Welcome September

I haven’t forgotten about my newly minted blog, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks. I probably should have waited to launch, but I was too excited to get started. And I’m still excited, just busy.

Yesterday we celebrated my husband’s birthday. I am not, and will never be, a food photographer, or a baker for that matter, but the cake came out pretty well, all things considered. He requested a dark chocolate and raspberry cake, somewhat like the cake from the intro to the Great British Baking Show. I ended up making a variation of this cake, although true to form, I forgot a step and did not put any ganache between the layers, only on the top. But he really wanted a solid raspberry top, so I skipped the frosting swirls of the original recipe.

Earlier this week the kids went back to school and they are enjoying being with their friends again.

Around home, I’ve found a few caterpillars, although nothing like what we had two years ago. I am not collecting them and keeping them in the tent this year, just hoping for the best and letting nature take its course. Since I’m not moving them off the main plants it’s hard to say how many we’ve had, but I have counted probably 6-7 individual ones. In 2020 we had close to 40. We also hunted for eggs and moved them to the tent right away, so it’s possible we’ve had that many this year and they were eaten by predators, but it’s nice to find some hanging out now.

We are still in the heat of the summer, and fall won’t really come for another month at least; we are often still raking leaves in early December, but the light is lower and more golden and I’m looking forward to the slowing of the season. The colors are deepening and summer is slowly losing its hold.