Desert Magnolia

As weekends go, this last one flew by. Flew. Highlights... A hard run on Saturday morning. It was cool, it was beautiful, I needed to work off some nervous energy. Making Caprese Salads for a gathering Saturday night using GG's tomatoes and basil..and fresh mozzarella. Visiting with friends and taking pulses..(radial pulses)...for a Diagnosis class I'm in..we have to take a lot, and we have to keep a journal, which gets turned in.. Making Grandma Gin's Lemon Chiffon Cake, using my trusty Joy of Cooking...as always. Making Grandma's requested dinner of Chicken and Dumplings, and serving that with Caprese Salads...(can't seem to get enough of those delightful summer salads...) Having a lovely meal and dessert with Grandma. She's doing fine- is complaining that she feels like she's slowing down a little, which is annoying. The whole 92 years old thing? She's ok with it in general, but some days...she feels old, though less now than before her

Hot hot hot, that's what July has been so far. Fortunately our monsoons are beginning, which means some days we're fortunate enough to feel raindrops fall from the sky, wash the dust from the air and cool us down a bit. Some days, though,  those monsoons get a little carried away and stuff starts to wash away... One time when I was a little girl, maybe 10 or so, I saw a VW Bug floating down an arroyo...just bobbing along. Apparently they'd tried to cross running water that was deceptively shallow looking in a dip in the road, but in which the water was surging with enormous force and speed.... Everything turned out ok. Nobody was hurt, but that was a strange sight and represents the kind of weirdness that happens when heavy rains fall in a desert like ours. Anyway, it's hot. This summer has been a blur of activity, mostly good, but some not so good. A litany follows.... -Daughter came home to visit  (as I've already mentioned in an earlier post but stil