old friends, good food

Some people you see too seldom, like friends who live on the west coast and are busy raising children. Happily, Mandi and Jim found a fantastic rental home for their week on Ocracoke (through Blue Heron Realty, of course). Their vacation cottage is small but uses space remarkably well, with room for their family of five, and a huge screened porch and shaded yard.

Perfect for entertaining, and on Tuesday they hosted a cookout. Jim had spent the morning gathering clams, and there were skewers of meat, veggies and scallops on the grill. Cool cubes of pineapple were inside, near the white wine on ice. Yummy! Excellent party. There is nothing like a cookout to make it feel like summer.

Figs are ripening like mad, and Sarah told me she's been eating two tomatos a day. I wonder what she's trying to keep away? A lot of people schedule little breaks for themselves in the middle of the summer. Maybe I should pop up to the mountains and hop in a cool stream.

Bryan just got home from fishing, reporting "spanish mackerel and bluefish, a lot of 'em." He's frying shrimp they've got at good prices at the fish house. I'm going to try to enjoy summer while it's here.