July. One word. HOT.

Another word (well, two words); Sundown Syndrome. Explained with last photo.

Click on photo to enlarge. Short descriptions below gallery.

I have been listening to Jazz24 every day recently, which is where I heard this Art Farmer and Bill Evans fantastic album, Modern Art. In fact, I am listening to it now as I write this Sunday morning; Keith Jarrett playing Stars Fell On Alabama.

Sweet and Spicy Baby Back Ribs. Based on a recipe from Taste of Home. Place the rack on double thickness of heavy duty foil. Combine 2 cups of barbecue sauce (I used Stubb’s Original.), 1 cup of blueberry jam (I used jam from Stonewall Kitchen.), one heaping tablespoon of Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning. Wrap tightly. Place on baking tray. Bake at 325 for about 3 hours. Carefully remove ribs from foil to another baking tray. Finish on grill for about 10 minutes. YUM!!!

Susan enjoying time in our backyard. We sit outside before dinner (And before the July Heatwaves arrive!) and enjoy a glass of wine and listen to music—mostly country, sometimes folk.

A cookbook and an Aperol Spritz. I was reading through the chile cookbook because I have 6 jalapeno plants in our garden and soon we will have more peppers than we will know what to do with them!

Self portrait. July 5th.

Daisies.

Curry Chicken salad with Chow Mein Noodles. So delicous!

Black-eyed Susans.

Next three: cherry tomatoes; lily; my watercolor of the Connecticut River.

Next three: garden with new umbrella in distance; self-portrait—staking the tomato plants; my watercolor.

Next three: shrimp and angel hair pasta (We ate alot of shrimp in July!); early morning fog; mac n’ cheese; our garden on July 18th.

Lauren. She’s our grand-niece. We love her and are very proud of her. Susan and I took her out for lunch to Abigail’s Grill and Wine Bar to celebrate her recent graduation from Lehigh University. Her major was Biology and she plans to be an orthopedic p.a. She was a track star at Lehigh.

Next three: shrimp with local summer squash and fresh corn; a nearby bar–never been; our garden on July 22; my watercolor of Oarweed Cove in Ogunquit, Maine.

Next two: shrimp bruschetta we made for Daryl and Julia who were out from Denver on there way to the Cape. (Note: I had a hard time editing the bruschetta photo in PhotoShop. So for the first time I tried Microsoft’s AI program, CoPilot. Amazing experience. It recognized what the food was and made suggestions and asked me what I want to enhance.)

Next three: may watercolor “Sailors Take Warning;” I made corn and blueberry muffins with local and fresh corn and blueberries; my watercolor “Heatwave.”

Freddy. He has Sundown Syndrome. Our vet confirmed it. He is 12. Susan and I are not sure when it started. Six months ago? One year ago?

He might wake at 1, 2, 3, and again at 4. Sometimes at 3:30. Sometimes only at 4. Confusion ensures. Restlessness. Barking. The vet gave us medicine but he smells it and won’t take it so we have been giving him CBD gummies, which seem to be helping. I get up with him at four (at the earlier times I am able to coax him back to bed) and we sit on the couch in another room. He falls back to sleep. I meditate.

During the day he is his playful and cheerful self.