Yesterday, we hit 111 degrees. It was sizzlin’. My car has air conditioning settings 1-4 and 2 and 3 no longer work. Normally, 1 is not cool enough and 4 is far too aggressive. Yesterday, however, 4 was barely cutting … Continue reading
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Tag Archives: summer
I’m Wilting
It is HAWT in Nashville. And guess what? It’s supposed to get even hotter over the next few days. I believe I saw 108 on the forecast for Friday. And it’s only June. I’m so looking forward to August. Not. … Continue reading
Summer Status Report
Seeing as this is the first official day of Summer, I thought this might be a good time to report on the progress of my deck container garden.
I’m going to go ahead and declare the sweet potato experiment a success as the vines have overtaken their planter and look like they’re about to make a move on the peas.
This picture was taken 2 days before the group picture above. As you can see, there has been considerable growth even in that short time. This thing is a mutant.
My peas have yet to take off up the poles, but I am hopeful. I’m wondering if I need to thin these a bit. They’re looking a little bushy and misguided.
Thoughts anyone?
The parsley is suffocating the poor rosemary and the cilantro, which has already started to go to seed. Who knows a trick for keeping it from doing this? Every year, I cut it back thinking I am going to outsmart it, but it always gets me.
Harumph.
I believe it’s time to make some pesto.
Happy Summer, y’all!
Sugarlump
Clown in the Door
When I visited Kentucky in the summer as a child, I spent my time between Granny and Papa’s house and Grandmother’s house. Because I didn’t have any cousins on my Mom’s side of the family at the time, I often requested that my cousin Lauren come with me to play at Grandmother’s house.
Naturally, we spent a lot of time playing with barbies and babydolls. Occasionally, however, I took it upon myself to tell my poor cousin Lauren a story about Grandmother’s old house.
One day, I made up some absurd story that there was a clown trapped in this door. I told Lauren that the clown died in there, which made the glass wavy, and that its spirit haunted the house.
I really don’t understand what my logic (if any) was in crafting this highly plausible tale, but cousin Lauren seemed to eat it right up.
I think it is relevant that the telling of this story coincided with my Nancy Drew phase.
Although it seems my goal here was to freak out my cousin, I was most successful in freaking myself out.
That darn door still gives me the creeps to this day.
I guess it serves me right.
Y’all play nice,
Sugarlump
Rite Aid
When my sister and I would visit our family in Kentucky in the summer as young kids, we had a bit of a ritual. My cousins, my sister and I would make the long-awaited trip to….
RITE AID!
To the average person, that may not seem very exciting. In fact, for many people it falls into the category of “errands,” thus making such a trip dull and uninteresting.
My cousins, my sister and I, however, lived for Rite Aid in the summer. Papa would give us each $10 or $20 and take us to Rite Aid, where we really knew how to stretch a buck.
My sister, Eugene (who is 4 years younger than I am), and my cousin Kristen (who is 5 1/2 years younger than I am) were still pretty small when we would go to Rite Aid so they bought toys and bubbles and things. My cousin Lauren (who is 2 ½ years younger than I am) and I, however, were quite serious about our purchases that would entertain us for the next three weeks. We spent our money on…
OFFICE SUPPLIES!
Exciting, no?!
No?
Oh. Ok. Well, Lauren and I thought it was exciting.
We would play “passport service,” a game we invented and probably spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours playing when we were young. To play passport service, we needed paper and index cards and pens and highlighters and hole-punchers and paper clips and lots of office-y things. And gum. We always left room in the budget for a package of bubblicious gum. That was our one splurge. Other than that, our purchases were strictly business.
You probably think I’m making this up, but I have evidence:
See how proudly we were displaying our Rite Aid bags? We were very serious and enthusiastic about Rite Aid. Papa was just glad to have his polecats together.
Sadly, about 10 years ago, the Rite Aid went out in Burkesville. We wore black for a month.
Not really, but we certainly took it hard.
There is currently a cowboy store in the former Rite Aid location and I can’t bring myself to go in there because I haven’t gotten over Rite Aid closing yet.
R.I.P. Burkesville Rite Aid. Thanks for all of the good times and practical purchases.
Y’all come back now, ya hear?
Sugarlump
Driving to Burkesville
Welcome to Cumberland County.
This is my (very dirty) car, Chino, sitting in my grandparents’ driveway in Kentucky.
Why is this noteworthy?
Well, let me tell you.
I’ve never been able to just drive to my grandparents’ houses in Burkesville, Kentucky. Having lived in the Northeast and about 1000 miles from my grandparents my whole life, any visit involved at least one plane ride (usually 2) and then a 2 ½ hour drive from the airport in either Louisville or Nashville to rural Kentucky.
Now that I live in Nashville, I can drive up to visit and be there in 2 ½ hours. It’s glorious.
The blue Jeep, Azul, is my cousin Lauren’s. Since this is Chino’s first time in Kentucky, he and Azul had never met and they are just tickled to death (a favorite Southern saying) to finally be together as family.
Naturally, as soon as I arrived in Burkesville, we had to eat. We went to one of my favorite little spots on the square in town: Annie Ruby’s.
Now, Annie Ruby’s is in the location that was formerly Smith Pharmacy. My papa thinks it had been open since the town was founded in 1810. He said that when he was little a single ice cream cone was a nickel and a double was 10 cents. My parents used to go there as kids for ice cream and orangeades, which they could purchase for something like a quarter. This was pretty amazing (even back then) since it took 2 fresh, sweet oranges to produce enough juice for this specialty.
My cousins, sister and I had a summer ritual at Smith Pharmacy when we were growing up where we would go sit at the old-timey fountain and order coke floats after a long day in the office (more on this later). They had the BEST old school vanilla ice cream that was sort of a creamy yellow and then they would pour over the fountain coke to create the perfect ice cream to coke ratio. This sounds pretty basic, but there’s quite an art to making a coke float. Trust me, I’m a coke float connoisseur.
While we were devastated when Smith’s pharmacy went out a little while back, we were so excited to learn that Annie Ruby’s would be opening with good food and with the fountain. It’s the same fountain that was in Smith’s and they do a darn good job with the coke float. Their curry chicken salad is also pretty delicious if you want something to go with that coke float. Actually, maybe eat the sandwich first and then savor the coke float.
Annie Ruby’s is known for “tomato pie,” which I’m sure is delightful, but unfortunately I’m some sort of genetic mutant and do not like tomatoes. As my granny says, “what a shame” because my papa grows a whole mess of tomatoes that the rest of my family lives for.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve worked up a craving for a coke float.
Y’all come back now, ya hear?
Sugarlump
The Sugarlump 