Today was about the first farm tomatoes, and peaches, great lunch. With homegrown basil cut up and strewn around, olive oil spritzed on, and tuna salad, made with tartare sauce.
Pinch of baharat on the peach.
And this was a lunch for a queen.
After I'd picked the basil, I looked back and there was a female goldfinch noshing on the seeds. I let my herbs go to flower and seed, because I usually have all I need off them already. And the flowers are often lovely.
Then the seeds come in handy for roving bands of goldfinches. I already saved all the basil seeds I need, so I can start seed next year. I'll leave the rest for the goldfinches, our state bird, dropping in numbers because of habitat loss, least I can do, really.
At the libe this morning I picked up a book on moss gardens, and a chat with circ desk friends about succulents. They're trying to rehab an old jade plant that sort of fell apart, so they didn't burst out laughing at my experiments. Kindred spirits.
And home to look at the book which told me more than I wanted to know about moss, its care and feeding. Turns out it's aJapanese book, should have known, great photography, extreme care with handling everything, many quizzes to qualify the reader to continue with the moss journey. Not exactly for me, but it did trigger a nice thought, which, you know how it is, I put into action instantly.
Dug out a lovely old Vermont Pottery platter, greenish brownish glaze, friendly for plants, realized I had containers of glass pebbles and beach glass for a bed, and installed the Three Little Succulents in their pots in this posh new home.
So here they are in their new digs.
The platter we bought, along with some other lovely pieces, on a trip we made 50 years ago, when I was about five months' pregnant with Handsome Son, whose birthday it is today. There must have been a subconscious river of thought about this. And about Handsome Partner whose sixth anniversary is also today, and with whom I picked out the pottery.
It's all good.
Many things to think about today: Handsome Son's birthday (celebrated last night with a big Italian dinner and chocolate cake, with afterdinner mints and prosecco to celebrate him) dinner courtesy of Liz's Kitchen, and a lot of fun it was to prepare and serve it to us both. Very merry evening.
Also Handsome Partner's fourth anniversary, or possibly ten minutes, at times it seems to be so recent. We celebrate him on his own birthday, so as to reserve today for son. Seems fair! It would amuse him if he knew.
And since the birthday dinner is done, and the son is off to the shore, I went to the farm market and the farmstand and came home loaded down with tomatoes and peaches and eggs and chicken sausage and energy to prep the tomatoes and peaches for winter use, or at least fall use..
I celebrated with a little drawing while waiting for the water to boil for peeling the toms and peaches.
But I did remember to keep one tomato and one peach for lunch, there is nothing better than a New Jersey tomato, right from the farm, just sliced and a bit of salt. Followed by a Jersey peach, likewise, with a dash of ginger. No need to fancy them up, they're fancy already.
And my new kitchen toy is getting massive use: the chest freezer I've been banging on about for years, and finally bought. Less than 24 hours from deciding and ordering to actually starting to fill it! It's about 5 cu ft, plenty for my purposes. Lightning swift delivery.
The bottom is all natural dyes, so I can use them in the winter when there's not much foliage to get, and the rest is rapidly filling up with fresh fruit and veggies. In the course of organizing my freezer from the top of the fridge I found all sorts of nifty items I'd forgotten, sauces and things, so that freezer is all about pesto and herbs and sauces and various other condiment type stuff. Amazed at how many little packets of curry leaves I found in there, now all in one bag. Just bursting with gloat over all this. And now when I make soup I can store it without risking life, limb and toes when I open the packed freezer to find it..
