Don’t remember why, but I started putting ice cubes in Fluffles’ water. He “asks” for ice now.

We enjoyed part of the bluegrass music festival at Highfield Hall in Falmouth. Afterwards, we joined our friends Candy and John who invited us to their family reunion so we could meet her newest grandchild, a beautiful little girl with huge blue eyes. Gorgeous, sunny day with a refreshing breeze to cool us off.We’re still waiting for the driveway to settle enough to drive on. I got a bigger water dish that Fluffles will find more difficult to tip over and two more shepherd’s crooks. Ron put up the hummer feeder further from the house, so we’re hoping some birds will find it. We saw a hawk with a mouse in its talons. Someone or something ate one of the tomatoes!

One of the pumpkins is just about ripe, and I wanted to enter it at the Barnstable County Fair.

Unfortunately, there’s no category for pumpkins. Could be because they are just too large. Also, I would suppose for “real” gardeners, pumpkins shouldn’t be ripe this early.

Maybe next year I’ll get my act together soon enough to enter one or two “plate” vegetables, like beans or tomatoes.

We got our driveway this week. The topcoat went on Thursday morning, so we’re giving it “a few days” to harden.

I decided there’s no good time to do a driveway. In Spring and Fall, stuff lands on it. In Winter, it’s too cold, and in Summer, too hot.

I’ve been working since 5:30 this morning. Made oatmeal and coffee, then started cleaning up the street (there were blobs of asphalt for about 30 feet in front of the house), watering and transplanting. Moved the big liatris to the back garden and the yarrow to the front. The liatris was actually two plants.

Ron and I loaded up the truck for the transfer station. We’ve been working on laundry as well.

John and Candy dropped by so John could give Ron a consult on replacing the light by the slider. We found this fixture for $2 at a yard sale. Ron did a fantastic job, and it looks great.

He also bought me a Cuisinart food processor this week! More on that later.

We put some of Ron’s “treasures” on the walls as well, a great “Buffalo Insurance Company” sign and a beautiful buffalo plate.

This afternoon, after the transfer station run, Ron went back to Edgewater to fix Peter’s lawnmower. I ran a couple of errands.

We are planning a quiet evening to recupe, since we have plans for tomorrow.

We’ve bought local oysters at Coonamessett Farm a couple of times this summer, and I’m getting pretty good at shucking them with Ron’s big knife.

We waited a year for this: first time out, at the Falmouth Gun Club’s annual open house for families, Robert hit 5 of 7 clay targets!

Peter and the grands came over for a cookout tonight: hot dogs, tuna for Emme, steak, corn, watermelon and watermelon cake. It was nice enough for all of us to eat outside, which was a pleasant change.

I cleaned the house, food shopped, went to the hardware store, put fresh mulch on the front garden, deposited a check, did some ironing (including the flag that we put up yesterday) and trimmed the front bushes. Made a nice omelet for breakfast with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and some rosemary from Coonemesett.

Getting a little worried about the lack of rain.

I finished the new garden yesterday. Put fresh mulch on about half of it today. Fluffles was guarding a file folder, I think it might have been Ron’s. What a good cat!

Unfortunately, we found out too late that the big annual Fourth of July party in Wareham was happening this year on the Third.

We had melon and proscuitto for breakfast, steak on a stick for lunch and oysters for dinner(!) Ron and I were able to shuck them pretty easily with one of his utility knives.

Ron changed Fluffles’ litter; I did laundry and changed the sheets. I moved some things around the second bedroom so we could put Ron’s new file cabinet next to his desk. I like this arrangement a lot.

We attended the PowWow and did a transfer station run with our stuff and Edgewater’s.

I picked up a new flag holder at the Flag store in Davisville, and Ron put it up after I reinforced the sleeve of the made-in-China US flag.

I finished the front garden! Carpet rose, Joe Pye weed, sedum, Bee Balm, lavender, Forget-Me-Nots, Alyssum, phlox, yarrow. We should have color throughout the season.

Stick a fork in us.