The heat wave has broken

I'm loving the cooler weather we're having right now. Garden time is much more enjoyable. We've been getting lots of kale, chard, zucchini, beans, and cabbage (also green beans and zucchini from our giving garden for St. Susan's kitchen). The flower gardens have really filled in, and though I thought I was finished with planting for this year, I couldn't resist getting some "Cherry Brandy" coneflowers and Russian sage to add to the landscape. I love my flowers.


We've been finding lots of things to fill up our time lately, which hasn't left a lot of time for sitting still and writing about it.  Tom and I tend to be very project-oriented workaholics.  I may not be employed, but I do work, between my projects here at home, the church, and the food buying club.  We don't get out enough to really appreciate why we chose to live here in the first place.  But lately, we've been working on it.

 On Saturday, we decided to head across the lake to Bemus Point for an alfresco lunch at the Italian Fisherman.  I love that it is right on the water--I spent a lot of time on lakes when I was growing up and have a special fondness for that environment.  Bemus was bustling. It's definitely where the action is around here for families on vacation with the kids.  Swimming at the beach was declared off limits last week because of the blue green

algae blooms, but there are still plenty of places to play, shop, and eat, and I guess that's what people were doing! Pedestrians all over the place.


The previous weekend, there was the St. James Italian Festival, which has a good chance of becoming an annual must-do event for us. The food was great, especially the cannoli!

I'm also making more time for garage saling (very dear to my reusing-recycling-repurposing heart!) and visiting the Downtown Jamestown Farmers Market on Fridays. 

And in the evenings, I read.  The books and authors I have been choosing lately have taken me on foreign adventures-- to Ireland, Iran, Afghanistan, Spain. Places I will never see with my own eyes (and in a couple of cases, thank goodness), but the written word has the power to transport us across time and space. Without using fossil fuels!

This weekend, we'll go out some more. The Jammers are playing at home, the long-awaited Brazil Craft Beer and Wine Lounge will be open on Friday and Saturday to preview some of their selections, there's a craft fair in Westfield, and our church is having its summer picnic.   The weather looks good, maybe a little rain on Saturday. But if it makes the plants happy, who am I to complain?