SUMMER, KIDS, A DOG, AND A CARPET -- A childhood memory popped into my head the other day.  My mom worked as a secretary for a carpet manufacturer.  Periodically the company would allow their employees to purchase remnants at a lower cost.  My mom got the idea that our boxer needed carpeting in the new doghouse that she had just finished building herself.  Yes, I remember Mama liked home projects.  She was handy with tools, having learned from her father in how to use them.
     But first came the house.  Back then appliances like refrigerators and stoves came in large wooden crates.  My dad was the supplier as he was able to acquire enough empty crates from store owners for the proposed new rectangular dog home.  For most of one weekend my mom pried wooden crates apart, totally dismantling them.  Then she measured, sawed, and hammered together the pieces until they actually resembled a decent space with a flat roof and even a window. While all this was going on my sister, brother, and I HAD to be outside with Mama because, HELLLL-LO... had we stayed inside with her outside, well, not much producing would have been accomplished.  It was also summer and good weather, which to my parents meant kids should play outside anyway.  Truthfully, Mama was pretty smart in allowing us to be around to help (??) her.  My brother and I were each given an extra hammer and were allowed to build our own space with random unused wood pieces.  Instead of eventually getting annoyed with each other, we got to whack a few nails of our own.  That kept us busy with our imaginations, for sure.  Our older sister actually did help Mama.  In between the hammering and sawing, my brother and I made and delivered Kool-Aid, cookies and popsicles.
    All of our time and effort was for Penny.  She was a beautiful dog with her naturally floppy ears.  I remember her coat as the same color of the coin.  Penny had white on her stomach and white on the back of her neck in the shape of a vertical bow tie.  The only other distinction was her cropped tail.  Boxers usually have their tails cropped because they are really not attractive.  Because the boxer hair is short and somewhat course, the tail would never appear to fluff out or to be of any use.  Now, I only see it as something that would have been in the way. (Even though when I was little I thought it was so horrible to cut off some pet's tail!)  Penny was a good dog and would mind fairly well.  We soon learned, however, that Penny had a mind of her own.

This is not Penny, but this image reminds me of her.

     When Mama returned to work the next week she soon was able to purchase the carpet remnant.  I only remember it was a brown color and she brought it home rolled and tied on top of her car. It took my mom and dad together to carry the carpet to the doghouse on that Friday afternoon.  Both began immediately nailing the carpet down on the floor with specialty carpet tacks.  It took a little while, but they both got the carpet secured. Then they secured the roof before dark.  Finally the doghouse was finished.  I remember it sat up on concrete blocks and included a little step up for Penny.  Late that same night we all heard it raining and we wondered if Penny was in her house snug as a...(boxer)...in a rug.  Were we surprised the next morning!  Yes, we all could tell Penny had spent the night in her new home and was safe and dry from the storm.  We also knew that she either disliked the color brown or Mama's decorating ideas since the new carpet had been pulled up and dragged all the way out of the new doghouse!  There it laid, wet, muddy and disgusting on the ground.  I wish I could have seen Penny yanking up that new carpet piece with her mouth and dragging it piece by piece outside!  From then on, my parents let Penny decorate her own house.

FLOUR

     Focaccia, as pictured below, is a flat bread made with olive oil.  It can be eaten as an appetizer, or it can accompany a soup or stew.  Honestly, focaccia is so darn good that you will just like to make it to eat it, no matter what it accompanies. 
 

     
There are several recipes for making focaccia online.  It takes a short amount of time to make this delectable bread and very few ingredients.  Most of them you may already have at home.  There are some variations where one could add in herbs (which I recommend), or olives or bits of onion, for example.  The choice of how simple or how involved you want to make your focaccia is up to you.  I have made one recipe twice in the past two weeks.  My husband loved it both times.  Yes, focaccia might remind one of pizza, but it is so much more in its simplicity.  I used the recipe from Adam and Joanne Gallagher of www.inspiredtaste.net,  and do not gain anything except the joy of sharing this knowledge.  Their focaccia recipe called for using olive oil, yeast, water, honey, flour, garlic, thyme, rosemary, black pepper and salt.  So do some looking around and experimenting.  It can be fun and delicious at the same time.

FLOWER

Squash vine borer

     This is a very yucky picture of the squash vine borer that eats its way up your zucchini and/or squash vine.  The plant invariably withers and dies leaving you very disappointed.  I came upon this mess recently when I went out to my garden to see what I could harvest.  That day it turned out to be a worm-like larva!
     This creature hatched from an egg laid by a squash vine borer moth.  The moth came from a cocoon that first housed a squash vine borer from last year.  Over the winter in the cocoon, the larva became a pupa in the process of yet more change.  When spring arrived, the newly developed moth emerged from the cocoon and laid eggs at the base of my plants.  Then the damage began.
     It's been a while since I grew zucchini and yellow squash.  At the time the eggs were opening and the larva began burrowing, I was just so darn happy that my squash looked good.  That was a short-lived feeling.  Next time I will be more observant.