motivation: take what you can get

If I could be assured that I'd have this weather and scenery every morning, I might be inclined to go running before work more often.  This morning was pretty much perfect at 45 degrees with a light breeze off the cove that this trail loops around, though I was certainly glad I opted for a long sleeved shirt.

I'll be running a 5k next weekend, and AGAIN I'm not prepared.  Oh well, it'll be a nice fall morning, if I'm lucky.

Apples, shmapples. It's golden raspberry season.

That right there is this year's golden raspberry haul.  So far.  Mind you, that's a gallon bag.  We freeze each day's berries and then add them to the bag so they're usable without having to thaw them all or chip away at a monolithic mass of berryness.

There are still lots of them on the plants, green, tiny, and waiting for more sunshine, so I'm hoping the weather will hold out for a while longer.  I heard the phrase "frost warning" as part of a recent forecast, though for now I don't think it covers this area specifically.  I'm excited for the return of sweater weather, but we don't need to go straight to parkas.

Someday I'll remember to take Before pictures

Here's the next best thing: a During picture.
Our 11 kitchen cabinet doors were taken down last weekend. Now they're in the basement awaiting a decision on whether they'll need a second coat of paint. 
Oh right, and the cabinet frames are still awaiting paint of their own.  Details, details.
One thing's for sure: I've been cured of any desire I once had for open-front cabinets.  I might need to refer back to this photo later as a reminder that our food and dishes are not, as it turns out, the stuff of Ikea catalogs.  Go figure.

in bloom: pale pink daylilies

Apparently 2012 was the Year of the Daylily around here.  I've already done posts on two different varieties this summer.  We'll, they were different colors and they didn't bloom at the same time, so I'm assuming they're different varieties. 

The pale pink ones were my favorite, though.  My fourteen-year-old self, who hated frilliness and being called cute, would probably engage in much eyerolling about that.  That's ok, though.  They're just plain pretty. 

They're also likely to be the last "in bloom" post this year.  Cue relief or disappointment.  I'm pretty sure everything in the garden now that's gearing up for the end of the season was the subject of a post last year already.  (Though, now that I've said that, watch some beautiful dark horse of a weed turn up next week...)

conveniently, we're growing beets this year...

On Tuesday, The Awesome Husband and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary.  We both took the day off from work, and we had grand plans to go kayaking!  And have a picnic at the place where we got married!  And be outside in the late summer, not-quite-fall air!

But it rained all day, so we changed our plans.  It was ok -- we still had a great time spending the day together.  One thing The Awesome Husband in particular had as a priority for the day was to make sure we did something new, because of the fascinating science behind this article.

With that in mind, we went to a restaurant we'd never visited, sat at the bar, and had cocktails and appetizers.  The wonderful bartender (seriously, can't say enough about her -- friendly, knowledgeable, made excellent drinks) gave us an unanticipated sample of infused vodka. Infused with beets and tarragon, mind you. If you're like me, that sounds... interesting.  Not tempting, not horrible, but interesting.

Having tasted it, though, I can assure you it's delicious.  It was definitely something new.  Bring on the dopamine and norepinephrine!