As I sit here looking out the dining room windows all I can see are clouds.

Or maybe it’s smoke. There’s a whiff of that in the air.

We are waiting for some rain, forecast by the weather app on my I-phone, which should arrive in the next hour or two.

And how we would love some rain! Real rain, though. Not the scattered sprinkling stuff that does nothing but get our hopes up.

Today is my father’s birthday. He would have been 96. And I’m not sure he would have loved that so much unless he had been in great health and even greater spirits. He filled his world with laughter and fun, and any reduction of those activities and pleasures would have been very, very painful. Still, we all miss him terribly. His ever-present happiness was so contagious.

I tried a new recipe last night, but it was definitely not blog-worthy: Brined Chicken Breasts with Crispy Sage. The guys loved it, but I thought it was a bit salty. I love crispy sage leaves–and I have a mega-sized sage plant this summer–but the recipe was too much work for the end result. And yet the chicken was tender and juicy, so there was that.

Banjo Man and Will can enjoy the leftovers tonight because I am going out to dinner with Wednesday night dinner group, even though there are only three of us available. “Company Season” is upon us here at the lake and many of us are busy entertaining those family members and friends who couldn’t be here last summer.

I wanted to share Nancy’s moon photo with you. She took it a couple of nights before she left. Her phone, the I-phone 12, has an incredible camera.

Happy Summer, everyone. Enjoy it while it is here!