How to Eat an Apricot

 Are they ready to eat when they are like this, fresh from the store, young and plump, blushing, and posing for a Cezanne still-life painting?

Or when they are like this, withered and ready to move into the apricot old folk's retirement home?  That's right.....they are ready when they are wrinkled and every child would turn their nose up at them.  In fact that is how I discovered how to eat an apricot.  I am the fruit martyr at my house.  My child will only eat perfect fruit.  If I put a pear which has a slight dent or bruise on it in his lunch box, it comes home completely slimed.  If I present a bowl of cherries or grapes on his lunch plate, he eats around the slightly sub-par ones.  Guess who eats them?  Me, the fruit-martyr.  I always wondered why people ate apricots.  They were dry and tasteless.  But one day I saw the apricots no one else would eat, sitting in the fruit bowl: the decrepit, wrinkly, sad, apricots, and I took a bite.  Apricot heaven!  Juicy!  Luscious!  Sweet!  Rich!!!!!!!!!!  This is how you eat an apricot!  Did you already know that?

A Walk After the Rain

 There was a huge storm followed by a calm, clear evening.

 Raindrops were all over the flowers.

 My little boy rode through the deep puddles on his bike.  He had a wide streak of water up his back.  It is just what I would have done at his age.

 I love our neighborhood with its funny little sheds and carports.  Look at this kayak shelter.

 This shed has lobster buoys hanging on it, and flags left over from the Fourth of July.

 This is one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood.  The shutters have been painted the same color blue for several generations.

 There are hydrangeas everywhere...

 and wildflowers in the hedges near the beach.  This is Queen Ann's Lace.

Good night!

The Great Towel Mix-Up

It used to be hard to keep all the white towels straight in the bathroom we all share at the cottage on Cape Cod, even more so when we had guests.  (In our house, having towels of different colors didn't work.  They kept getting bleach spots.)  Last summer I sewed on these gorgeous fabric strips.  No more mix-ups, (at least not that I know of.....)

Make Mama's Peach Pie!

 This is the peach pie recipe I grew up with, and it is pure summer deliciousness!  We are in the States visiting my family in Virginia and I got to assist my niece making peach pie today.  You'll find the recipe at the bottom of the posting.  Now let's make pie!  Ask your grown up to preheat the oven to 350 farenheit and get the pie crusts ready.  Put one in the deep dish pan and sprinkle some of the sugar and flour mixture on the bottom.

 Pile the crust high with plenty of ripe, sliced, peeled peaches.  Dump the rest of the flour and sugar mixture on top, and then gently pour on the cream and egg mixture.  You will need to shift the peaches a little to help the liquid to trickle down all over through the peaches.  We sprinkled some cinnamon on top, because we were thinking about my daughter Cammie today, and she likes it like that!

 Add the top crust and press the edges together to seal.

 Now seal them again with your fork.  Prick the top crust a few times and sprinkle a little sugar on top.  Bake for about an hour and a half until hot, golden, and bubbly.

 Mmmmmmmm!  It looks and smells wonderful!

It IS wonderful!!!!!

Mama's Peach Pie

2 pie crusts

1 cup sugar

6 tablespoons flour

8 or more peaches for a deep dish pie

1 egg yolk

1 cup cream or half and half

a sprinkle of cinnamon

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 and a half hours.

Yummy! 

La Refuge de Tavayanne

This is Refuge de Tavayanne.

It is nestled in a beautiful hamlet of old little houses, surrounded by cow and goat pasture.  There is no electricity, (though I did see a few solar panels.)  Look inside.

We had fondu made with the local cheese and drank wine.

The granddaughter of the house played with her two kittens, Lila and Lilo.

I'm coming back in late summer.  I want to have dinner by the light of lamps and candles.

Build a Cardboard Castle

 This is a great rainy day summer project, if you have already collected some toilet paper and paper towel rolls and various small cardboard boxes.  Most of the cardboard is thin enough for a child to cut.  I dismantled all the boxes and turned them inside out to hide the labels, but I think a colorful castle would be nice, too.  See the little round tower on the corner?  That is called a bartizan.  We cut slits in a toilet paper roll to stick it onto the wall.  The skinny white tower to the left is a garderobe....a latrine.  It hangs over the outside wall and empties into the moat, or in this case, into the lake.  The tall towers have merlons, (square blocks which defenders could hide behind,) and crenels, the spaces in between, for shooting at the enemy.

 My son wanted me to work with him.  It was fun to collaborate.  And it was fun to see what he remembered from our last trip to the Chateau de Chillon.  He remembered that people of the middle ages used the water of Lac Leman right outside the castle both for sewage and drinking water...ugh.

 Look at this delightful watermill he made.  It is fun to see what the shapes of the cardboard will suggest.  The watermill is made from some dividers from a box containing jam jars.

 He used my ink brush to add details.

 And he remembered about the shingled catwalks, which are called allures.  Of course, a castle needs defenses, like the cannon you can see above.

 Here are some inspirations for you, pictures from the Chateau de Chillon.

 Look at the sundial on the side of this building.  Do you see those curved supports under the roof?  These projections are called machiolations.  Defenders could drop missiles on attackers from there.

 Can you see the narrow windows, through which defenders could shoot arrows on attackers?  They are called arrow loops, or meurtrieres, which means "murderers" in French.

 We think of castles as being made of exposed stone, like this, but

 this castle had stucco spread over the stones, as shown in the picture above.

 This wooden gallery on top of a wall is the allure.  It is fun to walk in an allure and look down into the courtyards on each side.  Inner courtyards are called baileys, or wards.

This tower on the right is called the keep, or donjon.  It was the last refuge of the castle owners and was very difficult to penetrate.  What kind of castle features are you going to build?

Quilting Time

 I've been working on my nephew's quilt.  I decided to tie the squares in the center section.

  I used embroidery thread of many colors for the ties.  I like how the scraps look in a pile.

 I am now quilting the border.  Threading the needle takes a little longer than it used to!

 Here is what some of the quilting looks like.  It is fun to do swirls and loops and waves.  I will probably add some cursive sleepy words to the quilting.

 I wish I could get the hang of using a thimble.  My poor index finger feels like a pincushion!