We’re home. We brought back 16 quarts of blueberries, already down to 12.5 and dwindling from there. My general approach is to eat as many as possible while they’re fresh, then freeze or bake them as they get a little more wilted. Rough life, I know.

Being back on the grid house-wise means being back off the grid car-wise. I dropped off the rental car this afternoon, after my final run to the store for things I’d forgotten on the weekend (rice milk and walnuts) and a visit to the garden. I discovered (not surprisingly) that my pepper plants were on their last legs, a combined effect of high temperatures and the pipe for the water to the garden in the process of being replaced. That I have peppers at all is a happy result of the kindness of my garden neighbor who has been watering my plants every day he’s there. I was happy to catch him this morning, and gave him half of the last of the jalapeños (the only pepper plants that thrived on my neglect, although the poblano didn’t do too badly, either). In exchange, I was offered an oddly tubular eggplant, which is currently roasting with those from our farm subscription in preparation for being mooshed into baba ghanoush, which itself is destined for the freezer. Yesterday I made my first batch of hommus as a warmup to today’s efforts with the eggplant, both recipes from the second volume of The Vegetarian Epicure. It was quite good, and very garlicky. I tend to double the garlic for most recipes, and always forget that’s not generally necessary for those from hippie vegetarian cookbooks.

In addition to food, I’m thinking a lot about paint. We have the paint for two rooms of the house (upstairs bathroom and family room), and as soon as I replace the tiles in the downstairs bathroom in the spot where we took out the frightening electric heater we’ll start using that one and get to work on the upstairs one (which will be painted, caulked, and grouted to within an inch of its life). The painting of the family room waits on the removal of the drop-down ironing board cabinet and the repair of that wall, as well as, of course, the moving of all of the stuff that’s currently blocking the walls. I’ve almost settled on a color for the bedroom, and that paint job will be easy as we’re also switching rooms. I’m trading down, taking the second small room as my space, and we’re planning to use the largest room as the bedroom, so it’ll be easy to paint during that transition.

And that’s the status report from the homefront. Welcome back.