Early Fireworks and Heat

Many of the towns in our area are having the fireworks celebrations on July 6th. Winona Lake chose to shoot theirs off last night, June 29th. Preceding the fireworks was a concert by the Symphony of the Lakes orchestra.

We took our lawn chairs and made ourselves comfortable for the concert in a big grassy area where the Billy Sunday Tabernacle used to stand. It was near 90 and steamy; everybody sighed ah and smiled at each other any time a breeze came up. 

 The program was titled Salute to America. It included the national anthem and an armed forces salute playing the songs of the various branches of the military, inviting those who had served to stand. Not as many as in past years since many of the WWII guys have died.

The rest of the songs fit into a theme of what makes American music unique. Jazz (Duke Ellington songs), Copland's variation of the Shaker melody from Appalachian Spring, songs from Oklahoma, Sousa march, and a John Williams piece from E.T. representing cinematic music.

 After a rousing rendition of Stars and Stripes Forever, folks picked up their chairs and/or blankets and headed toward the Boathouse Restaurant next to the water. In years past, you could see the pyrotechnics reflected in the water since they are shot from barges in the lake. It has been several years since we attended (we can see some of the high ones from our house), and we were disappointed that the barges were further south behind the buildings. We would have been better off to go to the town park. Still, it was a beautiful sight in the sky.

The concert ended about 9:45. The official fireworks didn't start until 10:15. It doesn't get dark here until around 10 p.m. However, there were some very nice fireworks as we waited for the big show. A man in our church lives on the point next to the canal entrance. Every year he shoots off a lot of fireworks prior to the official show. I was amused at the comments around us. Visitors thought this was the official program with a 15 minute pause for the grand finale. My husband asked Jim how expensive his pre-show fireworks were last night. He said $1000 but that somebody else paid for them this year. 

I expect to hear booms in our neighborhood this week into next weekend as people shoot off their purchases.

This afternoon at 4 p.m. our electricity went off. According to the Grace Village staff, they were informed by the electric company that a transformer in the area was out. Someone said power was off all along Highway 30, too. It was 88 degrees outside. It was off until 5:10 p.m., then around 6 p.m. we had about 5 minutes of outages with intermittent surges of power. Not too good for the computer, but the protective power strip kept it from being fried. Right now around 8 p.m. the AC runs once in awhile. Hope it keeps working thru the night.

The Celebration Continues

 

Yesterday I attended the Grace Village monthly birthday/anniversary party. Those celebrating anniversaries choose a rose. Since I love pink roses, I took that rather than the red or yellow ones. One couple was celebrating their 71st anniversary. Amazing!

My yellow lilies finally have some buds. My neighbors have full blooms, but for some reason mine usually lag several weeks behind. My over-one backdoor neighbor has hydrangeas blooming. They are a lime green when they first open. I like them when they turn white which should be next week probably. She already said I could have some to put in a vase.

I planted some Asiatic lilies several weeks ago. They are loosing petals. Very pretty but short-lived re flowering. According to the internet once they do that I should deadhead so the plant puts energy into the bulb not into producing seeds. They are perennials and should come back next year.

I gave my potted geranium some plant food a few weeks ago. I cut off the spent bloom stalks Monday. New ones are opening every day now. It is going to be very hot the next 10 days, with increased humidity as well. We have our air conditioner on now though we are using it infrequently. That will probably change. I have been using a top sheet on the bed, no blanket.

In a few weeks I will go to the farmers' market or Sweet Corn Charlie to see what kind of produce is ripening. We did have some decent sweet corn from Kroger last week. 

Enjoying all that summer offers.

Aphids and Ants

I have two "volunteer" sunflower plants this year. Oddly, they are spaced apart almost as though I planned it though God is the gardener in this case. I had one volunteer plant last year.

I'm not sure if it is all of the rain we have been getting or if these sprouted weeks earlier than last year's plant, but these are about 7 feet high currently. The flower part has started but of course not opened nor turned yellow yet.

Because these are right next to my den window, I can see them well. I noticed ants on the leaves, but the ants didn't seem to be wandering all over but clustered in small groups. Strange I thought. Now I am seeing more clumps so I did an internet search. Apparently, I must have aphids on the leaves, and the ants eat the honeydew excreted by the aphids. Since they don't want the aphids scattering all over, the ants "herd" them. Supposedly the aphids gain the benefit of being protected from predators by the ants. This relationship is considered mutually beneficial. So far the leaves don't look sickly and there are no ants on the upper leaves near the forming flower. Actually, one of the plants has only one leaf with ants, the other has 4-5. If the sunflower plant looks like it is being overrun by insects, I will have to figure out how to get rid of them. For now, the cowboy ants continue their herding and feasting.

Disrupted

We had our carpeting cleaned this morning by Cook's Carpet Care out of North Manchester. This is an Amish-owned family business. Each of the cleaners presented us with a card bearing his name: Alan Cook and Brian Cook. I guess they really are part of the family. I am pretty sure we had at least one of these guys before. They are so polite and very professional. As Alan measured the carpet footage to calculate the bill, Brian went right to work spraying spot cleaner on the dirtier places. Each knew exactly what to do and started right in. They arrived at 9:15 and left a little after ten.

We spent part of yesterday and then this morning moving some of the lighter furniture out of the way: tables, lamps, hamper, rocking chair, ironing board. We put most of those in the bathrooms or the garage. The hardest pieces to move were the dining table and chairs and the love seat. We half carried, half shoved the love seat into the kitchen. We made a little nook for ourselves in the sun porch with a place to eat and two more comfortable chairs to sit in for reading or using the ipad for mail and games.

This is the first time we have had the area rug cleaned. It seems to be drying faster than the wall-to-wall carpeting which surprises me because it has deeper pile. Still, we won't be able to replace the moved furniture until at least this evening some time. We have the ceiling fans going and the central system fan running on manual (no heat or cooling). But it is a gray overcast day. No warm sun pouring thru the windows to speed things up. 

We left the recliners in the living area but turned sideways away from the dirtiest spots. When the Cooks offered to move them and then put Styrofoam blocks under them (the chairs in the den as well), I asked at the end of the cleaning if they would move the love seat out of the kitchen and put blocks under it. That makes using the kitchen like normal. In previous times we had to work around the love seat. They made the lifting of the love seat look like child's play. These are strong young men. We will have to manage the dining room set by ourselves again, but at least we eliminated the heavy love seat from our task list. We will be able to sit in the recliners to watch TV tonight.

I had the stain repellant sprayed on everything but the bedrooms this time. They even put it on the area rug. Lets hope that helps us clean up future spills more easily. Our carpeting is 9 1/2 years old and shows wear, especially at the seaming. I doubt it will be replaced during our residency so we need to take good care of it.

My husband has worked in the garage today on his projects, and I spent about an hour in the Grace Village library processing some books and shelving others. You can start to feel pretty limited space-wise when cooped up in a small area, but we are managing. Not doing some of the typical things for a Monday though, our schedules slightly disrupted. By tomorrow everything should be back in place.

Celebrating 42 Years

My husband doesn't routinely give me flowers on our anniversary. A few decades ago I told him that since flowers last such a short time, skipping the traditional bouquet would be OK. However, at 11 a.m. June 11th the doorbell rang and there stood a delivery person with a vase of flowers for me.

 He asked the florist shop to put together a bouquet that would last longer than just roses, though there are a couple of roses here.

For our evening meal, we drove to Fort Wayne to dine at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. There was one in Dallas, but we never visited it. When this restaurant opened in Fort Wayne, he decided we would make a special effort to go. Our 42nd anniversary seemed a good time.
We sat in a banquette (booth with surrounding "wall") for two. The seating staff put some rose petals around the candle. This alerts the waiter and other staff that the couple is celebrating an anniversary. We received many good wishes from the wait staff.

The steak choices are plentiful. Mostly from $40 on up. I had the petite filet mignon. My husband had the ribeye (16 ounces!). There are some non-beef entrees (salmon, veal), but why skip steak when eating at a steakhouse. The menu is ala carte. The appetizers, salads, soups, and side dishes have a charge. I ordered the harvest salad which was terrific. A mixture of greens, small tomatoes, roasted corn, goat cheese, French fried onion bits, bacon, dried cherries, spiced pecans all blended so well. Each bite was interesting. It was dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Hubby had a bowl of lobster bisque. The waiter told us that the sides were generous enough that two could share. We shared potatoes au gratin which I found underwhelming. I had kept some of my salad to eat with the steak, and my husband ordered grilled asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. I did eat a bit of his asparagus.

While I visited the ladies room and the assistant waiter wrapped half of the ribeye for a to-go bag, my husband perused the dessert menu. I felt the waiter could have told us we would be getting a small dessert gratis to celebrate. He did not. We ordered a piece of carrot cake which could have served 3 people easily. It was a towering hunk of cake. We brought half of it home along with the free desserts (cup of chocolate mousse and a mini carrot cake) which were presented to us while we were eating the cake.

The manager brought us an anniversary card with a $25 gift card which is good for 6 months. Maybe we will try lunch (only on Fridays) and sit on the patio. Though very nice, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is expensive.

As we drove home with our left-overs, we passed farmers in the fields taking advantage of the beautiful weather to plant their fields.

We had a steak sandwich for lunch today, the mini desserts this evening, and the large piece of carrot cake will probably be consumed tomorrow night. Still enjoying our anniversary goodies.

Beautiful Weather

We are having beautiful weather now. Sunny days around 78-80 with nights around 60. We have had the windows open to let in the fresh air. 

This morning after splitting a Special Imperial omelet with my husband at American Table, we drove to Lincoln Park subdivision for the annual garage sale. I didn't find anything to buy, but walking around the neighborhood was pleasant. 

My irises have finished blooming. Now the knockout roses are in flower. The stems are very short and often more than one bud on a stem, but I found a few to put in a vase.

I had an early morning medical appointment in Fort Wayne yesterday. Afterwards I shopped at Kohl's and Macy's. In Macy's Last Act discount section, I found a dress for $4.96. It is a bit shorter than I normally wear; it skims the top of my knee. If I feel too self-conscious wearing it, I will wear it with tights or maybe with leggings as a top.

With its darker colors and long sleeves, it is probably best for spring or autumn wear. The bodice is smocked.

I started one of the jigsaw puzzles I bought at FOL sale in North Webster. Inside was a folded up paper with a note that said piece chewed on by our cat. The puzzle is turning out to be very hard and at 1000 pieces bigger than I like. I may give it another week, but I have done the easiest parts (the birds). At least next week is not very busy for me though I plan to get my second Shingrix shot.

Soon it will officially be summer. The forecasts don't show very hot weather for the next 10 days but some rain. 

Smoky and Smokin' Hot

We have had hazy milky white skies for several days. The news report is that the smoke from some Canadian wildfires in Alberta has traveled all the way across to the northern tier of states of the United States.

Spicy hotness is in Warsaw now, too. We went to the Asian Cajun
restaurant for lunch today. The Cajun part mostly is a seafood boil, crawfish, catfish, and some blackened entrees. This place just recently opened for Sunday lunches. It opens at noon so we came home from church, waited awhile, then drove over there. The restaurant sits next to Center Lake and is designed so that no matter where you sit, you have a water view. There is an outside deck, too.

 I had shrimp stir fry. Good, but not outstanding. The vegetable medley was different: cauliflower, broccoli, onion, a few slices of carrot, and mushrooms. There were some kind of raisins mixed in too. My husband had chicken curry. Quite spicy he said. Both dishes were served with rice. 

The unexpected dish was the appetizer of spring rolls we ordered. I was expecting something like fried egg rolls but with veggies inside. These were two large long rolls wrapped in an edible see-through cover. Mostly bean sprouts inside, a little cucumber, and whole shrimp laid just under the cover to make a pretty presentation. All fresh stuff, nothing fried. The peanut sauce they served with them was delicious. 

On Sundays they use the dinner menu all day. The waitress told us the weekday lunch menu is the same but with smaller portions. I might go back and try the walleye. The table next to us were eating that fish. But even using the dinner menu, considering the quality of the food and the large portions, the prices were quite reasonable.
The weekday lunch hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Did you watch any of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on television Thursday night? We enjoy this annual event, though rarely know the words and how to spell them. Smokin' hot smart kids. This year it ended in an eight-way tie. I went to bed at 11 p.m. when there were still 9 contestants. I guess it went to midnight. Though it was a little disappointing to not have a single winner, giving 8 kids $50,000 scholarship money was good, and since winners cannot come back the next year, they should have a newer crop of spellers. The 8 were repeats from last year. The foundation kind of wiped the slate clean to inject "new blood" that hopefully will be more interesting to watch next year.