Yay! Summer is in full swingand the day was long and summery. Blue skies interspersed with puffy little clouds, then the traditional afternoon grey rumblings and windy “Get indoors NOW” rain threats.

Not much to report, as we were rather busy with daily life, but it was spent mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, and otherwise fiddling with the land outside. Our little one spent a decent portion of the day in the old corn-crib (his “Smash House” lately) pretending to be The Increduble Hulk, and stomping through various parts of the rotten floorboards. It’s truly amazing how stomping a weak bit of plywood until it becomes a hole, then spending a good 2 hours enlarging that hole to the limits of rotten-ness and stomp-strength could occupy a child of almost-5 in such a focused manner. Kids R Kool!

In the afternoon, we went to visit our friend Meg, and got to see her sweetie’s house for the first time. It’s a nice little place, a bit far down a windy road, tucked off to some forgotten sectino of the suburbs. You wouldn’t expect to find a secluded little patch of woody fields essentially just off to the middle of “town”, which made the trip there kinda magical. The yard was about as big as our front lawn and nestled in a little dip of the hillside to make the neighbors all-but-vanish. With trees behind it stretching to “infinity’ (or 1.4 mile) and a cozy garden, compost bin, and fire circle + hammock, it was perfect!

There were a few kids there for ours to play with, and us adult types mostly just stood around and chatted. We didn’t know many folks, but there were some grandparents, and a lovely older woman in a wheelchair who devoured the snack we provided.

There was planned a spiral-dance with the kids, and a bag full of rattles, sticks, and such, but as soon as they were getting distributed, the wind suddenly gusted, black clouds materialized out of the blue sky, and it the temperature dropped 5 degrees. You know those times, where you can feel/smell the rain, and the ait itself gets charged with electricity? I joked that if we danced right then, the final moments where everyone crunches together would be accented by the largest *CRAACK* of lightning, and a torrent of raindrops. Many agreed, but as much as us younger adults wanted to do that, older wisdom prevailed and we moved the party indoors quickly before the grandfolks got soaked.

(Note, there were only approximately 42 large drops of rain which fell, by the time the frontline moved through, so no real torrents, which made us all laugh at the ‘paranoia’ a few minutes beforehand.)
Concerning snacks, Doug and I made salsa and guacamole from “scratch” to bring to the party. I’ve never actually make salsa from a recipe before, and always add a dash of vinegar to tarten it up, but I followed the recipe for the most part this time. Turned out AWESOME! (Recipe below, and thanks Nettle for helping with tomato-processing questions).

The guacamole was our little guy’s favorite. Three avacados, a heaping spoonful of light sour cream, a glop of lemon juice, smallish scoop of minced garlic, and a quarter of a chopped onion. Stir to smoothish consistancy and serve. The guacamole didn’t last long, and some of the older folks were mock-fighting the lady in the wheelchair since she kept surruptitiously moving the bowl onto her lap and looking around innocently if someone held a chip out. :)

All in all, a fun festive time!

Maebius’s new favorite homemade Salsa:

  • 2 large tomatos
  • 1/2 large onion
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
  • 1 whole garlic clove (we used about 2.5)
  • 1 jalapeno pepper
  • Chop all ingredients and mix together in bowl. Let sit for 2 hours to allow flavour-mingling. Eat!

We substituted some sliced peppers in oil that were leftover from last season for the fresh jalapeno, and added just over double the garlic recommended. The whole mess looked suspiciously like Tabbouleh, but tasted much more like the topping Wren used for Bruschetta once. Tart, not too tomato-y, yet very yummy!

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