On a hot and humid Friday night, our salad dinner was just perfect. In the winter Friday night dinners are much more complicated affairs reflecting the comfort food we need to keep us warm when it's frigid and snowy out and we've battled the elements in our daily outdoor excursions. Yesterday's salad, my version of a Caesar salad, was more to our taste on these summer evenings, though. I just prepare it in different stages before dinnertime. First off, the croutons, that I bake in the toaster-oven with lots of garlic and Parmesan sprinkled over.

 

 

An hour before assembling the salad I microwave the cauliflower and cover the skinned, deboned chicken breast with aluminum foil to bake it in the toaster oven. Then it's simply a matter of assembling the green onion, lettuce, snap peas, bell pepper and tomatoes along with the cauliflower and chicken cut into little squares. Finally, just before serving a sprinkling of Caesar dressing, and it's done. 

We'll have another salad this evening, a more conventional one, except that mixed beans will be added to it, and French dressing. That gets prepared a few hours before dinner, and refrigerated for everything to blend in taste. While I'm cutting up vegetables, Jackie and Jillie pick up their ears and let their nose lead them to the kitchen, directly underfoot, appealing for vegetable handouts, even when they've just finished a salad of their own.

 

The sun was out first thing this morning, and we were greeted with a much cooler day. Perfect, I thought, for finally getting out to do some garden work. And there's plenty to be done. I've been prevented from getting at it because of constant rain. But sun, that's great, all the more so with cooler temperatures. Then, right after breakfast in went the sun, nudged out of the sky by aggressive clouds.

 

We thought we'd be all right for at least the length of our hike through the ravine. And we thought wrong. Well, not quite; rain didn't begin coming down until we were almost out of the forest. But while we were out going through the trails, there were plenty of things to take our attention. Besides laughing at the antics Jackie and Jillie were up to. Yarrow is now in its element, growing thicker and taller in some places.

 

And to our surprise both Himalayan orchids on the hillside we descend into the forest has begun blooming, and Jewelweed growing thickly on the lower banks of the creek have also begun to bloom. Both are orchid-like, both are dainty given the size of the stems and foliage they're part of, and both are bright and beautiful, a pleasure to behold.

 

I was in a bit of a hurry, anxious not to be out too long, wanting to have some time in the garden before it began to rain. We're becoming accustomed to daily rain events, and no matter when we choose to go out to the ravine for our walks through the forest, invariably rain will erupt, and usually when we're close to the limits of our circuit for the day. It's hard not to linger, though, when we see such intriguing attractions.

 

As, for example, evening primrose maturing enough that its tiny yellow flowers have also begun blooming. Ragweed has restored its flowering state after being devastated by heavy downpours, and the fragrance of the blooms are once again perfuming the air where they proliferate. Burdock is still blooming, and the bees, with all these ready choices are having a wonderful time in the pollinating meadow.

 

Then came the first raindrops gently reminding us that the weather report indicated a 40% chance of rain. So we picked up our pace and once again managed to arrive back home before the skies really opened up. And I grieved and I grumbled that I was unable to get out to the garden to do those necessary and elemental things that keep it tidy and in good shape. But then, an hour later the rain stopped.

 

And out I went, relieved and prepared to spend as long as it might take to get something accomplished. Jackie and Jillie get quite upset when I leave the house. Their pacing back and forth and whining spurred Irving to let them out to see where I was and what I was doing, and then he began doing some of the garden work himself. In the end, working together, though at separate tasks, we spent a few hours in the garden and so did Jackie and Jillie, happy enough to be there because we were.