The fruits of summer

Summer waxes hot in the Tennessee Valley, here in sleepy Rockford near the Little River. So much heat and sun is a blessing to the tomato farmer; for five days now I have gone out with little Rose to pick tomatoes. Big boy, plum and cherry tomatoes line out window ledge and fill small ceramic bowls . The garden also sports acorn squash; at the moment we have two large ones who are going from light to dark green quickly, hardening as they ripen. There has been raw slices of tomato for dinner sides and cherry tomatoes for quick, juicy snacks. Colin has made beer and is currently working on dark chocolate mead and apple wine. I will be cleaning out a carboy to start my hard root beer, the pyment being all drunk up and Colin already working on a cherry mead. So I will make hard root beer and a quart of Alba vanilla ice cream. After which I will treat myself to the best root beer float on the face of the planet.  

Cherry Tomatoes

Those are some beautiful tomatoes we have. Not just the color but the taste. So sweet and juicy; a true balm to the southern girl's heart.  In addition to tomatoes and squash, the garden is also turning out a metric ton of mint. Last year, we planted spearmint and sweet mint. This year, we have sweet spearmint. Love blooms in the garden. The mint saw fit to interbreed and its offspring is a redolent, beautiful blooming mint. The chocolate mint has spread and I had to prune it aggressively to keep it from wiping out my lemon balm. The carrots, unfortunately, never grew from the trimmings we kept. Gods keep the warm days here; I have two adult squash and five babies growing away on the vine. I want more than anything to grow a lot of acorn squash. When we were first replanting the garden for 2016, I mistook Rhiannon's acorn squash for Japanese pumpkin and pulled the sprouts thinking to prune the population. Only took late did I realize my mistake and mentally kicked myself over it for weeks after Rhiannon left for boot camp.

Sweet spearmint, purple sage and chocolate mint

The kitchen and dinning room are filled with the wild, green scent of herbs. The bouquet of sweet spearmint is festooned with tiny, starlet flowers. I cannot look at it without smiling; what a good bouquet for a bride. The sage is run all green and purple; we added to the lamb stew the other night and it was heavenly. The chocolate mint is begging to be added into ice cream. I might be pressing some into oil soon. My rabbit skins are still well salted and stored in a cool place. I need to flesh them out soon but finding the time and patience for such delicate work is difficult. I have been working on my crocheting a great deal and have added 6 skeins of yarn (Wool of the Andes and Patton's) to the queen sized Afghan I am crocheting for Colin. Gods, give me the strength to keep working on it until Yule. I would love to give it to him, finished in it's whole to keep him warm through the winter.

Opal with her twin girls. We can't wait for our babies to come home. 

As summer spins itself down from Solstice, the time draw near that our fuzzy girls can come home. We get to go pick them up in Oak Ridge on August 1st, the same day Kieran starts her senior year. It has been a long time since this Clanhold has hear the tiny meows of little kittens and we wait with baited breath to hold and love them both. Adoption is the best way you can find your beloved fur babies. 

As I bring this post to a close, I wish all my friends and readers a Happy Independence Day! Enjoy!