Cottage Days

 Cottage days mean painting one another's toenails,

in a house that is blue, green and yellow with touches of orange.

 There is time for brothers to catch up and be together,

 and time to cuddle the new puppy, Baxter.

 We get to have some lobster!

We play on the swing.  I tell people we bought this house for the fine swing tree.  I always wanted a good tree swing!  I dreamed of it for years!  There was one at my grandmother's house.

Cottage days for us is birthday cakes and pies.......orange cake, vanilla buttercream cake, Mama's peach pies, and blueberry pie!!!!!  My niece and I made this birthday cake for Gramma.  It is the delicious orange cake from the Moosewood restaurant cookbook, one of our favorite recipes.  Gramma always requests it for her birthday.  We sprinkled orange zest on top, and bachelor's buttons.  Bachelor's buttons are edible, but ours tasted liked nothing, so we tossed them when we cut the cake.  I'm going to plant borage next year for our summer cakes.  Borage is beautiful, and we'll experiment to see if it has a nicer taste.

 Cottage days at this time of year is a last hurrah for the garden.  It is getting to be a disreputable sight.  Some of the flowers are turning brown and I am letting some, like the bachelor's buttons and purple coneflower, go to seed for reseeding and to feed the goldfinches.  The goldfinches check every day to see if the seeds are ripe yet.  If I photograph selectively, I can still find some pretty flowers!

 The cosmos are a bright spot, sunnily carrying on while everything is dying all around them.

 My friend Magda, who died of cancer a few years ago, who was one of my great gardening teachers, called this flower "outhouse yellow," so that's what I call it.  It is a very tall plant and she said people used to plant it around their outhouses!  I always like to have some in my garden in her memory.

 

 I can still make a little bouquet with what is blooming there!  The cottage days are winding down.  A friend is visiting.  A niece and sister are coming.  I am starting to pack a little.  Next week.....back to Switzerland!!!!!!!!!