food, folks, and views...

In my absence from blogging and work overload the last few weeks, I took a few fun breaks. We helped give a crawfish cookout with 50 pounds of fresh crawfish. Yes, I meant to type 50 pounds. Needless to say, we took home a whole pot of leftovers. Husband ate them on the deck the following day; Khan was eerily interested in the whole process:

That's a look of desirous contemplation if I ever saw one! He took no notice whatsoever of the camera in his face.

In other news, my thumbelina zinnias have done well this year. I still need to figure out how to keep them pretty for longer. I keep planting them because I just love the name: thumbelina zinnias. Any suggestions on keeping zinnias pretty all summer?

Also in terms of our garden, we have discovered the secret to perfectly red, round, juicy, bug-free tomatoes. And how to eat them.

The secret to growing is:

-Put leftover coffee grinds on/in the soil (the ones left in the filter after you brew a pot of coffee). We learned this trick from my parent-in-laws. More on this here and here.

The secret to eating them:

Slice thin and pile onto lightly toasted pumpernickel bread spread with mayonnaise. Salt and Pepper to taste. All the Caprese salad in the world can't beat this classic, down-home combination! We just love the flavor of the sweet pumpernickel bread with the acidic tomatoes.

And last but not least, we've found a new favorite place:

It's a private college campus on the outskirts of Greenville that doubles as a park. We've spent many afternoons there, relaxing and debriefing our weekdays.

I'll leave you with another quote from The Secret Garden:

"It's magic," said Mary, but not black. It's as white as snow."

.........

"Of course there must be lots of Magic in the world," Colin said wisely one day, "but people don't know what it is like or how to make it. Perhaps the beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen until you make them happen. I am going to try and experiment."

Of course, the "Magic" they are speaking of is simply and profoundly LIFE; and nestled as the nucleus of those terms Magic and Life is, in my opinon, the Holy spirit of YHWH.