The day started out really early, as I mentioned on Monday, having dropped Lloyd off at the airport. By the time I got to work at 7:30 it was warming up quite a bit. The official high reached that day was 32'. Unfortunately the air conditioning at work malfunctioned - overworked I suppose. Trouble is with all those big windows in front it didn't take long to really warm up. By the time I left for lunch at 1:30 it was 30.2' in the showroom. Fortunately my lunch was well timed because by the time I got back at 2:30 it had been fixed and was starting to cool off.
I had called Brenda during the day and we made our plans for the evening. As soon as I got home from work and my chores were done, she picked me up and we went over to Lakeside Beach. What a treat on such a hot day. There were still people there but many were leaving after having spent the entire day I'm sure. But it's such a long beach it's never what you would call 'busy'. We parked our stuff and our chairs and headed for the water. I found it a bit chilly at first but then I'm really wimpy when it comes to the water. Once in, though, it was wonderful! The water really wasn't what you could call cold and some spots were actually very warm. depending on the depth. The nice part about Lakeside is it's quite shallow for a fair distance out so there's no chance of me drowning (my non-swimming ability is legendary at the Guelph YMCA - as is my friend Nancy's - but that's a story left for another day).
It was so refreshing and a great way to end a very warm day. Of course cheese and crackers, nacho chips, salsa and a bottle of wine didn't hurt either. After a long walk along the beach to check out the far side I've never been to, we headed out. We spent a bit of time driving around looking at some of the cottages then headed home. Tea and strawberry crepes ended our night.
Tuesday was a much nicer day - still warm but not such high temperatures and no humidity. There was even a breeze. This made for a great night to make jam. I had a huge bowl of strawberries in the fridge that needed tending to. I didn't want to make just ordinary strawberry jam so did some research. I came across several recipes for Strawberry Jam with Balsamic Vinegar and Black Pepper (Fran would like this one!! - but again, that's another story left for another time, but I did think of her as soon as I saw the recipe)
Brenda came over to help (at least that's our excuse for getting together and drinking strawberry daquiries and eating mini hamburgers). The first batch went together well but we found it just tasted like strawberry jam. We couldn't really taste the vinegar or the pepper. The second batch had a significant increase in both vinegar and pepper and I think this one worked out much better. You can really taste the pepper although not so much the balsamic.
The third batch was a regular strawberry jam recipe with some Grand Marnier thrown in but again, I really can't taste it but maybe Lloyd will - he has a much better palate than I do.
All in all it was a successful venture. I gave Brenda a jar of each to take home and try and I'm taking one in to my boss to try as well as she volunteered to be a guinea pig too.
Best go and get my chores done. The chickens are much happier outside but it will be interesting to see how they've fared last night. It's the coolest it's been but they now have most of their feathers so they should be fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment