Today was the first day since the middle of last week that it was warm enough to eat on the front porch. (Note the mid-summer date!) The kids and I happily returned to enjoying our home-cooked meals and freshly picked berries on the checkered table cloth--it felt like summer again!

I have spent the last couple of days harvesting and preserving some of the herbs from the back yard, and I figured out how to make peppermint tea from the mint in the garden--it is heavenly!

The kids and I worked in the Dowling garden this morning. We dug up all but four of the remaining basil plants to bring home for more full-sun exposure and picked what looks like might be just about the last of the raspberries and black raspberries of the season.

At home this afternoon we repotted the basil, weeded all the gardens, and watered like crazy.