And it feels like mid-August. We have had the most beautiful week of weather, in fact couple of weeks, that it really doesn’t feel like autumn at all. However the colors indicate otherwise. The swamp maples are showing their red leaves now and the colors are fading in the greens and yellows. The picture is our house in Canada taken this weekend. Good friends were out in their canoe and took this for us. You can see how the big birch is turning yellow and the sumac is getting some of the rusty red it gets in the fall.

Walking This Week

Percy and Bean were trying to climb a tree to catch a squirrel. I tried to get the picture when Bean was right up there but they both jumped down. We walked on the Colby-Sawyer Morris trail a couple of mornings this past week. I love the trail but there isn’t any water for the dogs and with the hot weather we really need to be able to stop and let them have a swim and a drink. However, we are currently down a car so when John needs the car I get to walk close to home. We have Jack’s car as our backup car now since Jack took Libby’s car to Denver. I doubt that Jack’s almost 15 year old car with over 250K miles on it really wants to make the drive to Denver anyway. It is happy just to tootle around town going to the dump, the grocery store and to run errands within a 5 mile radius. It might last a couple of more years even.

Sitting in the Sun

We moved the chairs from the backyard to the front yard where we get more sun. It is lovely to sit there and read in the afternoon rather than be inside. At some point we will need to do some landscaping and driveway work but in the meantime we have flowers and grass and lots of sunshine. John has been working on building a window box to put the mums in but he won’t let me put it out until it is painted. Stay tuned, might look a bit different next week. However, the project kept him happy for more than six hours on Saturday. Believe it or not we have oodles of scrap wood in the garage – wonder where that came from?

A Very Happy Sunday

It was a special and very busy Sunday. We started out with hosting the 10am coffee hour at church. While we were doing that Katie was at home making quiche and salad for our lunch with our good friends Jack and Genie who were stopping by on their way home from Canada. It wouldn’t be September without a picture of the four of us somewhere. We have traveled with them to the Maritimes and to Newfoundland and Labrador in recent years as Facebook keeps reminding us so it was very nice to have them to Jenny Lane.

Then it was off to one of our favorite events of the year. A fundraiser concert at Musterfield Farm by Nick’s Other Band. The band was formed with a number of Proctor faculty and has grown over the years. I can honestly say “I knew them when” as I worked with many of them at Proctor. They are wonderful and play all the music that you love to dance and sing along to. We have gone with our friends Sally and David for the last three years and this year was the best, and hottest, yet.

Katie’s Quiche and Beet Salad

I cannot believe I did not take a picture of her quiche or the beautiful beet and goat cheese salad. The picture above however, looks just like her salad did. I found it with the recipe on Allrecipes. She made two crustless quiche, one with bacon, Gruyère cheese and carmelized onions, the other with Italian sausage, tomatoes from our tomato trees and basil. They were delicious. The house smelled wonderful when we came home from church and everything was ready for the Wilmers to arrive. It is totally wonderful to have a chef in the house. We eat well. The photos are what was left of the two quiches. Yummy!

Beet Salad Ingredients

• 4 medium beets – scrubbed, trimmed, and cut in half
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 (10 ounce) package mixed baby salad greens
• 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 ounces goat cheese

We did not make the dressing they suggested we used our favorite Garlic vinaigrette. Directions are simple, cook the beets and cool them. Toast the walnuts with the maple syrup. Place on your favorite greens and toss with dressing. Enjoy!