Lemon curd, fluffy dog and randomness

It has been a rather laid back two days here.  It has just been too hot to do much outside.  Not to say that things haven't been accomplished.
First... Lemon Curd.  I was looking for egg-heavy recipes yesterday and stumbled upon a recipe for Lemon curd.  I've heard of it but haven't ever made it- until yesterday.  Let me just say:  YUM!

It was even pretty easy.  Definitely not something I would eat on its own but it is heavenly on toast for breakfast.
Here's the recipe:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice (it took me 2 1/2 large lemons)
a pinch of salt
1 stick (half cup) unsalted butter- chopped in half inch cubes
grated lemon zest (1 tablespoon or so)

In the top of a double boiler whisk the eggs,  Add the sugar and stir until throughly blended.  Over (not in) boiling water add lemon zest, salt and lemon juice, stir to combine.  Add butter cubes.  Stir constantly with the whisk until the butter melts and the curd thickens (it took about 15 minutes).  Pour into a bowl or into jars and cool in the fridge.  It will continue to thicken and set.  According to internet sources it will last about 2-3 weeks in the fridge (if it lasts that long).
I had some on toast for breakfast and I'm thinking about making some little tart shells out of graham cracker crumbs, using this as filling and topping with fresh fruit.  It is VERY lemony and very sweet.  Some recipes call for straining it after cooking to remove the lemon zest but I like the zest and don't mind the tiny lumps in the texture.

As for fluffy dog- we bathed the dog this afternoon.  Ugh.  How many people does it take to bathe a large dog?  Well, it took 4 for us.  He is not a fan of baths.  We hosed him down outside, soaped him up and hosed him off again.  Now he is fluffy and shedding fur EVERYWHERE!  But he's clean.

Even with the warm weather we have been having many, many visitors.  A pair of goldfinches have been busily fluttering about.

The male goldfinch likes hanging out in the blooming catnip.

Followed shortly by the female goldfinch.  She looks like she's having a hard time finding her balance on the stalk.

The female is pretty skittish but the male goldfinch hung around for a while for a photo shoot.  I'm still in love with the zoom on my camera.
I'm really going to try to get up early tomorrow to get out to the garden. Of course, it was already 80 by 8:30 this morning- we managed to briefly hit 100 today- and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. Oh joy....    The other damper on outside work is the number of ticks that we have been finding.  Usually we have a flush of ticks in the spring and then just a few for the rest of the summer.  This spring, we had very few, but suddenly we can't even walk through the grass without picking up two or three crawling up the leg.  Every time I've been out to the garden in the past week I've found at least three ticks crawling on me.  Thankfully no one has found any attached but it's only a matter of time.  One reason the dog got a bath today is that he is due for his monthly flea/tick treatment and I wanted him clean before I applied it.  We've only found one tick attached to him all year so it must be working and with as many ticks as have been around he definitely NEEDS it.  Who knows, maybe we're seeing more ticks because we've been making sure that there is water for the wildlife out near the barn.  Maybe the animals are bringing their friends with them....