Mucho trabajo

This week, on the hottest day in 118 years, Geraldo from Cricket Garden Service did a beautiful job trimming our laurel hedge. If you've been to our house, you know this evergreen monster. Laurel grows like crazy in spring and early summer, and makes a terrific privacy and noise blocking screen. But when they get huge, keeping them somewhat presentable is an enormous and expensive yearly project. No wonder folks rip them out and build fences! But we've often said we would hate our house in the summer without that wonderful hedge between the front yard and a busy street. And the birds love it too.

Geraldo worked from 8 am to 8 pm, and except for the wide top, he trimmed the entire thing with hand shears. No one has EVER done this, and it looked especially nice. He had one helper, a kid to pick up the clippings, but did all the cutting himself. They worked all day without complaining or asking for anything. I went out a few times and took them ice tea and lemonade, and tried to chat and say encouraging things with my pathetic Spanish vocabulary. And the phase I heard over and over was "mucho trabajo."

No kidding!

Grapes and tomatoes

This hot summer must feel like heaven for the grape. We've had this vine in the same place for 25 years or so, and if I don't hack it to the ground it has fruit every fall. The raccoons have great timing, and show up for a messy grape party at the perfect moment of ripeness. I don't feel too bad about it, except they throw the skins down on the deck as they pop them out into their mouths. I planted this vine so long ago I forget the name, but believe it is an old table grape called "white concord." It is the irritating type of grape with big seeds, but tasty when very ripe. At least the raccoons think so. I have never been ambitious enough to make jelly, and the thought of raccoon saliva is not that appealing!

Every year I toy with the idea of growing more useful food instead of mostly flowers. And I could cram some plants here and there in the beds. But to have a productive vegetable garden I'd have to rip out bulbs and perennials that were planted decades ago, and that is just too depressing. We always have tomatoes and herbs in pots, and they do well on the hot south side of the house, as long as I water constantly. I like cherry tomatoes especially, they are easy to grow and I usually eat them all right off the plant while I'm outside working. John always wants a Roma, but he will not be happy to see something is boring big holes in the green fruit on his plant. The same creature does this every year.

Air conditioning

Nope, we don't own one of these. And if you live in Seattle and want to buy an air conditioner this week, there won't be a big box store within 250 miles that has any on the shelf, ditto for electric fans. At our house we do have a big old roaring fan to drag out at night, and if things get really miserable, a downstairs bedroom that always stays pretty cool. I am welcome to go down there to thrash around, so John can get a little sleep.

"They" have been tracking temperature hi/lows in Seattle since 1891, and today is expected to be an all-time record of over 100 at SeaTac Airport. Most people here are miserable, even downright scared of hot weather and would prefer to walk around under grey, damp skies. And from the hysteria on the local news channels, you would think Armageddon had arrived. But a heat wave in Seattle is like 3 feet of snow in December-- it just doesn't happen that often, and doesn't last that long. The dawn is beautiful and tropical feeling, and this morning at 7 AM it was already 70, a "record high" for a "daily low" if you follow me.

Amanda and Tom live in Eastern Washington, where it gets and STAYS this hot most of the summer. Add to that all the joys of being 9 months pregnant. My brother Dave did an incredibly nice thing today, and drove this brand new air-conditioning unit over as an early wedding present. He sent this picture and said he wanted to keep it for himself, always the sign of a generous gift!

Hi little baby!

Our New Baby's 9 Month Ultrasound! (Dummy's Guide)
Originally uploaded by A Day In The Life...

Amanda had an ultrasound yesterday at the Brewster hospital, and they told her everything about the baby looks normal and wonderful! We laughed when she said that he/she appeared to have a "beetle brow," but it was probably just an optical illusion!

:-)

This particular photo is not Amanda's baby exactly, but an ultrasound of another full-term rascal ready to be born, so you get the idea. She is feeling well and strong, keep her in your thoughts and prayers for the coming weeks.

What's for dinner?

I think about food all the time and love to cook, so I don't really mind when my husband's first full sentence after work is "what's for dinner?"

(However, I have been known to seriously fly off the handle over a "what's for lunch?" question on Saturday morning.)

Anyway, Seattle is sweltering hot right now, so the last thing you want to do is fire up a Viking gas oven in a house without AC. I always make extra dinner so John has leftovers for work the next day, so planning meals in the summer is more of a challenge. I like green salad for dinner, but who wants to take a soggy bowl of lettuce to work? And the grill is great, but it probably isn't that healthy to eat charred food 6 nights a week.

Trader Joe's to the rescue! I've made Asian noodle salad and pot stickers twice this week, and while not fancy, it was tasty enough for company on Sunday when our friends Terri and George came over. Last night I used cold rice stick noodles, savoy cabbage, peppers, onions, water chestnuts and celery topped with chopped peanuts and some roast chicken I had in the freezer. I was lazy, and used a mixture of Trader Joe's dressings: Spicy Thai peanut and Sesame Soy. No recipe required, just throw whatever you have a bowl and add dressing. Follow the directions on the pot sticker bag and dinner is served.

Roger

Before the baby steals the limelight, here are a couple pictures of Amanda and Tom's nice little dog "Roger." He is a really handsome Miniature Australian Shepard. Everyone is familiar with the Australian Shepard, but I didn't realize there was a popular scaled-down version too:

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/miniatureaustralianshepherd.htm

He is a gentle and intelligent little fellow, and he loves doing anything with Amanda and Tom. I think he is looking down the river for a BOY or GIRL of his own to play ball with, but will have to wait a few more years!