, high winds (that's already happening), dangerous lightning (I hope not), and torrential rain.

I'll be glad for the rain, at least, and a return to normal summer temperatures tomorrow will be most welcome.

Crossing my fingers!

Anniversary gift

My new cookware arrived yesterday! It's so shiny and pretty that I took a picture after I finished unpacking everything. It's not a great photo but I'll share it anyway.

Now it's time to actually use them and I'm a bit nervous. Cooking on stainless steel is going to be a learning curve, but I've watched enough YouTube tutorials on the subject that I feel like I can probably do okay. I'm hoping the quality of my cooking goes up with better tools to work with!

I debated about the first meal I wanted to make with them, and this morning I decided: braised beef short ribs in red wine sauce. I went to the butcher shop down the road and bought two pounds of beautiful short ribs. I sure hope I don't screw them up, because the price was eye-watering. :)  I plan to pair them with basmati rice, green beans from the garden, and slices of fresh tomatoes, also from the garden.

I'll report back tomorrow on how everything turns out! Wish me luck!

From the garden this week

The garden is in full swing, and it's turning out to be a good year for tomatoes. I'm glad I planted some sturdy hybrid determinate types, because they're early and produce a lot of fruit all at once. With the exception of one tiny rain-split Berkeley Tie Dye (middle top on the first photo) all of the tomatoes I've gotten so far have been determinates. But! My eight heirloom plants are also loaded with fruit but taking forever to start ripening. Soon!

Here's what I've picked over the last four or five days:

We've also picked a LOT of green beans; this is just a small handful I got the other day. 

Still going strong.

There are about a dozen cucumbers in the fridge at the moment, but now the vines are almost worn out. It's turning out to be a disappointing year for cucumber production, but I'd rather have a bounty of tomatoes anyway. Last year there were a ton of cucumbers, but the tomatoes did diddly-squat. Now that's disappointing.

So, on to peppers! I haven't picked any yet, because I like to wait until they're mostly orange and red, but there are tons and tons of Jalapenos, Serranoes, Cowhorns, Cayennes, Poblanos, Tabascos, and Giant Marconi peppers...

 

\

These pretty Tabasco peppers are our favorite, just for the beauty of the plant. It's hard to get a good photo of them because it's such a low, compact plant. 

And when someone named these peppers "Giant Marconi", they weren't lying! Look at the size of those monsters!

Cowhorns.

A busy start to summer

It's been a busy few weeks around here, but I still find it hard to believe that June is almost half over. Finding time to blog has been a challenge so I've been away for longer that I meant to be. Things should settle down a little now, so I hope to be around more. 

Last weekend my mom came to visit. It was at her insistence, and the first time I'd seen her since the end of 2023 (right before dad died). Things between us have devolved to almost no contact over the last two years, which, actually, is fine with me. I only agreed to see her out of a lingering sense of obligation. As far as I'm concerned, our relationship is pretty much over. That hasn't been an easy decision to come to, but I've decided it's best for my mental health.

So anyway, she came over for a couple of hours and it was okay. I made lunch and put on a polite face, and she was on her best (but still not great) behavior. I breathed a sigh of relief when she left and was glad nothing had been too weird or awkward...haha! Joke's on me! The next night she messaged me with some truly bizarre thoughts and accusations. Crazy stuff. I know she's taken to drinking again over the past few years, and also takes a lot of assorted pills, so maybe she was drunk or high. Or maybe she's having some sort of undiagnosed mental health issue. The next day she deleted the messages and apologized (just as I predicted she would), but instead of taking responsibility for her behavior she blamed (get this!) the fact that she's diabetic for her outburst. I know lots of people with diabetes, and not once has a single one of them come at me with weird accusations and spoiling for a fight! Of course, ever since she was diagnosed a few years back, that's been her go-to excuse for everything so I shouldn't be too surprised. This was only more confirmation that I'm doing the right thing to keep contact with her strictly limited. She wants more from me than I can give her, since it would mean having to sacrifice my mental well-being to maintain a closer relationship. I've worked through most of that, and I'm simply not interested.

On to better and happier stuff. Thursday was my 19th wedding anniversary! I really did good when I picked my husband! :)   I took the day off work, and with my regular summer Friday off, I'm having a four-day weekend! Yesterday we went thrift store shopping, hoping to find a couple of interesting lamps for the house. We didn't have any luck, but it was fun looking around. The actual gift we ended up buying ourselves is mainly a gift for me: a nice set of stainless-steel cookware. It's going to be great to get rid of my old cheap nonstick pots and pans that I've been "making do" with for years! I love to cook, and like everything else it's easier with good tools. Gregg really likes and appreciates my cooking, so he said it benefits him in the end, too. 

We're also making plans to go away for a few days, but not until fall. There are really nice waterfront villas at a state park on Lake Murray (a couple of hours west of here) that we'd like to rent, but you have to make reservations several months out. Apparently, they're very popular and so all booked up for the summer. We prefer to go in the fall anyway, when the weather will be much nicer, so that's not an issue. As fast as the weeks fly by September/October will be here in a flash. 

Speaking of summer, check out a small sample of the stuff I've picked from the garden in the last week!

That's the other thing that's been keeping me busy lately: the garden. There's always something to do out there this time of year, and when I'm not working in it, I'm sitting on the porch admiring it! :)

Crazy tomato and a careless cook

Last week I picked my first (non-cherry) tomato of the year. I'd planned to let it ripen on the vine a little more, but a day or two of heavy rain was predicted and I was afraid it would split. Once a tomato is at least half ripe, finishing it on the countertop doesn't hurt anything, but a rain-split tomato is pretty much ruined, in my opinion.

Y'all...this tomato was kind of freaky! Too bad John's not still having the Novelty Veg Competition, because my first tomato was a Strange Bird. :)

I posted this picture on Facebook, and a guy I went to

 high school with asked me if my bird had pollinated it.  LOL!!

Last night the tomato was finally ready to be eaten. I was really excited about the first tomato of the year! I had such a good dinner planned: grilled marinated chicken thighs, fresh green beans (from my garden!) sauteed in olive oil, butter, garlic, and lemon juice, and a salad made from lettuce and cucumbers, also from the garden. Everything was coming along beautifully, and the very last thing I did was slice the tomato to add to our salads..

...and in the process, slice open my left thumb.

I couldn't believe I'd done this to myself again. Almost exactly two years ago I was cutting red peppers to add to a pasta salad, got careless, and nearly took off my left forefinger. It was a really bad cut that I probably should have gotten stitches for, and I've got a scar and some lingering numbness to this day.

This cut didn't turn out to be quite that bad, but it's still pretty bad. I bled and bled, all the while holding it tight under cold running water to try to stop the bleeding. Gregg ran for bandages and the dogs milled around my feet, nervous. Then, just like last time, I started to feel hot, and sick, and dizzy. I had to rush to the bedroom and lie down to keep from fainting. 

Fun times!! Ha.

So anyway, back to the tomato. Once I started feeling okay again, I got up and insisted Gregg eat his supper even though I didn't feel like eating myself (understatement). I ended up covering my plate and putting it in the fridge, and there it still sits. It looks like I won't be trying that crazy tomato after all. Oh, well.

I'm wounded. Wounded, I tell you.

A birthday party

Last week, my friend Marla's little girl turned seven years old. It seems like she was just born and here she is finishing up first grade. Crazy! I was invited to the family birthday party for her on Sunday afternoon. I had fun picking out gifts from me and her "uncle" Gregg. After a lot of looking around, here's what I settled on:

Star Projector Galaxy Night Light - Astronaut Space Projector, Starry Nebula Ceiling LED Lamp with Timer and Remote, Kids Room Decor Aesthetic

The next evening Marla sent me two photos of Carsen's bedroom after they got the projector set up and running. They were lying on her bed together watching it. It seems the gift was a hit! 

And I also got her one this, because I almost always give books to children for special occasions:

I adored Shel Silverstein's poetry as a child. Reading some of it 

prior to wrapping reminded me why! So. Good.

 A "family" gathering at Marla and Toyo's house involves a lot of people. Toyo has the kind of large Asian family where cousins and second cousins show up with their spouses and kids along with grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  Then on Marla's side there are grandparents, a great grandma (Marla's dear grandma Mildred, well into her 90s now and increasingly frail), a brother and his wife and kids...then there are several longtime friends, like me, who are counted as family. As an only child from a very small family, half of whom I was partially estranged from while growing up, it's almost overwhelming. I found a quiet corner in the kitchen to sit and take it all in. There was a taco bar (which was huge, and delicious), two homemade birthday cakes (chocolate and strawberry), and a big pile of gifts.

 Carsen is a lucky girl. She was showered with love for her birthday.

Her grandma took her shopping before the party 

and this is the dress she chose for herself. :)

Sunday morning miscellany

I woke up really early this morning to what promises to be a cool, gray, rainy Sunday. I can't seem to sleep in anymore (not that I want to) now that I get up so early for work during the week. It's become a pleasure to tiptoe around a quiet house at sunrise, starting the coffee, maybe slipping on some shorts and a t-shirt and taking a quick stroll through the garden, seeing the sun come up. I relish the little bit of quiet solitude, especially on weekend mornings.

Speaking of which, Monday is Memorial Day, so we have a three-day weekend. It's a very welcome break for the school after two weeks of state testing, award days with families coming and going, and grade level end-of-the-year parties. That last thing, the parties, has only been stressful for me, by the way. Every grade level (5K through 5th) at our school has themed parties at the end of the year, and food and drinks and decorations and games don't just magically appear! :)   It's always a bit stressful for me, making sure requisitions to pay for everything get submitted in time, placing orders, dealing with vendor issues, etc.  I'm always afraid I'm going to miss something, drop the ball somewhere, and who wants to let a bunch of little kids down? But I try to be conscientious in my work, and things have been smooth so far (knock wood). Next Friday is the last day of school for students, so things will be a lot more relaxed at work after that.

I'm going to a birthday party this afternoon! Marla's little girl has turned 7 years old, and I'm invited to the family party. I hear there'll be a taco bar! And cake, of course. It should be fun. 

One last thing: I picked my first vegetables from the garden on Friday! I had a wonderful salad with my dinner last night.

 

Garden progress in pictures

 I've very little time for blogging today, but I wanted to post an update on how my garden's coming along. Here are some photos I took over the last several days. xx