Sunday: Not So Much About Grilling, as About the Experience of Grilling

I had another good time this noon, grilling hamburger patties for the family. Sometimes one of the kids hangs out with me, but today I had the yard to myself.

That's not quite correct. One of the things I like about grilling, other than the grilling itself, is the time it gives me outside, with nothing to do but wait until it's time to check the burgers again.

Lighting the grill, placing the burgers, and waiting for them to be ready to flip went very routinely.

There's a big willow behind a shed, about in the middle of the back yard. A recent windstorm cracked a branch, about fifteen feet (four or five meters) long, but didn't quite break it off.

One of the burger patties was slower to heat than the others, as usual. The exact location of the cool spot varies, with wind speed and direction, and probably other factors, too.

Squirrels have used hollows in the tree as nests over the years. I think we have chickadees, too, this year. I'm no ornithologist, but that's what they look like. Also a smallish woodpecker.

I moved the cooler burger to one of today's hot spots during the first flip.

The woodpecker was doing a percussion solo on the dead branch. I think the chickadees were following the woodpecker, picking out whatever the larger bird left. One of the chickadees flew a worm-shaped thing over to nearby branch and deposited it. There's probably a nest there.

Three flips of the burgers later, I had a stack of sputtering, steaming patties to take inside. Shutting off the grill and closing the value on the LP gas tank took less than a minute, and then I was headed inside with the main part of today's lunch.

What does all this have to do with grilling? Very little, directly.

Today's post does give, however, one example of the experience of grilling on a summer day.