Happy Labo(u)r Day!!

I hope everyone has had a nice holiday weekend. Although we have been fighting oppressive heat, heavy rains, and migraines, we still managed to have a little fun. 

We bought new starts for our fall garden -- arugula, chard, cilantro, and lettuces. Lisa already snuck a few into the carport garden, and we'll probably put the rest in the raised bed.

With all this rain we've been getting:

...our front garden has been doing really well. The alyssum couldn't take the heat but everything else is flowering like crazy. Our purple grass is 10x the size when we planted it in the spring!

It has been fun to watch the butterflies -- they are everywhere this year. So pretty!

And look -- our passionflower finally bloomed! Lisa didn't even believe it was truly a passionflower. Now it is using our serviceberry and our house as a trellis, but it is so pretty that we'll let it get away with that for a little longer.

Lisa's mom introduced us to kale smoothies back in July, and now we are hooked.  They don't look appetizing, but they are so good. We can even use our own apples in it. Mmmm, liquid veggies....

Being a long weekend and mostly stuck inside can only mean one thing:  lots of excessive baking. Lisa made these beautiful baguettes yesterday:

And we have already eaten two of them. One we ate almost immediately with the blood orange olive oil we bought in Victoria (yummy). Today we used the second to make these delicious sandwiches:

Brie, ham, apples (our own), thyme (our own) on a crunchy baguette. Add a glass of Perrier and we had ourselves a nice Paris lunch! I know you are jealous.

Shortly after lunch, Lisa exclaimed that she had been doing dishes all weekend and what in the world have we been making? I proceeded to list off all the culinary delights in the past 48 hours or so: pancakes, granola bars, baguettes, pizzas, frozen yogurt, ham & brie sandwiches, and a peaches & cream pie. That'll make a lot of dishes.

Finally, some funny pet photos. Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day!!!

Vivian actually looks like she's cowering...

We call this "stranded walrus pose"