First up, some bananas that had sat for too long on the counter demanded to become banana bread.

YUM. Why haven’t I baked banana bread lately? (Oh, right. The dissertation.)

The long winter means that the start date for my CSA has been pushed back, but the farmer emailed last week to say that we should all come out and pick some peonies anyway. When I got there, she said to have at them, and pick as many as I could carry. So I did!

And then I put them all over the house.

And on the porch.

Here’s the blossom I put in the kitchen next to the sink. (I promise not to post pictures of each vase, but you get the idea.)

On our way to the creek.

It was a little muddy, so we turned onto a side path. I love woodpecker trees.

Boh loved the grass on the edge of this ledge overlooking the creek.

And then he napped hard.

A new dress that will be (with a blazer, at least) one of my professor costumes.

A serious brushing for Boh.

Double the dogs! (Tango joined us for a sleepover.)

Double the fun!

Double the napping. (Friends in town for their college reunions came by yesterday with sparkling wine to lounge on the porch and catch up. It was lovely.)

These expressions indicate concern about the smoke detector and interest in the chicken I was roasting. (My kitchen doesn’t have the best ventilation, and the recipe called for very high heat…which meant some loud beeping noises at a few points in the process.)

I roasted a chicken! I know this is pretty basic, but somehow I managed to make it to 33 without ever doing this. Whenever I buy whole chickens (which, admittedly, isn’t that often), I tend to turn them into soup. I followed a recipe from The Ktchn’s cookbook, and stuffed the bird with two halves of a whole lemon. (This is not the recipe I followed — though I’m flagging this one for future reference because the temperature is lower, and that might work better with my current kitchen.)

Victory! I carved my chicken and sliced some of it to go on top of a salad, and made a quick sauce/dressing from the crispy bits in the pan and a little bit of white wine.

Someone stood watch for any food that might fall from my fork. (It didn’t happen.)

And this guy fell asleep in the shoe pile. Tango’s human will be back tonight, so we’ve got almost the whole day to play. Happy Monday!