Shine Like the Sun

What a beautiful day! There couldn't be a nicer day, 70 degrees, sunny and breezy, without a cloud in the sky. I couldn't wait to start it. I was up at quarter of 7 and out to do the laundry by 9. Dolores was just eating breakfast when I came in. Dad and Uncle Ken were doing chores. Jessa wasn't home. She left for college last Thursday and is likely enjoying her new-found freedom. I'm glad she's doing well in college, but I'm going to miss seeing her at home all the time. She's a good kid.

I ran to CVS for eggs while the laundry was in the dryer, brought them home, then went back to Uncle Ken's for the laundry. Unlike last week, there were no problems with the laundry, and it was in and out. I said "hi" to Dolores' daughter and her baby girl May, then went home with my laundry basket.

I put everything away, then had a simple lunch of carrot sticks, peanut butter, and light raspberry yogurt. I did a few chores around the house. Made my bed, prepared my rent, left the rent at Miss Ellie's side of the house, then jumped on my bed and headed to Haddon Township for this week's library volunteering session.

The adult DVDs weren't bad, but the kids' DVDs were absolutely awful. Not only were there a ton of them to return, but the new DVD case only seems to have encouraged more people to just shove items wherever they feel like it. I was able to help several children, too. One little girl was looking for princesses. She was thrilled with Little Mermaid 2 and Barbie and the Magic of the Pegasus. Another girl wanted Thomas the Tank Engine.

There weren't as many regular DVDs to put away today, which may have been just as well. It was too nice to spend all day in the library. After a quick stop at Super Fresh for English muffins (they had the $1.99 whole wheat muffins this time), I waited to get across the now-rush-hour traffic on Cuthbert, then headed for the Newton River Park for a nice, long bike ride.

The park was never so gorgeous. The river sparkled like emeralds in the sun. The leaves and grass are still the brightest green imaginable. They're usually at least a little brown by this time of years after months in the hot sun, but all this rain has had some positive results. I've never seen the trees look lovelier. All the moss and bushes in our front yard are still a vibrant shade of green, too. It's like walking through the Emerald City every time I go in my front door. I feel like Dorothy.

After I got in from my ride, I swept the porch. There was a considerable collection of nuts and parts of nuts after the storms last weekend, and I haven't gotten a chance to clean up after them until today. I don't want to encourage ants again.

After I swept, I took advantage of the unusually cool weather to do something I haven't really been able to do for a while at home - bake! I made a Blackberry-Peach Grunt from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For More Food. The "Grunt" was basically what Betty Crocker calls a cobbler with butter instead of shortening. (Alton does have a cobbler recipe, but it uses pie crust, which I wasn't going to make.) I didn't have enough blackberries, so I added one of those big, fat farm market peaches. Good ol' Alton. It's the best thing I've made in ages, sweet and tender, yet bursting with warm summer flavor. I used to make cobblers a lot in late summer and early fall, using the season fruit after it got cool enough to bake. Cobblers are some of my favorite desserts. Easy to make, and a wonderful way to make use of bruised and/or old fruit.

Also took advantage of the nice weather to make turkey meatballs. I haven't had simple old spaghetti and meatballs in ages. It felt wonderful...a great way to end a lovely day.