Life Between the Paperwork and the Garden Hose
- Wine & Whiskey
- 10 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By August, the heat and humidity have usually worn me down enough that I'm starting to look forward to cooler days. This summer has been especially hot and dry, and keeping up with watering alone has felt like a part-time job. Still, life goes on around here, and August has been a mix of work, projects, time with friends, cottage guests, gardens and, as always, plenty of good food.
One of Tom's bigger projects this month was replacing the exhaust system on the motorhome. What sounded fairly straightforward turned into quite a project, but he got it done - which was good timing because the motorhome was about to go right back to work.
We had a big work trip that took us through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont, with four different assignment locations before heading home. Trips like this are exactly why the motorhome works so well as our mobile condo and office. Tom can stack several assignments together into one trip rather than making multiple individual day trips. I drive while he does paperwork, we stay overnight wherever the work takes us and usually manage to mix in a little fun and relaxation along the way.
We spent one night in Connecticut and another in Vermont, and even on a work trip we still eat pretty much the way we do at home. One night's dinner was pork chops cooked in the cast iron skillet with fresh peaches and a splash of bourbon. It sounded a little fancy for a campground dinner, but it was actually incredibly simple - and delicious.
Back home, there was plenty going on too. Our neighbor had a birthday, which gave me a good excuse to make a homemade birthday cake and a steak dinner.
We also met up with Mar Mar, who recently married, and this was our first time getting together with them as a married couple. We had a lovely evening at The Breeze in Gilford, catching up over dinner and enjoying a summer night out.
Meanwhile, the hot, dry summer continues. Watering has become one of the recurring jobs of summer. Irrigating our entire property simply isn't practical, so I've been concentrating on the gardens and the areas we actually use. We've even been watering the grassy area around the porch and barn. It may seem a little ridiculous to water grass during a dry summer, but those are the places where we spend our time, and we'd rather sit and walk on green grass than dried-up straw (as it was last year).
This is the sad “way back” lawn, which we haven't been watering, compared to the grass around the barn where we've been watering just enough to keep it green (photo down below).
It is basically a desert, and I have to admit, it saddens me. I know having a lush green lawn isn't particularly important, but this isn't about having a perfect lawn. We use this area. It's where the dogs play and where we like to sit under the trees in the late afternoon. When the grass is green, it's a cool, comfortable place to spend time. Right now, the scorched ground just makes the whole area feel dry and dead.
This summer has also been a bit of a gardening lesson. The drought has made it very clear where I need to improve the soil and where the gardens need a better layer of mulch. That's going on the fall list, when working outside is much more pleasant anyway. Compost, shredded leaves and improving the garden beds will be a priority.
Despite the dry conditions, I've managed to have enough flowers blooming throughout the summer to keep bouquets in the house. They may not have been the most spectacular gardens we've ever had, but being able to walk outside and cut flowers for the table is still one of the best parts of growing them.
August also brought us to the end of the peak summer rental season at the cottage. We'll continue to have guests through late summer and fall, but the stretch of back-to-back rentals and constant turnovers is winding down. I enjoy taking care of the cottage and our guests, but I'm also ready for the slightly slower pace that comes with fall.
In the kitchen, focaccia and pizza continue to be regulars. After plenty of experimenting, I think I've finally settled on recipes for both that are keepers. They're quick, reliable and don't require much planning, which means homemade pizza or focaccia can happen without turning it into an all-day project.
There were a couple of other successes this month too. I made blueberry crumble bars using a combination of cooked and fresh blueberries, which gave them a jammy blueberry layer along with the flavor of fresh berries.
I also tried a pork meatball recipe with a peanut butter sauce that was delicious.
I've been adding the recipes we really like to the recipe page on the blog as PDFs, so they're easy to print without all the extra commentary that usually comes with online recipes. If I've made something, tweaked it to the way we like it and decided it's worth making again, that's the version I want to save.
And The Nosey Gardener is still noseying around other people's gardens. I've continued filming garden tours this summer, visiting real gardens and talking with the people who created and care for them. It's still my favorite part of making videos - seeing what other gardeners are doing, hearing their stories and sharing gardens that don't have to be perfect to be interesting.
So that's August so far: work trips, motorhome projects, birthdays, garden tours, cottage guests, a lot of watering, good food and time with people we enjoy.
As always, thanks for following along here and for subscribing to our YouTube channel. We appreciate you being part of our little corner of the internet. Let us know in the comments what you've enjoyed most about summer — or are you like me and ready for some cooler fall days?
Comments