Hot, Hot and more Hot

 I see that in my last post the temperatures were heading to 90F, and so they did!  It has been nothing but hot with a break of less hot only once in two weeks! Hopefully we are headed into cooler temperatures after today - and today at 90F is cooler than yesterday's 98F!  This is truly a blessing because I am making a run to visit family and friends next week, so I won't have to worry about the garden being a desert when I get back!

Probably the most fun we have had so far this summer was a day with the kids.  DiL had to go to a different office away from their regular daycare, so we had all 3 and decided to make use of our Zoo Pass.  We were there just after they opened in the morning and stayed not quite 2 hours.  That was just right. Home in time for lunch and before it was oppressively hot.

Firts(?) Carousel ride for Baby Girl

Don't let go, Grandpa!

The brave one!

Terrible trio?, Nope, they were really good.

Baby Gilr loves her slides.  

No pics with animals, but they weren't in the mood for photo shoots.  We did actually see quite a lot of them; tiger, bears, giraffes, flamingos, barn animals. As I suspected, the highlights were the playground and the carousel.

But back to the garden now.... Another (mixed) blessing is the irrigation/sprinkler system that was here on our property when we bought it.  I had no intention of using it, especially since we usually have SO much water being pumped out from under out house for free!  But that water is slowly decreasing and we would have to use City water to keep the garden going, anyway.... so I had the system serviced and set to run.  Hopefully it will keep the garden alive while I am gone and hubby doesn't have to mess with it.

The garden, Mid-June.

On other news,... there isn't much.  Hubby is working a few days a week and playing (or watching) tennis regularly.  Between his tennis playing and the heat, I have not been cooking much.  But I have enjoyed the 'first fruits' of the garden.  That broccoli that I planted in the brassica bed was NOT broccoli, but kale.  I need to learn to like it.  For now, I am chopping it up fairly small and adding it to green salads, and that is fine.  I just can't bear cooked greens!  I think I will try kale pesto next, but with walnuts instead of pine nuts.  Some of it will come out soon and I will plant "real" broccoli plants before I leave. And just this week I started picking a few strawberries!  We won't have a lot this year, but enough for topping cereal or ice cream a few times.

We had our younger grandson yesterday... he has an ear infection so needed a day home from daycare. We played outside in the morning before it got hot and I showed him where the strawberries were.  They will have to come pick some while I am away.  Then he got to eat some for dessert.

Grandpa is always good for a donut.


Speaking of leaving, I am going on a Great Circle trip:  Kansas City to visit a cousin, then around St.Louis and on up into IL to Carrollton and White Hall to see more family, then over to Danville to see another brother and back to Bloomington to my Best Friend.  From there I will go up to McHenry just to see my gardening friends (they moved their get-together date to accommodate my schedule) and on up to DS the Younger in WI to stay two days before the long trek back home to SD.  I plan for it to take me 6 days and except for one night in McHenry, I'll be staying with friends or family.

So I should l have more to write about in my next blog...

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