Back To The Ordinary

 With the Labor Day weekend behind us, we are settling into September. 

  I picked flowers for new bouquets.

We made a bit of good trouble on Labor Day.

Our daughter Jill went back to work today, part time PE teacher and part time district Health and PE Coordinator.  

We have been retired for 20 years now but I still get a bit of that feeling of melancholy that summer is over. Summer always meant freedom.

Of course we have all the freedom we need now, and do our best to keep busy. This morning we both worked in the garden. Tom does heaver stuff than I manage, but by 12:30 we were both hot and tired and ready for a long lunch break. Now it's 81 outside and I am inside, already getting my mosquito bite for this day. One is enough. Maybe we'll take an evening walk. 

Tom picked tomatoes.

There will be tomatoes and cottage cheese for lunch, Caprese salad or sliced tomatoes for dinner, and once is a while tomato sandwiches. 

Tom is very proud of his Brugmansias (Angels Trumpets). Each fall he takes cuttings from that summer's plant, discards the old plant and grows the cuttings in the greenhouse. The spring we decided to keep two plants, which started about about a foot tall. Now look!

Soon all of those buds will be open, emitting a lovely sweet fragrance as the evening cools.

Summer doesn't end until the calendar says so. We'll work a little, relax a little, read, spend time with friends, and stay informed. We'll find TV to watch in the evenings. It's all good. 

The 2025 Annual Phosie Gertie Picnic

 Once again it happened. We think this is the 53rd Annual Phosie Gertie Family Reunion and picnic, held at the Reeder Foster Fuller Compound on the shores of Useless Bay and Deer Lagoon on Whidbey Island. 

We elders are getting older, and so are our "kids". They can still stand. We olders get to sit. :-)

About noon we held our annual owners and users meeting for the Reeder-Foster cabin. It was great to have the next generation taking over many of the responsibilities of upkeep and finances of our precious retreat. 

During a lull in the action, Tom and I had time to sit with Irene and see her photos of her big adventure, her five week study of the Salish Sea and surrounding North Cascade Mountains, including native plants, animals, and indigenous peoples. 

On a scale of one to ten, she said it was definitely a ten, and her wonderful pictures prove it. She is also a very good photographer. 

The actual event was kicked off with the raising of the Phosie Gertie flag and the PG song. Tom and Irene raised the flag.

Then we took the group picture. I was happy to have Isaac help me out this year.

Next, those elders that I mentioned earlier needed to be honored, as tradition calls for. These are the direct descendants of Phosie and Gertie. 

There is always a bit of family history to share, in this case the original invitation, written in crayon, for the very first PG picnic, held in 1973. 

Tom always has something to share. Neither of us remember what it was now a day after but it must have been important. 

With the tide in, so no sand castle contest, and currently no little kids for the candy hunt, we went right to the balloon toss. 

The winners and the runners up. Good to see one of the elders in the victory circle. 

Then of course there was eating, lots of eating, but the only photo you'll get of that is just part of the dessert table. 

The eating was followed by lots of visiting, but Tom and I excused ourselves to sit in front of the TV in the downstairs room nearby to watch the Sounders play in a tournament final against Inter Miami, and the famous Lionel Messi. In Seattle 69,314 rabid fans were at the stadium. We had to witness it, and Seattle won!

As family members began to return to their homes, we joined the remaining cabin residents as the sun began to set on another great family picnic. 

Then Tom and I drove off into the sunset. It was a very good day. 

Cooking for the Phosie Gertic Picnic

 

It's that time of year again, Labor Day weekend, and time for our annual family gathering at the family compound on Whidbey Island. Yep, it's the Phosie Gertie Picnic, honoring the two grandmothers of the Reeder-Foster-Fuller Clan.

Family members are already gathering on the island. We have word that the California Reeders have arrived. I'll get to see my granddaughter after her summer adventure, as well as my grandson, his girl friend, and my two "kids". 

There will be lots of cooking going on there, which is why I do my cooking here at home and then we go up just for the day.

I happened to have a giant zucchini squash this year, so I made a Chocolate Zucchini cake to take. The two loaves of zucchini bread will go into the freezer.

And I made a macaroni salad to take,  because I like it and it can be made ahead and easily transported. 

Now, after all of that cooking, and thanks, Tom for the help with the clean up, we are tired and we're going out for supper. 

Happy Labor Day everyone. Celebrate your way, whatever that is. 

Harvesting

Tom harvested some of his crops Thursday, which meant I had to process his harvest.

There was a small basket full of poblano peppers, a second picking,  a basket full of Roma tomatoes, and a nice crop of slicing tomatoes. He grows two plants of peppers in the vented greenhouse. The tomatoes are planted on the west wall of the house, where they get lots of heat. 

The Roma tomatoes are for sauce. I halve them and roast them with oregano from the garden. The peppers are roasted and diced to freeze, to be added to things like shrimp and grits later in the year. 

First pan of Romas ready for the oven.

Dicing the roasted poblano peppers. 

As the tomatoes cool the skins pucker and can be easily lifted off of the flesh of the tomatoes. 

The tomato pulp goes into a cooking pot, where I reduce it down and use an immersion blender to puree it. All of those tomatoes don't make a lot of sauce, but the sauce has a garden fresh flavor on pasta in the winter time. There will be more pickings and more sauce. 

Then there are these lovely vine ripened beauties to eat fresh. Today I had a tomato sandwich for lunch, Many days there will be cottage cheese with tomatoes. Every so often we'll have caprese salad - sliced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, olive oil, and sea salt from the Oregon coast. Yum.

By the time I got the sauce ready for the freezer, I was tired. I read and dozed in my chair. Dinner was hamburgers, with cheese, lettuce, avocado, and tomatoes, of course. 

More Flowers, Inside and Out.

 It's another warm one here today, now 80 degrees as we approach 1:00, heading for 85 or more. That means it's lunch time and I have managed to fritter away the last hour. I'll get back to you. 

Well, I'm back, it's 2:15 and I'm completely distracted from flowers. Lunch time is when I read the Seattle Times newspaper, concentrating on national news from sources like the New York Times, the United  Press, and the Washington Post. Today was one of those days when I was shaking my head constantly. Trump is:

-attacking vote by mail to discredit elections,

-leveling tariffs that hurt board game sales

-gutting FEMA disaster response (hurricane season)

-fighting efforts to close Aligator Alcatraz

-threatened South Korea, so the SK president visited the white House and flattered Trump

-ordered the end of cashless bail(hurts poor people)

-moves to ban and punnish flag burning (is this really a big problem?)

-fires Fed board member

-directs Military to expand policing of US cities

And that was just on Tuesday! Is it any wonder I concentrate on flowers?

So this morning we had our weekly Zoom meet up, then I finished my PT, and ran a load of sheets in the laundry, (Tom made the bed, yay) watered house plants, and did a 30 minute workout on my stationary bike in the garage, which I had vented to cool it down. Then it was 11:00 and I went outside to read on the patio in the shade and cool down, but got distracted and picked up my phone and walked around the yard, mostly in the shade, taking pictures. 

So now I am back to the flowers.

In the house, picked yesterday:

My all pink zinnias

And outside:

Spoon and fork flower :-)

We still have a few roses

I don't remember what I did Sunday. It was hot. But in the late afternoon Jill and Tom went to the Sounders game and I stayed home.

And I was quite comfortable watching in my chair.

And that's all, folks. Bet you're glad.