I seem to be running late with cocktails on a regular basis; where my typical habit is to make them a couple of days ahead of time (and believe me I can only WISH I was a week ahead), lately Friday morning rolls around and I've yet to make a cocktail for Friday Cocktails. I can blame it on yardwork? I moved into this house with a builder landscaped front yard and just grass and rock and more rock in the back yard and I thought I could handle it. I was wrong. I have completely redone the front yard, removing most of the plants deemed suitable by the company that does lot after lot after lot with the same look and it's getting there. While I did replace all of the foundation plants (not sure who the landscape designer is but grass is NOT a foundation plant!), my biggest change has been to include a variety of landscape perennials along the front border.
Daisies, yarrow, purple speedwell and everblooming daylilies will one day provide a mass of blooms that not only last almost all summer but tolerate dry conditions; they'll all get a bit of water from the sprinklers watering the grass so I haven't had to add them to my drip line which is perfect...color without using more water! Still it's hard work as every hole requires digging out heavy, compacted clay and replacing it with a planting mix before even considering taking the plant out of the pot. At the end of the day I'm tired and when I should be making a cocktail and taking photos...I'm sort of crashing. The heat is here and my days of planting are almost over; a couple of trees in the next week and I'm done for the season.
So today...it would have been easy to just say I can't. I had a plan and I had the ingredients but I had a moment of just wanting to take a moment and enjoy the fruits of my labors and nothing else. But then...something has happened worth celebrating. The Supreme Court of the United States has made a decision that is a long time coming and I think one to celebrate. No longer heterosexual marrriage or gay marriage, now it is just marriage. A union between two people who love each other and are committed to their relationship. I have to admit and it's hard to do so but MANY years ago I felt it was wrong. I was brought up in an era when the word 'gay' meant something bad and the idea of two people of the opposite sex marrying was sinful and awful and a sign of the end of the world. I was influenced by forces around me and I bought in. But I also didn't have any gay friends; I was a product of white bread suburbia and if there were gay people around us, they kept that fact to themselves as so many people did so many years ago.
When that changed, when my distance from the super religious hate mongers (um, my ex's fundamentalist Christian family...what an irony right?) no longer made me feel like I had to agree with their tenets to be accepted my eyes opened. I recall so vividly the day I met the sweetest young man sitting near me in a coffee shop. How we went from 'excuse me, is it OK if I sit here?' to a conversation about gay rights is still sort of amazing but it was meant to be; he became the face of all of those people I did not know who I had been taught were not deserving of the same rights as everyone else. I had an epiphany and while I could feel ashamed of myself for that 'before' period I don't. I never felt hate; maybe just not acceptance and I've made peace with that. Since that time my life experience has allowed me to meet and make friends with more gay people. Some good, some not so good but all just people; deserving of everything I would take for granted. I'm glad that time has come; I'm proud of those who did the right thing; who stood up against the political rhetoric that is grounded in hate and fear and did something historic. I sure love Ruth Bader Ginsberg more than ever. She has long been a champion of gay rights and it is in her honor that I make this cocktail and deem it the Firecracker; because that she surely is!
I was fortunate to have a bottle of Prairie Organic Cucumber Vodka on hand; it was sort of perfect. Prairie has taken their corn-distilled vodka and added garden fresh cucumber flavor. I liked the simplicity of this blend; pretty straightforward without additional flavor notes. One reviewer said and it's true, 'A quiet recreation of cucumber sandwiches, hold the sandwiches.' The thing about cucumber in a cocktail is that it's not extraordinary; but is at the same time. It's adds a cool element, much like cucumbers do to a salad or sandwich. Not overwhelming or overpowering, nope just something almost indiscernible yet still so refreshing. If you can't find cucumber vodka, just add a couple of slices of cucumber when you muddle together the lime and watermelon; it should do the job nicely.
This is so perfect; one of those ultra refreshing cocktails that I think I need to have ready after a day of that gardening stuff...and today I do. So while I head out to get a second lavender bush in the ground I first want to salute my friends and Ms. Ginsberg and SCOTUS for something monumental but also so deeply personal. To say the least it certainly is about time...CHEERS!
I am a reluctant cat owner but I do own one so thought it perfectly appropriate to share The 16 Best Cat Reactions to the SCOTUS Marriage Equality Decision. Enjoy!