UNSETTLED SUNDAY

Did I mention that Scott is home?  He's returned from three weeks on Staniel Cay and we are all settling in, remembering what we liked, and didn't like about each other.  For instance - Jack Russell likes to sleep behind Scott's knees.  I do not like this practice and cannot tolerate it, (Jack has porcupine hair) but Scott doesn't mind at all.  So Jack is happy.  Harley adores Scott, so he is exceedingly happy and vocalizes this at every opportunity.  I like Scott pretty well myself, but I'd forgotten how high maintenance he is.  You know, he wants Breakfast.  And Lunch.  And he keeps looking at ME as the source of his sustenance!  Tonight we collaborated on dinner - warm water lobster and mahi mahi - all caught on the Cay and frozen and flown home.  I split and baked the lobster tails and then went to work stuffing them.

I used shallot, garlic and baby bella mushrooms - to this I added the lobster chunks, light cream and good sherry.  The crumb mixture is a simple parsley and butter and Ritz cracker combo.  Simple and delicious and FRAGRANT!  Scott went to work on the mahi mahi fillets - covering them with olive oil, onion, red pepper, carrot shavings, red cabbage, seasonings (he won't reveal these) and asparagus from the garden - the very first spears.  They were tucked into aluminum packets and grilled.  They landed on a bed of balsamic rice.

The kitchen smells really amazing - I wish that there was some way to convey these aromas.  It was exciting to cut the first asparagus.  I'd waited for Scott to return and a few had gone by, but who can complain?

But there were some 'unsettling' aspects of this weekend.  Maybe you are thinking - what is WRONG with this woman!!  I know, things seem pretty cozy around here, and, for the most part they are, they really are.  I am not complaining - I'm just sayin' . . . I realized that I was experiencing deep envy - decidedly so, of the people who were participating in Sock Camp.  I really really REALLY wanted to be there.  I talked about it a lot, and Scott nodded, but uncomprehendingly.  He knows that I am passionate about my knitting, but he cannot relate to the words.  It's the same with the gardens - they exist on two planes.  There is the earthly vision with its needs and demands.  And then there is the garden that I carry inside of me, in my mind, where potatoes grow without beetle infestation and delphiniums never collapse under the weight of a sudden July storm.   


The 'New Dawn' rose, which had arrived earlier in the week, was planted today.  I chopped up a banana peel and added some good compost to the hole.  It doesn't look like much, does it?  Wait.  New Dawn is exuberant and she never lets one down, from her beautiful ballerina-pink blossoms to her shiny green foliage, she makes a safe haven for my birds and a shoulder to climb over for the clematis.

The warm weather that we experienced last week has encouraged all kinds of growth.  Two years ago I installed a peony border which lines the driveway.  In it I have planted my favorite varieties including one whose name I do not know.  She is blood red, and I can hardly wait to introduce you!  Three fat buds ...

I pulled out my sock UFO's. I convinced myself that I COULD be a sock contender IF I went to Camp!  And then I previewed this post and realized, once again, that I have more than enough to be grateful for.  And so I give thanks.