Great Image

I was exploring our little garden early this morning: looking for new veggies, pulling up a weed here and there, checking out all the little bat-ropes our cukes have thrown up since we caged them last weekend. I was also checking for vandalism. I scared away a blue jay yesterday when I drove in the driveway, and earlier, when I was on the phone inside, I saw our neighborhood rabbit scampering away from the garden. Thankfully, I did not see any damage.
We do have about 5 new yellow pear tomatoes forming, the tiny kind. They look like tiny light bulbs. Zillions of cucumbers, a couple of tiny beefsteak tomatoes starting, and buds are forming on the beans. Two of the pepper plants have lots of buds on them, but I believe they're the hot pepper plants. The bell pepper plant is not too prolific. The herbs are all doing well. We have 3 sage plants, parsley, 2 basil plants, dill, lemon thyme, cilantro, and of course our hardy rosemary bushes. They are at least 5 years old and take over the place. I keep hacking them back and they come back stronger than ever. Oh yes, and the also-hardy mint! A neighbor asked for some in the spring, and I had to warn him: be careful what you ask for. It's the next generation of kudzu.
As I was exploring the garden, the bees were buzzing around, busily collecting pollen from the blooms. I saw the most amazing image and doggone, did not have a camera handy. The image was so transitory I knew that I did not have time to run for one.
You know how the sun can strike a bloom and the petals just glow? As if they were illuminated from within? Well, a couple of the cucumber blooms were in the sunlight at just the perfect angle so that the yellow was just vivid. And there, inside one bloom, was a bee, doing his thing. His shadow appeared on the outside of the bloom with such detail, it was amazing. I just froze, there, leaning over, my hand still grasping a weed in the ground. He left the one bloom and entered another that was just as lit up as the first, and again, I had this grand shadow-movie of his activity inside the bloom.
I am trying to describe it as I am much better with words than with cameras anyway, but this may be one of those things you would just have to see. Take my word for it, it was breathtaking.
I always try to be a person who appreciates small pleasures, and this was surely one.

Cool and Beautiful Morning

Ah, the sun is shining and the birds are singing. The air is cool and dry. What could be better? I just won a game of spades on line and DH is practicing his violin. He likes it better than the guitar! ...but he, ahem, plays the guitar with a little more skill. He'll get there! I am amazed how on earth he can find the notes on the violin. There are no frets, and the angle of the bow, and the pressure, seem to make a difference. Too complex for me!

In case you haven't seen it, I wrote an homage to my dad on Father's Day in our little local paper. You can read it here. I wrote two additional articles for Father's Day for that same edition; all three were about following in your father's footsteps. The other two are here and here.

LO is at Youth Conference for church with the twins and our Youth Pastor. I talked with the YP yesterday and she reports LO is having a grand time. She had just seen LO in a canoe on the lake with the twins going around in circles, laughing her head off. She has tennis camp at the local college next week and art classes the week after.

The garden is doing well. We have enjoyed the veggies of our labor and more is to come. It appears to be a good thing we like cucumbers; there are a thousand blooms.

DH and I have a day ahead of us with no one else around, and no work to get go to. I can't remember when that has happened. Will we paint something? Will we fix something? Or will we hang out? Think I'll go find out. ...Til next time, bye.

Dear Nephew and Fam

We traveled on Saturday to visit our Dear Nephew, his lovely wife and two precious girls. DN deploys to Iraq, dammit, this week, and we made the journey to have time with them and say goodbye to him before he goes. It was a 2hr, 45 minute trip each way, and definitely worth any trouble and time it took.

Their little house is just great. The girls love their room and it is all decorated just beautifully. It's bright and sunny. Niece-in-law is very capable and just does a great job making it a home for their fam.

They cooked hot dogs and hammies (including a not-hammie for moi!) on the grill, and we also had salad, corn, beans, chips, and pickles. Wow. Homemade cheesecake an hour or two later and we rolled home.

We got lost on the way home, navigator problems, and decided to go home via the southern route rather than the northern route. It was 1/2 hour quicker and much more pleasant.

We got home tired but happy. More good news is DH helped with housework on Sunday and we finished sososo quickly.

The cam is somewhere and I will post the few photos we took soon.