flowers and friends.

A day of both. Leaving me tuckered out but happy. 

It's late now, so just a brief recount here, on Ocean. Even though honestly, the flowers are at their seasonal best. My apologies to them if I don't give them their enough attention in my post. 

The day begins with the garden. I'm up early -- before 6. I have to be. The schedule is rather tight today. And immediately I plunge into lily picking. Spent flowers, into the bucket, one after another. (Today's total, without even stepping into the roadside bed : 604.)  The mosquito population is still significantly diminished. It's so pleasant to force my way into the dense thicket of lily leaves without having to swat at ravenous bugs.

Here are today's vignettes:

I'm done snipping by 8. Perfect! Just in time to put in an order to Madison Sourdough and to head downtown. Ed is with me for this one: we want to do some market shopping, which is a tiny bit of a challenge because this is the weekend of the Art Fair on The Square, so our Farmers Market has moved east to another venue. No problem! We go there, find our favorite farmers...

.. pick up the absolutely crucial for me tomatoes, along with carrots, flowers and here's a lucky break: currants! One stand has red currants, much needed by me for my food prep today!

What the market doesn't yet have is corn. A bit early, true, but I know that Stoneman's farm -- right up the road from us, is already selling it! Freshly picked!

Out next stops therefore are Madison Sourdough (lunch breads and breakfast croissants)...

... and Stoneman's Farm. And this last stop is pretty exciting for us: last year, the drought ruined most of the corn crop for these farmers. This year? They're expecting a stellar harvest. And it's starting early. Like, right now!

And now we're home and even though I have a lot to do, I insist on that breakfast pause that sets my day on such a good course.

Now, to work. We had invited a couple of friends -- old Ed pals -- for lunch, and that gathering sort of grew, so that in the end we are a group of seven. I had the idea that I would do the exact lunch I ate at Cafe Varenne in Paris on June 29th -- my last day there. I loved it then and if ever there was a season for it -- well now, we are there! And you could not devise an easier meal:

You need perfect tomatoes for it and Snug Haven Farms had perfect tomatoes (before I wiped them just about clean of their initial supply). Next -- a good prosciutto or similar ham. Then a burrata cheese (fresh mozarella with cream). Finally -- freshly shaved Parmesan. I was lucky to find a cider balsamic vinegar which pairs beautifully with this, but honestly, any good balsamic would do. The whole thing is sprinkled with olive oil. Add slices of baguette and voila!

(here, these ingredients)

For dessert? Again, Cafe Varenne's take on a summer Pavlova, which I modified a little but basically stayed true to theirs: I found meringues in a bake shop. That's the first layer. Broken up a little. On top of that -- vanilla ice cream. Then, sprinkled chopped-up fresh fruits (including the red currants, but mostly strawberries and raspberries), and a drizzle of Nina and Ed's homemade strawberry jam. Okay, you could do a red fruit coulis for this, but our first batch jam was pretty runny and thus perfect for the dish. It looked like this:

The friends came and here's the thing -- at least two of them are gardening nuts and so we spent some time walking my flower fields. It's not every day that I have someone to comment on even the distant clematis that I'm so proud of, even as it remains lost in the maze of other more commanding flowers.

(this one)

The afternoon is lovely! Ed has college friends that I leave for him to manage, but these people have morphed into ones that I find entirely pleasurable to spend time with, and rare is the stray mention of some distant unknown to me buddy, so that the afternoon zips by like a speeding train, covering vast expanses of territory and ending with the deep satisfaction that it was a journey well traveled.

But of course, now it's late and the house still needs a straightening hand and so I will end with this thought: it's good to grow flowers almost secretly, in quiet corners of your life. But it's ever so lovely when you open up those doors and let others in. Ever so lovely...