Earth and sky

It's cool and quiet and all I want to do is take a nap. The nights have been short; Brian is getting home late and leaving early. Not early enough, mind you; he's been late to work a few times and has threatened to skip his chores because they're going to make him late. I corrected his narrative; it wouldn't be chores that would make him late, it would be sleeping in too late. Personal accountability has become an endangered species; it doesn't help when the person holding the highest office in the land exhibits none, but it will not be allowed to go extinct in THIS house.

Back to the weather (sorry; once a mom, always a mom). Yesterday and today a push of ocean air has given us cloud cover for much of the day and a delicious break from the heat. We lose it tonight; tomorrow will be 'normal' summer weather and then we climb into triple-digit extremes for at least two days. If we had a bigger well, I'd be running hoses 24/7 to give everything a good soaking, but I have to prioritize. The rest of the marionberries will probably burn up. I picked earlier this week and got two more boxes; they were showing the effects of the heat then. Poppy came to see what I was doing – and joined me!

I caught this bumblebee napping on a golden raspberry leaf:

This is one of my cherry tomato plants. It's foliage is affected by herbicide carryover, but it is COVERED with flowers! 

My Red Kuri squash hill is looking good, although there are no blossoms yet.

I am admitting garden envy here. I drive by this house on my way to work; this is the front yard. Two tall beds in the middle, surrounded by lower beds with walk-through gaps. I love the design and construction; so beautiful, so manageable, so productive!

Poppy is in the doldrums again. Her agility class Thursday evening was cancelled (it will start next Thursday), the neighbor boy got 'tutored' this week, and her sister is still in quarantine with her COVID humans (one tested positive, one negative). She needs a good romp! This morning, however, she did get to hunt a mouse in the tack room. She didn't catch it, but it kept her keenly interested for awhile!

How many of you have gotten out to see the comet Neowise? Rick and I drove up the hill to an unobstructed spot last Saturday night to spot it. We had to wait awhile for it to get dark enough, then I used my binoculars to locate it. Once I did that I could spot it with my naked eye. Rick took a ton of photos with his big camera, but I don't know if I'll ever get copies of what he shot. I don't know how Sara captured such a great image with her iPhone; mine sees nothing.

Last night, I decided to see if Neowise was visible here at home. I walked over to the other side of our island bed, found the Big Dipper, looked lower, and there it was, over our woodshed. With the binocs I could see that it had moved; there was a star visible in its 'tail' that wasn't there Saturday night. Fun!

That's it for now from . . .