And the livin' is easy

 

That's a peppermint plant blooming in a pot, and the neighbor's honey bees are going insane for the flowers. Who knew? They seem to like mint flavored flowers even better than allium (onion) and lavender (sweet.)

And the humans are eating pretty well also. It's been years, literally, since we had Dungeness crab. There was a long shortage, and it was ridiculously expensive, as in $30 a pound. Apparently the Alaska populations recovered recently, so here's been a bonanza of this type of crab. No one is quite sure why they bounced back, but hey don't look a gift horse in the mouth. 

They were a good buy at about $7 a pound. Oh, darn, being Costco, I had to buy two! Enough for an all-you-can-eat crab dinner with melted butter and a cold snack lunch the next day. What a treat. 

Once cleaned, they still made quite a pile even we couldn't hoover through in one sitting.

I'm headed to Twisp today for a short solo stay. It's hot, and the girls will be out-of-town visiting other grandparents, but John and I  have plans the next two weekends so this is the only chance to go until mid-September. That's a gentler month than in the Valley when everyone finally relaxes...fire danger is still very high in August.