Last weekend, we had our neighbors up for a cookout. I had thought to just leave up my July 4th tablescape, but that holiday was over, and it seemed that a summer theme was in order. So I put my blue and yellow table topper back on the table and added a yellow ceramic basket holding jars with fresh cut hydrangeas.
Sunny summer lemon plates top white dinner plates. Yellow napkins are held with flower pot napkin rings. Everyday flatware, crystal water glasses and individual salt and pepper shakers complete the settings.
The lemon plates were used to serve dessert. I made a half batch of my Christmas Vanilla Sugar Cookies, cutting the cookies into large rounds. These were topped with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream, and then a homemade Chocolate Fudge Sauce was added. Yum!! Click the links for recipes.
I am not sure who this is, I only know it isn’t Oliver or Jack. It may be Charlie, or someone new that has figured out a soft touch lives in the house. Actually two soft touches live here, but My Sweet Babboo doesn’t like to admit that. He sat right were he picked up the sandwich and ate it, without going to any of the normal spots the other squirrels go to.
I checked the wren nest yesterday, and it is empty. There are a few tiny feathers in the nest, and I hope this means that the little ones hatched and fledged while it was just too hot to enjoy the veranda. Seems hard to believe that they could get by for the two weeks it takes to get them big enough to leave the nest without me hearing them once, but I haven’t spent any time out there at all in July. So, I’ll keep that good thought.
On the bird feeder, a young male cardinal is slowly growing in his red color.
A downy woodpecker stopped by too.
Out behind the house on the mountainside, the gladiolas are blooming. There are a bunch of them, planted by squirrels I think.
They actually began blooming some days ago, but I didn’t notice them. Since we do not have a dog anymore, I rarely go out back.
Their pretty peachy apricot color looks velvety.
A stop by the farmer’s market yielded some lovely heirloom tomatoes. I cleaned and sliced some to dry overnight for a Tomato Pie.
Yum!! I made this one with ricotta instead of cream cheese, and added a bunch of fresh basil and fresh parsley cut from my garden. The crust is the one with vodka in the recipe. The alcohol burns off in cooking and the liquid won’t react with flour to make gluten, so the crust is flaky and stays flaky for days.
This youngster is still hanging around the area. I’d guess he is probably close to a year old, and weights about 100-125 pounds. He thinks he can get to the bird feeder but it is too high for him to reach. He jumps up to paw at it, and he caught my eye doing that when I was in the den. I grabbed the camera and went out to shoo him away. They are easy to scare with just some yelling and noise. He posed for a picture before running off. Don’t worry, I was far away from him, using the zoom lens on the camera.
In the garden, I picked the first produce for the season. Some cherry tomatoes and the little pie pumpkin were ripe and ready to come inside.
On Friday, My Sweet Babboo was looking out the kitchen window when he spotted the female turkey. She has been hanging around here for a few weeks now, but this time she had a surprise. She brought her brood of five little baby turkeys with her!
Little spotted fluffballs, aren’t they cute?
They stayed a little while, and weren’t concerned when I went out to the veranda to take some photos.
It was wonderful this week to get to go to a quilt guild meeting, visit with friends not seen for a year, and see the parade of show and tell! Such lovely quilts, and very inspiring to get sewing again. I can’t wait for the Mountain Regional State Fair, and then our guild’s Garden of Quilts Show next year! Later in the week, I had the privilege of being a part of a Quilts of Valor ceremony for husband and wife veterans Bill and Jackie Carden. You may remember her quilt that I quilted, it is the one with the embroidered center, on this post.
Tomorrow I’ll show you the restitch on the Dahlia quilt, and I hope to get farther on the miniature quilt this week. I finished a couple of wonderful books and will have a book review post for you this week too. I’m still working on putting sleeves on quilts while I watch season 3 of Virgin River on Netflix (fabulous series!!), and I did get a bit further on my embroidery project.
What’s going on in your part of the world this week?
From My Carolina Home 
You had a lot of interesting activity on this post. Enjoyed all of it! Thanks for taking the time to share.
so many interesting things going on in your post today. I hope you will be able to continue with in person meetings for quilting. There is so much covid going on in Arkansas again because so many refuse to get vaccinated that I am staying home more again and wearing a mask when I go shopping even though I’m vaccinated. I am getting tired of all this but I feel better to not go to crowded places I do find outside things to do though
Oh, oh, oh – Yellow is my favorite color, that tablescape is my choice for summer! I would love some squirrel planted gladioli in my meadow, especially in that color. Soggy around my house today – over 3″ of rain yesterday, so after a dry June we’re on our way to one of the rainiest Julys. I feel for any farmers who didn’t get their wheat harvest in last week.
You are so blessed to have lots of animals, beautiful garden. My favorite colors blue and yellow table set.
Your table looks so inviting! It would be a joy to dine at it! I love all your wildlife photos! I am surprised you haven’t named the bear yet! The turkey and her babies is so sweet! Homemade hot fudge is the absolute best!
Your tablescape is beautiful with the blues and yellows! Blues and yellows are my favorite colors. In fact, I have some of those same blues in my stash. Hmmm…a project in my future? A bear in your yard! I think I’m happier seeing deer in my back yard. 🙂 Thanks for all the inspiring posts!
I love to say this: The check is in the mail!
Glad to hear “Virgin River” is good. I just finished the second season of “The Good Fight” on Paramount. It was so good. I probably won’t see season three because my 30-day free trial is over and I flatly refuse to pay for anything else.
Your table is gorgeous, as usual, but I can’t get the chocolate syrup recipe from the NYT. I probably don’t need it, anyhow.
Wish I could send you my squirrels and deer and woodpeckers!
I love your lemon tablescape – you’re so creative with those! Fun to see the turkey mama and her babies, too. Will you cook up the pumpkin for something? I have lots of blossoms on my pumpkin vines, but no little pumpkins yet. I’m sure our growing season is much different than yours.
Love your beautiful tablescape! I’m so glad you got to have an in person guild meeting! We ended our year with our zoom meeting this month. We start back in September and will be in person again. Though we had some great zoom meetings and teachers, it’s just not the same as being able to sit and chat with friends and see the show and tell in person instead of a power point of pictures! Great to see all the wildlife too! We had a deer in our yard the past week, the first one we’ve seen in a while, so that was nice. My glads have all bloomed and withered for the year. I’m going to search for that vodka pie crust and see if I can make it keto. I got some fresh tomatoes this week and my son-in-love also is bringing me some from his mom’s, so they will abound and a tomato pie will be perfect way to use them! I hope you have a great week!
Good morning, Thank you for your interesting and beautiful newsletter. Loved it all – the turkeys (the little ones are so cute), your QOV recipients (thank them for their service), beautiful birds, etc. I could fill up the comment section. Fantastic.
You brightened my day and it’s a beautiful one here in Nokomis FL after a heavy rain storm last evening. Several of us are “raising” butterflies and I have one that emerged on this beautiful sunny morning. Many more to come in the days ahead.
Thank you again, and have a lovely day.
Marilyn
Today’s post was so much fun, peppered with great pictures of the goings on in your neck of the woods. Love seeing all the wildlife you catch with your camera. I finished watching the 3rd. season of Virgin River last week, and I didn’t want it to end, but it did, and with another cliffhanger to leave us hanging till the 4th. series, of which I could not find a starting date for!.
Love this post with so much energy! The best part of living in the mountains is watching all of the birds and animals in my backyard without having to go to a zoo. Last week I kept seeing a pair of cardinals going between my crepes and my driveway post. I looked up into the crepe closest to the house and found a nest. Now I know why they were in the area! Earlier in the season, I had a Carolina Wren place her nest under my propane cover. I preferred the nest over the previous year’s wasp nest!
Those lemon plates are wonderful! You add grace and beauty wherever you go, and help us to see it, too.
Such a fun post to brighten our day! I love seeing all the critters.
Looks like you had a lot of fun at your table! So admire your energy Carole! Wondering about your Blue/Yellow Tabletopper…is that a variation on To the Nines? So cute. I am about to start on a Blue/yellow quilt kit with some very similar fabrics and thinking I could make a table topper with the leftovers…
Enjoying the tall flox I rescued from the “velt” out back, and planted in my new bed in front…looks nice with the yellow cannas. Happiest with the “profusion” zinnias I planted last month…they are such fun little mounds of color and the deer do not seem to be attracted to them. Enjoy a peaceful Sunday!
What a great post. I love your lemon tablescape : so bright and cheerful. Look like you had a busy week. Thanks for sharing. Lisa
The baby turkeys are so cute! It must have been really cool to be at a QOV presentation.
We have a family of turkeys in our yard, too. They cruise through in the mornings. The babies are so cute.
There better be another season of Virgin River in the future or I’ll be bummed! The last episode was quite the cliffhanger.
Love, love, LOVE your tablescape, Carole! Sounds like you had a great week.
We watch Virgin River too, I love the whole series. Your wildlife, birds with those lovely colours and baby turkeys, interesting that they are not scared, maybe they know a good thing or two.
Carole, your table is summer fresh and the dessert looks amazing. I love the glads, I had some that bloomed this year. Tomato pie would be wonderful this week!
Your lemon tablescape is beautiful! I looked at your Tomato Pie recipe post…and my mouth started watering!
With zucchinis harvested from my garden, I made the Creamy Zucchini and Pumpkin Seed Soup from the Milk Street Cookbook. It was refreshing and delicious!
I enjoyed your pictures of your wildlife and plants. You have real photography talent!
A fun and heartwarming post! Your table scape looks so refreshing! And that dessert? YUM, just my kind of summer treat. Happy July. Since I’m a July 4 baby, I celebrate July all month with RW&B and lots of flags, too.
What a happy post. It’s nice that the glads will come back. Up here they have to be dug and stored. We had 3.3″ of rain over 21 hours yesterday and have had over 7.5″ in the month of July, making it the 5th wettest July ever. This after having virtually no rain for 8 weeks in May and June. At least it will make the weeds easier to pull. Not much sewing going on here as it gets too hot in the house. I only get to sew when I visit friends with AC.
I bet you really enjoyed the quilt guild meeting after such a long break! I am excited about the fair too, though I’ll not have so much to enter this year, since so many things are still in the works, or completions for gifts. I spent most of the weekend working on the coat, boy is it going slow!
Love all the pictures of your furry and feathered friends. Maybe not the bear so much but he is kind of cute too! Love the color of your gladiolas. Wish they could talk and let you know where they came from.
Your table is so summer pretty! And dessert, yes please! I love the idea of serving the ice cream on a cookie. The turkey family is so cute, but that bear, scary! Have a great week Carole~
Jenna
Good afternoon Carole,
Just had to reply to your latest Sun. chat. Was sitting our on my swing over the weekend and I seen something moving across my front yard and to my surprise it was a mother wild turkey with her brood of 6 little ones that are getting quite big by now. Have seen her and the family about 4 times now. Here in my neighborhood I don’t expect them to last. We use to have some quail when we first moved in here but haven’t seen any of them in ages. Yesterday I had 3 young deer run across my front yard. I love the wild life we get but it’s not like having a bear show up. Have about three squirrels that love my bird feeder . Haven’t seen my little downy woodpecker in a good while but the red headed guy shows up about 3:00 in the afternoon just about every day. Your table settings are beautiful, I have a blue and yellow round table cover bur not in use right now. I’m crazy about lemons on my lobster, shrimp and salmon so those are adorable plates. Did you make the sweet potted flower pot holders-so cute! The yellow charger plates are so attractive with the grouping. Think some of my mama’s lilies got planted out by my culvert under my driveway by some squirrels as well cause all my others are in my flower bed up by my front porch. Can’t wait to try this version of the tomato pie with the heirloom tomatoes. Publix has been putting out some heirlooms for several weeks and with the cheese .I have another recipe for tomato pie but don’t remember this one so I copied it as it looks so delicious and with cheese and the green onion and tobasco sauce and bacon it sounds like a dream of a pie. Checked on my son before I sat down here, he isn’t doing very well. He still hurts really bad and the therapist only comes once a week and I don’t feel that is enough therapy for him so Will be having a conversation with him about that. Need to get busy with sorting some ribbons, lace, etc. so bye for now, Phyllis
You live in such a beautiful environment with all that glorious nature around you (thought that bear is a bit too close for comfort from my view!). And you make it all the lovelier with your gorgeous table. I love anything lemon and this one really hits the spot with your blue and white and then those very cute plates. Lovely, all, Carole.