Summer

We have a rather long list of things we want to do this summer, including:

* lots of bike riding

* strawberry picking

* yard sale-ing

* going to the beach

Today we will be doing...none of the above. The heat index is 105 F, and when we got home from the farmers market this morning we actually dreaded getting out of the air-conditioned car. So, goodbye, weeding the flower beds and reading on the deck! Hello, any project that puts us in the cool basement.

Yesterday Jason returned from Geneva, where he attended a conference of countries involved in the Dafur peace process. We are awesome (read: not awesome) at planning work trips at the same time. Meanwhile, I ate leftover cashew chicken curry three nights in a row and watched tornado warnings on the news. We have an intern in our office from Scotland, and on Wednesday, when our emergency ennuciators went off with tornado warnings, he said, "This country is so exciting!" I wish I had a quote book, I can tell it's going to be a funny summer.

Anyway, our garden is looking lovely, even though the cucumber leaves are drooping in the heat and the birds have found the one red strawberry. One of my favorite summer smells is the way my hands smell like tomato plant after I pick tomatoes, so I braved the heat to get a picture of our five tomato plants. I intend to be smelling tomato plant on my hands a lot!

I planted five zucchini seeds with the intent of thinning them down to one nice hardy plant, which would provide plenty of zucchini for a family of two, but the three that sprouted are so beautiful that I just couldn't stand to pull two of them out. So if you like zucchini, just come to the roadside stand on 5th Rd sometime mid-July. Otherwise, expect to find a bag of zucchini tied to the handle of your front door...