2020 Life Logs, Day 297: Making the Most of Warm Days
Date: Saturday, October 24, 2020
Weather: Temperature Dropping; High 63, Low 44 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
When I checked the weather forecast this morning, I saw that today is likely to be the last of our warm days, at least for the ‘forecastable’ future. Starting tomorrow the high temps will be in the 50’s—not cold, but not warm enough to do some of the outside paint jobs that have been waiting for me to get around to them.
So, I had to scurry today. Before I could get to work, however, I had to go buy the paint. That required a trip to a hardware store. I also wanted to buy a leaf blower and that required a trip to a specific hardware store, Home Depot in Hyannis. The trip took much longer than expected because traffic and the VERY long check-out line in Home Depot. By the time I got back, I barely had time to apply one coat of the redwood sealant to the sandbox and outside table before heading to the Baranowski’s Taj Garage for an early dinner. They were having friends over that I haven’t seen since the Covid lockdown began in March, so they invited me to join them. It was warm enough to sit comfortably in the garage with the doors open, so we had a Covid-safe gathering. Christina and Warren Brodie were the other friends and Christina suggested that the Baranowski’s might want to rent out their space. Peter bought a propane heater that he turned on once the sun went down, but it was more to show it off as we would have been fine without it for this event. But as the temps dip lower, that heater will be most welcomed. It was great to get together and the food was delicious. Christina brought shrimp for an appetizer and Karen made a butternut squash soup, followed by fresh ahi tuna, with grilled portobello mushrooms and peaches, plus a salad. Karen’s salads are always a favorite as she puts in so many extras. Tonight’s salad had crumbled goat cheese, edamame beans, and pomegranate seeds. Yum. But the ahi tuna was the hit of the evening. It was caught by a neighbor of Peter’s who fishes in the ocean waters south of Martha’s Vineyard. This week he caught a large yellow fin and shared the bounty. I brought the dessert which was a new recipe that sounded great, but ended up to be a challenge. I thought I had ruined it as the cottage filled with smoke while it was baking. I made a cranberry pumpkin upside down cake using some of the cranberries I picked on Monday. My problem was my choice of the pan I used. My thinking was that using a springform pan would make it easier to get the cake out of the pan successfully. That part worked, but while baking, all of the butter, brown sugar, and cranberry juices flowed out of the spring-form pan and into the bottom of my oven. I should have known better. I’m sure the cranberry topping did not end up being what was intended, but it was edible, just not spectacular.
For the next seven days, the high daytime temperatures are forecast to be in the 50’s with nighttime temps dipping into the 40’s and even the 30’s on a couple of nights. The redwood sealant only needs 24 hours above 35 degrees F, so I can apply another coat tomorrow. But I think the paint for the shutters requires a temp of 55 degrees F, so that I’ll have to take them down and set up a painting area in the basement. I should have made better use of the warm days this past week, but I didn’t. Some things will just have to wait until spring.
