It's a quiet evening, after working outside in the 32C humidity. We had our requisite thunder storm already, and it's all toads and frogs having crazy-wild amphibian sex outside now. Last night we had a bit more storm than was expected, total of nearly 11cm of rain in my back-yard gauge from 1900 last night until 0330 this morning, most of it between 2000 and 2330.
It's quiet time. Music playing, drinks. Rooster-butts (cock-tails)....
Margarita for her, mostly. And gin drinks. Just a little something for relaxation.
We ran out of coconut water, and so I improvised a bit with coconut milk... It's a little 'creamy' and the glass needs a little more washing when empty, but it's quite tasty.
shaker
tall glass
ice
jigger (or more! <-;) of -good- gin
1 to 1 1/2 oz. coconut milk
1 oz. lime juice (or sweet-sour mixer)
seltzer water
lime wheels for garnish
In a shaker, muddle the gin and coconut milk until well-mixed. Add ice, lime juice or sweet-sour mix, and shake well. Strain into a tall cocktail glass. Fill the rest of the way with seltzer water, stir, and garnish with a split lime wheel.
On a related note, you can really perk up a basic gin-and-tonic with the addition of a goodly sprig of fresh mint in the bottom of the glass when you add the gin. Bruise the mint leaves, drop them in the bottom, add the gin, stir and bruise the leaves a bit more with a spoon, add ice, splash of lime juice, and tonic water to fill the glass. Garnish with a slice or wheel of lime.
And I have a keg of "hazelnut sour" beer in the basement "keezer" ("keg" "freezer" - a deep-freezer regulated down with a thermostat or timer to be just 'cold' and not 'frozen') from my buddy Nick at the local brew-pub (Growler fills only, no bar service, one person in the place at a time, MASK REQUIRED or you can ruddy bloody well stay in your car and talk to him on the phone! He'll bring your growler out to you.) If you're set up for Sanke tapped kegs, he will sell you one of his production runs for a really good price... His sour beers are exceptional.
We have had kegs of Saison, "007, James Blonde" pale ale, and "Irish Cream Coffee Ale" so far since the lock-down started. (I'm one of only maybe eight? people in the area to whom he will entrust a keg of his amazing brew.) We're going to be working on this hazelnut sour for awhile. You have to respect it, not try to guzzle a bunch as it's almost 10% ABV, and the lactobacillus has been working overtime. Incredibly refreshing when you've been out gardening for a few hours. The acidity just knocks your thirst right back.
Spent the afternoon making "bio-char" out of a lot of brush and branch trimmings from around the yard. One more burn and the entire huge heap should be reduced to just about enough active charcoal to sweeten up my entire vegetable garden raised bed.
There has been so much rain in the last month that we're having problems getting into the back to actually get anything done. Mud-boots are us. Squish.
I finally got the new raised bed finished, filled with really good soil, and all edged with concrete blocks and most of the holes in the blocks filled with soil and a seed or plant in each one. Loads of tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and squash and melons and such. It's looking very good so far. The bugs seem to be under control at the moment, the deer haven't jumped the fence in awhile, and there has been plenty of water.
My wife has been expanding her flower beds enormously. I spade up a section, and she rolls over on her garden stool and gets all the roots and weeds out, then we do it again. Once we get to an edge or border, she decides what she wants to plant in there and we seed or set plants, and then go onto the next section.
Shortly (couple more years, it's a process - not an immediate-gratification thing) there will be VERY LITTLE grass needing to be mowed, and it will all be butterfly and bee and hummingbird habitat. We're doubling the planted space this year, or maybe more. It's going to be about 2/3rds of an acre of food and fruit and flowers, all told, when we're done, and we're something over half-way there.