intertext

My friends B&J came over for dinner last night, bringing with them their teenage dog, Lucy. I made a fancy version of what my mum called "cheese pudding" and the magazines call a "strata" and seem to think is only for brunch. I like eggy cheesy things at any time of day, and B&J are vegetarians, so it seemed like a nice light supper dish. I soaked bread in milk and lemon zest and tarragon, then added beaten eggs, mushrooms, (ETA gruyere cheese, of course) and chopped asparagus and baked it. I made a salad with leaves and chopped red pepper and sliced baby carrots and grapes and nutty sprinkles from Thrifties, dressed with lime infused olive oil and good balsamic vinegar. We finished off my shortbread and also had some of lidocafe's almond cookies with our coffee. It was all very good. Oh, and we also had a lovely Australian Chardonnay, the name of which I must endeavour to remember so that I can get it again.

This morning I woke with a sore throat and scratchy eyes and a bit of a headache - cold looming? I hope not. I made turkey soup which is just now simmering on the stove, and I shall have some for my lunch. While cutting up the carcass for soup I packed up two more meals of turkey in gravy for weeks to come and a bag with half the carcass so that I can make soup again in a couple of weeks.

Otherwise just puttering and doing the usual domestic things. Clearing Clio's toilette area has become more pleasant lately (this may be TMI except for cat lovers... be warned). She used to go outside mostly, but recently has decided that being an indoor cat is where the action is. This has meant heavier use of litter box, and we were having trouble finding litter that she would use. She seemed to be okay peeing in what I gave her, but she was persistently pooping on the floor, which was tiresome. I decided in the end, partly on kp's advice, to make her another litter box to poop in, and situate it (as a hint) on the patch of floor that she used to poop on, but although she always had liked the plain clay litter, you don't seem to be able to get it any more, and she didn't seem to like the clumping kind to poop in and in any case it's almost impossible to get it without scent, and it's apparently deadly for the environment. So I decided to try one of those environmentally friendly cedar ones, this made by the same company that makes the enzymatic cleaner I use. Success!! Now she's using that both for peeing and pooping: no more poop on the floor, it scoops fairly well, so works for both functions, it smells nice in a natural way, no more horrible scented environmentally unfriendly other stuff... Yay. Domestic happiness turns on such things as pleasant-to-maintain cat litter and a satisfied cat.

Now that I've been spending so much time in the garden, I'm ready to show it off a little. Here's what it looks like today, in a shot taken from my back deck. If you look very carefully, you'll see Clio-the-cat sitting on the path at the center left of the photo.

You are looking at alchemilla mollis (the green frothy stuff), perennial geraniums (the light pink and purpley blue clumps), japanese iris, a pink peony, Tiffany rose, centranthus (red valerian and a white one - the white frothy stuff). Obviously, I'm fond of frothy stuff. The orange rose in the background at the top right is "Royal Sunset" climbing variety, and if I could have just one rose that would be it. In the bed at the very top, the white mound is parahebe caractacus; at the very back are more geraniums, more alchemilla mollis (self sown), and you might just be able to make out an astrantia, pale pinky white in the top left. That bed is partial shade, whereas the main perennial bed is mostly full sun.

I bought a new camera on Friday. It was an indulgence, but I have been saving up for it, and I've been having a tough go of it this past few months - no, I'm not going to talk about that in here, but take my word for it! So I think I deserve it, and I'm going to enjoy spending the rest of the summer playing with it. Here's a sample - my cat Clio (named after the muse of History, not the Disney character, who in any case spells it differently).



She thinks I've put far too many pictures of Those Horrible Hairy Creatures in here - she knows, anyway that she's vastly superior to them; can't you tell?

This afternoon (being Sunday) I'm going to plant phase three lettuces and other salad greens and probably pull more weeds. A nice veal casserole, with tarragon and lemon, is simmering in the slow cooker so as not to have the oven on (summer has finally arrived in what has so far been cool and grey Victoria) and will be eaten with new potatoes and asparagus later. I'm reading HP6 slowly, with pleasure so far.