Belated Birthday Cake and Reading Aloud

Our daughter's birthday was way back in the first part of this month on July 5th. Last night we finally managed to coordinate a get-together where the three of us could sit down for a meal and birthday cake.

Sorry the cake doesn't show up better . . . not that it was anything to brag about anyway. (You know me and my cake baking [non] abilities.) But it was the cake she requested: Coconut Creme and it was yummy. We all dove into it with more gusto than usual putting a hefty dent in it.

Last night was also Family Reading Night. This is turning into a tradition we started sometime last winter. (Last fall? Can't remember for sure.) It was at Chicken Mama's suggestion that we get together on the 15th of each month at which time each of us would read aloud anything of our choice. We try to set a time limit of 20 minutes reading for each person but frequently the subject matter is so interesting that the two of us listening clamor for "just a little more, please."

Just as lighting candles on a birthday cake gets postponed from the actual date of the birthday, some months find us scrambling to congregate for Family Reading Night long past the 15th of the month. But it's an extremely enjoyable evening that none of us wants to give up so even if we miss the "proper" date, we squeeze it in somewhere in the month.

Papa Pea was the last to read last night and he had some lofty and esoteric quotes to share which were totally lost on me because by that time the hour was late and I was nearly comatose in my recliner. But apparently my participation in the discussion was not missed as daughter (Ms. Philosophy Major) and her pops went at it with relish with me weakly interspersing the occasional comment of, "I don't understand that at all," or "Huh?" or "My mind is totally unable to grasp that concept," or near the end, "I don't even care; I have more basic things to think about." To which my dear husband said, "That's okay, you're just too concrete." (Did he imply I'm thick-headed?")

Ah yes . . . good cake, good communication, good company. Except for me at the end there . . . Z-Z-Z-z-z-z-z.

Duh . . . The Light Dawns

My delphiniums were reaching record-breaking heights this year. And then one day I noticed them bowed, broken and hanging their heads in woebegone sadness.

What the heck happened? I figured it must have occurred during the night this past week we had the torrential rain, thunder and lightning storm. Remember the 3-1/2" of rain in our gauge?

But there was no wind with the storm. The rain was coming down harder than I can ever remember seeing, but it was coming straight down. Plus the delphiniums are close to the house in a protected spot that doesn't get much wind anyway.

Well, duh. It finally dawned on me today what must have happened. A couple of weeks ago we spotted this chunk out of one of our plastic rain gutters on the roof. How in the world that came about we don't know. But with everything else going on around here, we haven't taken the time to repair the broken section of gutter.

Where is that "hole in the dike" located? Why, directly above my delphiniums! I can just imagine the rain coming off the roof during that bad storm. The torrents would hit that hole in the gutter, shoot directly out about 18" and hit the delphiniums dead on like a mighty waterfall. It's a wonder it only broke them in half!

Berries, Radishes and Visitors

A couple of days ago, friend Jenyfer Matthews and her two kiddlies stopped over to say hello. Until last February, Jen and her family were living in Cairo, Egypt. Her hubby stayed behind to continue his work and maintain their home there, but because of the extreme political unrest they decided Jen and the kids should leave. It's been a difficult journey for them all which she's chronicled on her blog.

Jen's father and step-mother live in our county so she and her son and daughter are here visiting right now.

One of the first things her son asked when they got here was, "Where did you plant the carrots this year?" When they visited last summer, both he and his sister had a lot of fun pulling carrots right from the dirt and enthusiastically eating them while pronouncing them the best they'd ever tasted!

I think he was more than a little disappointed to hear this is my non-gardening year and, alas and alack, there were no carrots to be sampled.

They had to content themselves with a little berry picking. Above is Jen's daughter in the strawberry patch. (And yes, folks, the huge, lush, green weeds you see in the background are what is growing in my field garden. I hang my head in shame.)

The kids ate some berries while picking (that's the fun of it!) but did save a couple of containers full to take home with them.

This is what happens when I'm too busy to even keep an eye on my beds of salad fixings. Carrot Boy was eager to pull the radishes that got away from me. That's a French Breakfast Radish he's holding.

The round radishes were the size of tennis balls. Surprisingly enough, they were still tender . . . not woody or pithy as I had expected them to be. However, they were so hot and spicy we couldn't eat them without our eyes watering and our throats starting to close up! (If only I had some spare time, I would have liked to try fermenting them for a winter time tonic!)

As it is I need to hire a gardener for the rest of the season. And a cook. And a maid who does windows. And will clean a bathroom.

Remember, It's Gonna Look Worse Before It Looks Better

I'm not sure these pictures are going to make any sense to those of you interested in our kitchen remodeling adventure, but I'm so tired tonight it's the best I can do. (I just ended my work day by picking twenty-one pounds of strawberries.)

Before we took out the half wall (and teeny-tiny living room), to have this viewpoint you would have been standing in the living room looking right at the half wall. Now that the room is becoming all kitchen, you're looking at the refrigerator and stove at the far end and sink on the right. They aren't going to be moved. To the left free-standing in the room will be an island which will be my main work counter. That's not the real island you see in the left of the above picture, but a pretend one so I can get the feel of it and decide how big I want the real one to be. (It's a section of cabinet we took out which will probably go somewhere in the garage soon.)

To the right is currently a double window that looks out onto our enclosed porch and doesn't really let in much light. We are taking it out and building a floor-to-top-of- cabinet height pine storage unit in that space. (The cabinet unit you see to the left of the windows is one that used to be up against the kitchen side of the half wall.)

Moving into the kitchen to the left and looking across pretend island. The windows we're taking out are just to the right of this picture. (That white strip on the floor with the red tape in it is where the half wall was previously.)

On the other side of the kitchen you see the unit that used to be on the far left of that wall. It's now in it's new permanent spot under those windows but doesn't have the permanent wood top on it yet.

Moving farther to the left along that wall is my pride and joy. A kitchen table that is big enough to seat more than four people . . . which is all I've had for the past 15 years! I am so thrilled to have this big a table (with room to pull it out from the wall) that you'd think me crazy if you knew just how happy it makes me. Stay tuned for some wild dinner parties. (Well, not this summer yet. Maybe come winter. When things slow down. And we're completely done with the remodeling. And have recovered sufficiently to function normally.)

Continuing on around the room to the left, we'll keep this unit with the TV on it that has always been in this spot.

And the wood stove (in the left of above picture) will stay where it is because it heats that whole end of the house.

Even though there's still lots to do in the kitchen, I'm enjoying the opened up space immensely and getting all kinds of ideas that I hadn't thought of before seeing and being able to move around in the actual space I have to work with.

What We Did This Morning

One of the main objectives in our remodeling is to give me a bigger kitchen and a bigger living room. Up until now our kitchen and living room has always been all together, divided by a half wall.

This is the living room side of the half wall. This side of the wall we designed and used as a bookcase.

This gives a peek of both sides of the half wall. Our tiny kitchen table was butted up against the end of the white cabinet and half wall.

This was my main work counter in the kitchen which stuck out into the room backed up against the half wall.

This cabinet unit went this morning.

Taken off completely.

Here's the empty bookcase side which we took out also.

This all took a bit more grunting, groaning and muscle power than you might expect. Considering the humidity inside the house was hovering around 210%, it wasn't much fun. BUT with that section taken out, I can really begin to see what the room (all new kitchen area to-be) is going to look like. I. Am. Excited.

More pictures (and sweat) tomorrow.

Short Weather Update

I meant to get this post up first thing this morning, but then things started happening on our destruction working toward construction (!) in the new kitchen area and I haven't had a second to get back here until now. And the only reason I'm at the computer is that I knew I needed to sit down before I fell down.

No sleep does not bode well for anyone in the midst of remodeling. We were up and awake most of the night last night hoping we weren't going to wash away in one heck of a storm.

The good thing is that we didn't have high winds but did have thunder, lightning and the heaviest rain I've seen in a long time. At one point I turned on the back outside light and the rain was coming down so hard I could not see through it.

This morning we had 3-1/2" in our rain gauge but we've heard reports of more than that in the county. Many gravel roads are flooded, culverts are out, streams are way over their banks and some roads have been closed because of wash-outs. The main highway had water running over it in spots and is littered with debris this morning.

We had no real damage, but have lots of standing water around. Our driveway through the protecting woods held up well. The sun came out and the humidity has become like a steam bath. Temp is 79 in the shade, but 90+ on the south side in the sun. Why didn't I plant a half acre of corn this year?

First thing Papa Pea and I said to each other this morning was, "Thank the powers that be our remodeling doesn't include tearing off any part of our roof!" THAT would have been disastrous last night!