Lazy Days of Summer

The warm weather is here and things are starting to slow down a bit.

Chatra

Kokee and Bruno's Coleus Plants

Haryana

"Chats"

Tune of the Month: Elvis Costello

We have been enjoying Elvis' Costello's Secret, Profane & Sugarcane which explores bluegrass music as only Elvis Costello could. The album is produced by T-Bone Burnette who produced Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant which was July's TOTM in 2008. Check out Elvis on Hidden Shame, a song that he wrote for Johnny Cash. You can also read a recent interview with Elvis on NPR (of course).

Conee, the Golden Retreiver

We couldn't resist a little comic relief at Kokee's expense, even when she is suffering from a staph infection that requires this cumbersome collar. We have a list of nicknames as big as this E-collar (The Conester, Lampshade Girl, Conekee, Conehead), but invite anyone else chime in... Hopefully she recovers soon since this thing has curtailed life's one true passion, playing ball.

Face of Produce

Warmer temperatures and more plentiful sunshine is doing wonders for the waterlogged garden we knew in June. The FOP this month is a record of rambling nasturtiums, basil leaves as big as your head, the last of the early raspberry crop (more to come late August), and visions of blueberry buttermilk pancakes dancing in your head.

As requested by one of our dedicated readers photos of the award winning blueberries and potatoes are included below. We feasted on potato salad, peas, cream cheese seasoned with nasturtiums and fresh chives. For dessert... blueberries of course!

Hangman Hill's Got the Blues

Hurray!!!!

SEVEN Blue Ribbons (1st prize) and ONE Red Ribbon (2nd prize)

We did very well at the fair this year. We won first place for raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, sage, lavender, basil, rosemary and potatoes. The edible pod peas won second prize, rightfully so, the pea winners were very impressive and had a presentation that was hard to beat. We must admit the potato and gooseberry submissions were impressive. In fact when I went to pick up our loot one of the organizers mentioned several people wanted information on our gooseberries! If only they knew about "top and tailing".

Did I mention we won $13.50?

The fair was well attended this year, with excellent weather. It is always fun to see the "trick" man, the cows, chickens and sheep, take in some onion rings and ice cream and of course the fair queen contest. Too bad we missed the dog dancing and Frisbee show this year.

Berry cool

The strawberries were bust this year to the very wet rainy weather, but the rasberries and blueberries are doing well. We entered berries and much more in the produce competition this week and the world famous North Stonington Agricultural Fair, so stay tuned for how we did.

Wild, wild weather

The month of June was cooler and wetter than we'd like, but this Wednesday (July 1) really clinched it when we received 6" of rain within 4 hours. Along with the rain came some heavy thunderstorms that hit the cable pole at the end of our driveway leaving in it's "wake" the cable, modem, TV (we just use it for DVD's, really!) and Invisible Fence that keeps Kokee in her "playground" at Hangman Hill.

We discovered the pet fence first while shoveling the driveway out the street back into the driveway and noticed Kokee was right there with us. After bailing water out of the basement we found the lack of Internet access when trying to assess collateral damage around town (news online of course). We later discovered the TV was dead when trying to diagnose the cable internet connection (before seeing the wires at the end of the street you see).

The return of high speed Internet access at home is uncertain due to the collateral damage in the area, which was severe as captured in photos from the local papers. Westerly, Mystic and Stonington were the worst areas affected (due to most rain and proximity to sea level). We have neighbors with basements still underwater and or that are recovering from fires within their homes due to lightning strikes, so we are pretty happy to be so well off.

We did enjoy a dry evening at Jonathon Edwards Winery last night with a bottle of wine and tunes from the Paul Brockette Road Show (more when we are back online).

Intersection of Spruce Street and Narragansett Ave in Westerly

2 blocks DOWN hill from 25 Spruce Street!

photo by David Smith, The Sun

Mystic Aquarium parking lot
photo by Laura Stroebel, The Day

Mystic Aquarium

photo by Laura Stroebel, The Day

Wilcox Park in Westerly

Daniel Highland, The Sun

Route 1 in Stonington

photo by Tim Martin, The Day