With the warmer than normal temperatures and the dry conditions we've had for so many weeks , many of the summer garden vegetables have given up and surrendered.  Yesterday I began pulling up the summer squash as the vines no longer supplied nutrition to the baby squash and the blossoms rotted.  Early spring beets had been planted in two different locations a few weeks apart to see if one produced better than the other.  Yesterday I pulled the remaining few beets from the first planting because the deer and/or bunnies ate all the beet greens and the beets wouldn't grow any bigger.  New tomato and broccoli plants were set in those spots for the start of my fall gardening.  I also have a row of fall Scarlet Nantes carrots and a new row of Chioggia beets started.  In little pots on the porch are the fall cauliflower and cabbage plants getting a few more weeks of growth before going to the garden.  Yesterday my neighbor combed her Irish Setter and brought the hair in a bag so I could put it out in the garden to deter rabbits and deer.  The sunflowers were doing well, reached about  four feet tall, just the perfect height that the deer didn't have to bend down to nibble.  We're eating the last of the Swiss chard, tomatoes are beginning to ripen and show life again since we've been getting afternoon rains, and the cute Dragon Egg cukes are a sweet tasty snack while doing garden chores..  The last of the spring carrots will be pulled this weekend and I'll loosen the clay soil and put composting in where the new fall plants will go.

 A few of the window boxes along the back porch over flowing with chocolate mint, pineapple sage, Thai basil, sage, German thyme, Italian basil, marjoram.  I take cuttings early in the morning, hang them to dry for a couple of weeks, then put them in jars to use in the winter. 

Friday night we listened to the New England  Contra Dance Tunes quartet at the John Campbell Folk School featuring Pete Siegel, a sing/songwriter and master of mandolin, banjo, and guitar.  Pete also has shared the stage with Pete Stookey, (of Peter, Paul, and Mary), Pete Seeger and Judy Collins.  During the school year, he teaches music at a public school in Amherst, MA.............lucky students.  You couldn't help toe-tapping to the music and Pat and I had to refrain ourselves from jumping up and dancing in the aisles. 

Adding an excellent summer pasta salad to my recipes.  Got this from the Mediterranean Diet site.  The Sicilians live to be 108 so they are my role models.