White Rabbits, gold medals and a lotus

August, Lammastide, wheat harvest soon. Happy season, everyone.

And here's great Olympic news, there's a lot, but this is my pick

Real grown women! Not the little girls we used to see before the Olympic committee came to their senses and installed new minimum age limits.  Women's gymnastics for women!

Handsome Son visiting today, so there's chocolate cake and lemonade all set. 

Also strawberries and chocolate almonds.

He's having a good summer, with the shore and concerts and general fun. He can handle hot weather. That makes one of us.

Just a footnote about good neighbors. We are original owners in this development, bought our unit from the builders. So this friendly atmosphere is what we helped build and encourage. 

It's the result of significant reaching out and helpfulness on our part, too. Like a lot of other good things, it didn't come about by chance.  We were the white family welcoming Black and Indian new neighbors and encouraging other white owners to do likewise. 

We were out and about being safe people to ask things, to help people fathom their water shutoffs and other built-in builder's mysteries, and for people who had never had a fireplace, how to proceed safely. All that. 

 

So yes, it's lovely. And it's no accident. Just sayin'. Not throwing bouquets at myself, just saying it's always a two way street. The harder you work, the luckier you get. 

I'm reaping the reward now, from people who saw what I went through in the caregiving years, now being protective and kind to me in my own old age.  I know you can reach out and never reap any reward, perfectly true. But it's wonderful when it happens.

Thursday is my Misfits box day. Getting ready to wash and prep a lot of produce. My least favorite part, but it's how I make sure ingredients are ready to cook. It's insurance, so I don't feel too tired to cook! If it's halfway there, so much easier to cook the rest of the way. It helps me avoid the tea and toast routine of tired old people.

Time for Nancy yogurt, since my own has been getting thinner, it needs a boost. The last few spoons of this will be the next starter.

I always love to see these brown eggs, with real shells, golden firm yolks. A boiled egg with a toasted slice of that seedy, grainy bread is a great small supper.

Strawberries and chocolate almonds, because why not.  All set for easy hot weather food.

Lammas, white rabbits and Yorkshire Day

 White rabbits! It's Lammas, the quarter day halfway between some celestial thing and another, celebrating the wheat harvest, for making bread -- loafmas.  Full moon, too. It's also Yorkshire Day. Deliciously cool. So this long-transplanted Yorkshirewoman celebrated with a toasted walnut muffin and a pot of strong tea for breakfast.

This is the Yorkshire Tea Terrier from a hilarious ad showing him speeding around the Dales bringing tiny (he's little) drinks of tea to thirsty hikers, the Yorkshire answer to the St. Bernard with his cask of brandy in the Swiss Alps.

and here's  Italian basil rooting in water after only a couple of days, high hopes for this

Yesterday cooled off enough, down to the 80sf, so I used the last of the chicken which had sustained me through the heatwave, in a cream of chicken soup, Thai basil for extra flavoring. 

I had a bowl of this with pita bread toasted with cheddar cheese inserted, while I watched an evening of Suits, which was excellent, planning on evenings doing this. I have the first two seasons in hand. Also more c of c soup.

And I was thinking about the upcoming rug, measured what I need, wondered in passing if I could employ bamboo garden canes to construct a temporary loom, couldn't find them. Then I remembered Gary borrowed them to prop up his young corn being flattened by wind and rain, so they're somewhere in here

 So I'll probably use a large frame from one of my stitched wall hangings, about right for the small rug I have in mind.

Yesterday I had things go right, thought I'd mention that because it does happen. The two seasons of Suits both came into together the library for pick up, and the new ATM card actually worked first time, to my amazement. Not only that, but you can now choose the denomination of cash, not just the inevitable and often useless $20, nobody could make change!

Also the slow readers at the credit card company are veering into comic relief territory. Yesterday, after my bank cleared replacement payment, they responded to my days ago message about how they hadn't yet processed the replacement. 

Except they hadn't grasped anything, and explained that the payment had been refused, account closed. That was the initial one, dolts! I responded tersely pointing this out, refraining from name calling though,  and explaining they'd accepted and processed the replacement, so all was settled. I'm looking forward with some glee to their further take on this. I could go on, it's a bit like teasing telemarketers.

Happy day, everyone, celebrate everything! Why not. And the wheat fields symbolized in Ukraine's flag are timely.