Beary Hot

We're in the middle of a record-setting heat wave right now. Fortunately, there is no wind, which would make the risk of wildfire worse. Having gone through that just last fall, we're nervous about a repeat performance. We've lived in our house for nearly 20 years, and we've only had wildfire on our hill one time. Let's hope last year's fire was an aberration and not a portent of the future.

It seemed as if much of the day was spent in the kitchen yesterday. There were a couple of projects I wanted to do/try. First, I whacked a bunch of sage off my huge sage plant a few days ago, trying to get some light to the recently-planted chives. It gave me an idea to try some herb-infused butter. To the sage, I added some thyme and rosemary, toasted it in my toaster oven, and then added it to some melted European butter. European-style butter has a higher butterfat content, and supposedly this gives better results. That was all poured into a mason jar and then set in a pot of gently simmering water for two hours. When it was all finished, I poured it into quarter-pint jars. For this first try, I kept the amount small...just one cup total.

One jar went into the freezer, and it will keep there for 3 months. The other is in the refrigerator. We've had herb-infused butters in restaurants, and they are nice on slices of bread. This is an experiment. We'll see how we like it over the coming weeks. It did make the house smell nice.

While I was monitoring that, it seemed like a good idea to bake a Dutch Apple Pie for Two. I've been taking stock of my jars of canned goods to see what I might want to can this summer. In the process, I came across several jars of apple pie filling made from apples picked from Erik and Mae's tree. They're getting on the older side, and so there's only one thing to do. Turning them into pie and eating it is heroic, really, if you think about it.

We had a steak salad for dinner last night, and so I made the salad portion early in the day. Mike grilled the steak when it was time, and my kitchen duties were complete. In the meantime, I finished off the bear.

Pretty happy with how he turned out. Now I'll add borders. All the while I've been making this, I've been considering how to do the borders. In the end, I've decided to stick with the original pattern...

Using these fabrics. I'll use the dark brown for the binding too.

When I was finished sewing for the day, I went upstairs to see Sadie had found her way to the sunshine. We've been keeping the shades drawn on this side of the house to keep out the afternoon heat. Sadie has discovered there's more than one way to warm a cat.

Late in the afternoon, I went out to get a picture of the purple hydrangea. The flowers aren't completely open yet, but they're very close. This heat should get them going.

I've taken to calling this section of the garden the "purple corner." To my left the Rouge Cardinal clematis is still blooming away. 

It's only the second season for this plant, and it has exceeded expectations. It has been blooming for weeks, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Amazingly, the Stargazer lily has nine flowers open now, and still more buds coming. I don't think I've ever seen so many blossoms on a lily.

Now the calla lily is under my watchful eye. It's bigger each day, but no sign of any flower buds yet.

Okay, so when I wrote my post yesterday, I said this:

We need to make yet another trip into town this morning. Hopefully, it will be the short trip we're expecting and I'll be home with plenty of time left in the day for sewing. 

And what I meant was this: 

We're going into town and I'm going to make another stab at bike-riding. Hopefully, I won't fall down again and end up in the emergency room, which will put a serious crimp in my sewing.

And let me just say, everything is okay. We just rode around in circles in a parking lot for about 20 minutes. The positioning of my arm made my shoulder hurt some, and so mainly, I was just trying to regain my confidence. When it cools off next week, we're going back with some orange cones, and I'm going to ride a little more around and through the cones to help with skill and confidence building. Goodness knows I'm a little nervous after December's bike-riding debacle. You know the old saying: When you fall off a horse, get right back on. If getting "right back on" includes a nearly 8-month interlude, then I can say I'm back on. Let's just hope I stick in the saddle a little better this time.

Today I need to get out and do my gardening early while it's still cool enough to avoid dying of heat prostration. Who would finish the bear quilt if that happened? Aside from that, there's nothing on the agenda. Maybe I'll see if I have enough lemons to make homemade lemonade. Sounds good on a hot day, doesn't it?