Harvest

With Keelyn's help, we have harvested our first grown- from -seed tomatoes.
The seeds were started in Florida this spring by our neighbor Len. Grown in a large terra cotta pot, this very strong plant has required full sun and LOTS of water. We are anxious to try our first tomato in a sandwich! Keelyn is also helping with the picking of a handful of cherry and yellow pear tomatoes. We eat those for snacks.

My girlies

My four (Lisbeth included) Haarhoff girlies have arrived at the beach. A hot day today, we spent the entire day at the beach playing in surf that has reached 70 degrees. Tonight it has rained again :-) so we are watching movies and TV. Tomorrow: more beach!!! Plus, there is a long list of things we want to do in just a few short days.

Ladies who lunch

Here we are.....Elaine, Lee and me...all recent HAPPY retirees from the Health Department where we worked together for many years. Elaine is vacationing here this week, Lee lives near Millsboro and has a good man in her life. She brought her photo album and we enjoyed seeing pictures of Lee and Joe together. It was a very enjoyable catch-up time!

Birthdays and rainbows

We celebrated Eva's 9th birthday today at Aunt Becky and Craig's pool. It was a perfect day for a pool party...warm and muggy. Yummy food and lots of time for swimming as all the cousins (minus Will who is not convinced that a pool full of water is as fun as ocean waves) demonstrated their swimming and diving skills. And then Eva shared her cupcake birthday cake....yum!

Once we arrived home to a brief rainstorm we looked up and saw this full rainbow!

House tour

Day 2 of the Bethany Beach house and cottage tour found us touring six homes, all very unique and with some decorating ideas we will try to incorporate into our own homes.

Picture on upper left: Jenni and I look at tour book to make a plan of action.

Upper Right: Pink arrows show the way.

Lower left: Booties required to wear over our shoes into each house.

Lower right: One of our favorites was Delaware's 1st certified "green house", built in 2008.

New toy

Look what Will got me! It's a 4 gallon pull-along water sprayer on wheels to expedite my watering chores in the neighborhood. Though it did rain last night, my watering duties will begin again soon since the sun and humidity returned during the day. Thanks, Will....Moppy is happy to have such a useful new toy!

Pickles

While on the Cove this weekend with Dave and AM and the gang, the girls and AM made pickles (I stirred the vinegar, sugar and spices.) We may have a winning jar of pickles! They are very crunchy and stay cold in the refrigerator. While accomplishing this task, AM and I reminisced about our canning experiences with our moms and grandmothers in hot kitchens in mid-summer. The canning endeavor took a week in Ma's kitchen and resulted in many jars of beans, peaches, applesauce, piccalilli, catsup and yes, PICKLES.