Ah, September!

TPP likes this month.  The 2017 version is typically enough driving us crazy.  First, it was way too cool, although any time you don't need AC in the summer, we be happy.  Now, it is hot again, and combined with a typical enough drought, it is sort of an insult added to injury, here in late summer.  Listen, our new Pinus bungeana is calling for water.
Yes, we consider the first half of September to be late summer.  And as some of you know this means TPP has an anniversary celebration: fish soup, in lieu of a birthday, and this year it is sobering to note that this is the 35th fish soup.  So as usual TPP pays the air fare from Maine to the Midwest for some seafood.  This year the process was interrupted by a red tide recall on 10 pounds of mussels (dang dinoflagellates!) but the timely replacements were excellent, so were the clams, and a certain craving was satisfied for awhile at least.  That being said Mrs. Phactor's contributions, fresh Italian bread and apple pies were excellent as always.  No one goes home hungry.  Oh, TPP was home!
The gardens are bone, bone dry!  Trees are dropping leaves and ferns withering into drought induced dormancy, which is hopefully not permanent.  Newer plantings need attention. Trying to raise some late lettuce and bok choi, but keeping it watered is proving to be quite a chore.  Some bell weather plants have been watered 3 times since our last significant rain.  At  least the number of mosquitoes has declined to a tolerable level due to the dry.  Football has started and already Chi-town is playing for draft picks.  Baseball continues beyond all reason.  Play the world series already!  

A very merry un-birthday to us!

TPP used to have a birthday in September, but it just got to be too much and too frequent and it just all added up to too much. So in lieu of having birthdays, TPP cooks for his friends and family in a somewhat hobbit-like once-a-year celebration. Guests, if observing good taste, should fail to mention the approach of old age.  Food can be as good as ever, and perhaps even rise to the level of the best ever.  It avoids the awkwardness of throwing a party for yourself and all the gift-giving stuff because you are throwing the party for everyone else. And so TPP makes something he likes, something special, in this case fish soup, a recipe that has evolved into a massive batch of something west of cioppino and east of bouillabaisse limited only by the upper midwest's notorious proximity to seawater and the size of TPP's outdoor cooker,which is not small. But once a year you just pay for seafood's air fare and enjoy it regardless of the cost. Native mid-westerners are notoriously suspicious of seafood and anything with tubes and tentacles usually puts them right off their feed. Having raised the F1 correctly, she selects such people to sit next to so as to get all their rejected bits. The weather yesterday was perfect as were the loaves of French bread and apple pies provided by Mrs. Phactor.  So as another un-birthday slips into history, the leftovers will happily remind us of friends and a very good time. And even a couple of pieces of pie for breakfast!