Impromptu Summer Afternoon Nosh

Last night June picked a couple of tomatoes from her garden and made this great summer dish for late afternoon cocktails: tomato slices with fresh mozzarella and basil and oregano, all drizzled with olive oil. She also picked a nice handful of her haricot verts, the very slender green beans, and sauteed them with slivers of almonds. My favorite beer-of-the-week is in the background, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, which stands for India Pale Ale.

It's very calming to sit outside in the early evening watching all of the "wildlife" in the yard: squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, birds, woodchucks, deer, turtles, you name it. There are never any chemicals used anywhere on the property, and I swear the animals and insects tend to gravitate here.

Barely visible in this long-lens shot, is a wren that has built a beautiful nest inside this birdhouse. This wren seems to enjoy sitting inside looking out of the entry hole. You can just barely see a glint in its eye if you look right, lol. Reminds me of my friends that used to sit on the stoops of their brownstone apartments in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, lol. It's a great way of watching the world go by, and this wren enjoys watching us eat and work in the gardens.

Impressionistic long-lens view of the baby bunny, lol. We seem to have one adult pair and just one baby this year. There is a healthy uptick in birds-of-prey this year due to climate and the vagaries of the eco-system. This little tyke is currently about half the size of an adult.