There was a naked pie, even more to love about zucchini and a blindingly clean refrigerator.

I am still on a high from a four-day weekend.  My youngest sister (AKA Auntie Baby) drove up for an extended stay and spent two whole days with me.  This is something of a rarity.  In thinking back, it's amazing that so much got done and I was all relaxed about it.

A Naked Pie was made and consumed (made from a recipe in this wonderful cookbook).  We discovered that zucchini noodles are FABulous tossed with a spicy peanut sauce.  Zucchini is also FABulous as the basis for a raw salad with olives, chopped lettuce, and other bits and bobs from my..... AMAZINGLY CLEAN REFRIGERATOR.

Honestly, Auntie Baby actually gets a thrill from cleaning the inside of refrigerators.  And she is thorough - every shelf, drawer and cubby got cleaned.  It is so wonderful that I just open it and admire it twice a day.  And, no, you cannot have her.

I couldn't find my potholders.
Clever Auntie Baby came up with a
temporary fix.

The dogs got lots of attention.  Scrappy, who has been shedding like a maple tree in spring, got six brushings and is sleek and shed-free (almost).  Pepperoni is still rather depressed at her leaving. 

We did lots of cooking, cleaning, weeding, and squeezed in a trip to the local Peace Pagoda.  I have been meaning to visit for more than five years.  It was beautiful and peaceful - you cannot enter the pagoda, but there is a temple where you can sit and meditate and think peaceful thoughts, while the breezes waft through.  There is even a Pagoda dog - a large, sweet black lab.

We also went on my annual Peach Pilgrimage and picked up four pecks of Georgia peaches - some for friends and family. 

Besides lots of family visiting, I took Scrappy to the vet, as I had discovered a lump on his leg.  The decision was benign, as it was small, localized and not attached.  Thank you, Universe.  I then went through McDonald's drive-thru and bought my boy a breakfast biscuit sandwich.  He was in Heaven - riding shotgun, nibbling on his bacon cheese biscuit. 

I got things ticked off my list - the run in shed is finished, except for finishing staining the outside.  I am hoping that the weekend weather cooperates, but it's been pretty wild.  Saturday was HOT and humid.  Sunday was HOT and humid with a violent thunderstorm in the late afternoon - a bolt of lightning hit across the street, sending us all in the air and Pepper running for his Auntie Baby.

First tomatoes!

Pole beans, wax beans, potted
squash

Sad, sad garlic.

The garden is so-so this year.  Most of it is due to the fact that I was just not on the ball this spring.  Seeds got in late, the weather was/is crappy, yadda, yadda.  My garlic is the worst that it's ever been.  I have to pull it very early this year.  I ended up sticking a couple of squash plants in a pot, instead of building up a nice hill.  I've harvested one - with gnaw-marks from the dreaded chipmunks.  But the pole beans finally took off and I have a lot of blossoms.  I've just started picking wax beans and cukes, and there have been a few tomatoes and one purple jalapeno.  Everything needs to be weeded - I'm not holding out much hope for the onions this year.  The potatoes are in fine greenery with flowers, but one never knows until you get in there and dig. 

I did not get to the herb bed this year.  It needs to be re-framed and amended, but that will be a job for next year.  Instead, I potted all my herbs and have them on the deck.  It has worked out well, so far.  At least the rabbits haven't figured out how to get on the deck and chew down my parsley!