Caprese Salad

If you have a lot of lemons, so the saying goes, make lemonade. If we have a lot of tomatoes we make Caprese salad, and fresh tomato sauce and tomato sandwiches and hamburgers with a big fat slice of tomato in them, and finally, slow simmered tomato sauce. We have never had ripe tomatoes this early,  but we're warming up with our first Caprese salad of the season tomorrow. I wonder if my friend Tobi has gotten any results from the 'Citizen Science' study that was done on the effects of smoke and ash on garden vegetables last year. Perhaps the creatures that have clearly been sampling to tomatoes and the basil will serve as the canaries in the coal mine....not that we would ever know if a gopher dropped dead after eating a home grown tomato

OilMan may regret his choice of slow cooked pork as the temperatures are still hovering in the 90's, and the air is full of smoke and ash from one of the many fires burning in California. As long as I can remember there have always been wildfires in California in September and October, and it was always known as 'fire season'. We were used to a reddish sun seen through a layer of smoke as a warning sign that a fire was burning somewhere. How close it was depended mainly on the prevailing winds. 

Now there is no such thing as 'fire season' as fires are burning here almost year round. Right now it feels as if the whole state is on fire and it is difficult to continue with business as usual when it feels as if we are on the brink of an inferno. It is definitely unsettling to see the orangish light and the layer of ash this early in the season.

As he was locking the front door before we went to bed last night OilMan spotted a strange silhouette on the rock which rests in the pond by our front door. We both peered out the door trying to figure out what could create what looked like a small feather duster above the water. OilMan turned on the light and as our eyes focused we said in unison, 'it's a skunk'. And indeed it was...enjoying a nice drink (and maybe one or two tadpoles, which are taking an awfully long time trying to turn into frogs as the water turns murkier and greener.)

The little fellow wasn't the least bit disturbed by our light. It finished its drink, then turned around and walked down the front steps, across the driveway and disappeared into the darkness below. I was surprised at how small it was. We've had many skunk encounters both with and without dogs, and keep all the ingredients for the skunk antidote in the cupboard, but we almost never get such a good look at one. They're really cute....