...a "Pat's eye view".

click image to enlarge
For the first weekend in a long while, I woke up with absolutely nothing on the agenda. How glorious! Wandered out to the back yard with coffee and camera in hand, sat in my favorite chair, breathed deep, and took in the morning. Today is promising to be a hot one, the tail end of our Indian Summer. I'm not one for any day above 78, and this one should be building to the 90's. So with that in mind I settled in to enjoy the cool beginnings of the day. Daydreaming about the pumpkins and falling leaves to come, I picked up my camera and took some last summer shots of the garden. I decided to shoot only what I could see from my chair. A "Pat's eye view".
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

...evening rain and a double rainbow.

Taken at 8:00 this evening, after a light summer rain.

... a bouquet from my garden.

"People from a planet without flowers would think
we must be mad with joy the whole time
to have such things about us."
- Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

...Panzanella.

The weather here is gorgeous and in the low 80's. I guess you would call it our Indian Summer. The air though, truly smells like fall. Sadly, this morning, I picked almost the last of my heirloom tomatoes. There are just a few still green on the vine, smaller than the rest and slowly taking their time to ripen. I think, like the rest of us, they are hanging on hoping for a bit more summer.

Panzanella

3/4 pound day-old crusty peasant-style whole-grain bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups)
4-5 large heirloom tomatoes (about 1 pound), cut into 1 inch cubes
3/4 cup sliced peeled cucumber
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
10 fresh basil leaves, shredded
8 0z. fresh mozzarella cut into cubes (optional)
In a serving bowl stir together the bread, the tomatoes, the cucumber, the onion, the oil, the vinegar, the basil, the mozzarella, and salt and pepper to taste until the salad is combined well.

...strawberries in September.

What a treat to find these in my garden at the end of summer. No bigger than my thumbnail, they pack a huge punch and taste like a burst of strawberry candy. Mother Nature is proof that big things really do come in small packages.