"I like the Haiku that Paula made* on her sky and Catalina Mountains watercolor," Toby said when I was at the farm. 

I agreed with him. But that was a few days ago. Today, I couldn't find him; then, I ran across my little sketchbook lying open on the porch and found his paw print with a Haiku...

Hmmm. Maybe not what the tradition had in mind, but then, what do I know of cat Haiku traditions?

I didn't find him that day. He must have been over in the woods decreasing the farm's mole population.

*See Monday, July 4, 2022, blog posting for Paula's lovely watercolor and Haiku.

     ________

The Haiku Paula made stuck in my mind and one drought-stricken, early morning in a fit of sadness from missing the geese' daybreak flyovers, the words came...

The Earth is burning

Geese fly elsewhere for water

Tears roll down my cheeks

I miss the geese flying over at the break of day and long into the evenings. To cheer myself up, I went back to look at a photo from the morning after heavy rain had broken the dry spell...

A pathway leads me

The path is mysterious

Shall I follow it?

***

It's time to have a look at The Arts Desk.

In Tucson, Paula has continued journaling in her backyard...

The variety of life at Paula and Carl's home is astonishing. In today's terms, they have "re-wilded" their environment from a plot that had been mistakenly scraped nearly bare by the former owner. Many weekends they rescued cacti and other plant life uprooted by construction, re-locating them in their yard. Gradually it has become a haven for all manner of local animals, birds, insects, and plants. I'd add humans, too.

This abundance has contributed to Paula's keen observations which she is now combining into beautiful, monthly journals...

_________

In Missouri, Jeanenne tried some beautiful new sewing techniques...

***

We go now to the Sports Desk:

Also in Missouri, Niece Paula documented her grandkids taking part in some summer sports. Shared by the kids' great-grandmother Sandy...

Hunter (blue pants) on the soccer field...

Paisley (in pink shirt) on another soccer field...

And, Lilly (pink shorts) on the balance beam...

***

It's time now for the Farm Report:

Wendy said goodbye to Aidan in Cincinnati and began her drive home while Keoni was recovering from a red-eye return home from Colorado. By the time she drove into her driveway at the farm in Pennsylvania he was fully awake and we'd just finished a nice walk. It was so good to see them both. I'll miss Aidan a lot, but have Keoni to see a bit before Wednesday when he flies away to Houston to take up residence and his new job there. Wendy took a picture of us...

We ran across a groundhog on our walk...

Wendy has shared some animal portraits for me to love...

Handsome Frezz has some grey hair these days.

Sebastian and Toby doing what they're really good at.

Miss Florence the friendly chicken.

________

Over in Utah, Elijah started his Senior year watching Monday's sunrise with his friends. They plan to watch the sunset together when they graduate. He is driving back and forth to school. Kingston began second grade Tuesday...

So, everybody is in school or about to start a job. Empty nesters Wendy and John are indulging in some extra-curricular activities; Wendy salsa dancing with her horse stable friends, John at a poker table with friends.

***

From the Green Goddess Desk:

*"From audio recordings played by...trash cans in Malmö, Sweden, when waste is deposited." Appeared in Harper's Magazine, September 2022 edition, p.16, Dirty Talk.
Illustration by JM 😁

***

There was a recent Random Act of Kindness to report:

After an early morning lab appointment, yours truly went across the lobby of the regional hospital to the 24/7 cafe to get a Danish to go with the mug of coffee waiting outside in my parked car. Only a couple of customers were around besides the short order cook. I picked out my pastry and went to the empty cash register island, found the exact change for my purchase, and looked around for someone to pay. Just then one of the other customers approached the island and said here I'll take care of that, swiped his credit card for his purchases and mine, then refused my cash. "Have a good day," he smiled and walked away to wherever he was headed. 

Yes, I had a good day.

Make Do

All ended well in Las Vegas. Elijah and his dad Duane got over the Covid okay, then, returned to Duane's home in Wisconsin where Elijah spent a couple of weeks more with his dad and his family. Valerie and Tim returned to Albuquerque after their LV visit with the rest of the family non-Covid sufferers. Kingston had a great time while his brother Elijah and his dad nursed their virus. 

And Elijah continues to attract some good words that Jeff shared with us...

I cannot believe that Elijah is going into his Senior year!

________

On his last day at home this summer before he left for a Tucson visit to be followed by his return to Cincinnatti, Aidan made up a wonderful batch of pancakes for the brunch he served us...

Besides his cookery this summer and teaching his students, Aidan took time out for walks at the farm with me. How I'll miss that and all those lockdown era times I walked with him or Keoni. I think Keoni will be back soon for a couple of days before he becomes a permanent Houston resident. At the brunch table I asked Wendy where Keoni currently is. She looked at her phone and said his phone is in Colorado.

_________

It's very dry for this part of the world but a welcome, heavy rain came and provided some relief...

The woods path here at Dock.

The drought resumed and a few light rains did little to relieve the dry conditions, high temps, and muggy atmosphere. Yet, there has been activity...

Wendy's butterfly bush is doing its job.

From Aidan.

***

"Hey, Toby, my get up and go got up and went."

"Me, too," he replied, "It must be August."

"Boy, you hit the nail on the head!"

"It's too hot. I don't even want to hunt very much."

"Is that why you're looking skinny?"

"Maybe, but back in June, it was because the chickens were getting into my food and eating it every time I turned my back."

"Oh-oh."

"Don't worry, Wendy put a stop to it," he assured me.

"Glad to hear it."

"I'm sure that big white rooster put those hens up to it!"

"I guess that's why you weighed a pound less than last year when I took you to the vet's."

"Let's not talk about the vet."

"OK." I dropped the subject.

The hot breeze puffed his fur a bit, and he rolled over onto his back and fell asleep. I nodded off, too.

***

Has August brought you summer doldrums? Is "blah" your response to the day? 

You are not alone. Here to help you when you don't want to shop,  takeout, order, or dirty up the kitchen is a satisfying, minimalist lunch...

Make Do Recipe Corner:

Lunch:

On a cutting board lay:

      10 whole wheat cracker squares (you know, the old saltine type)

On each cracker lay:

     10 equal-sized cheese slices (use up the old cheese in the fridge)

Serve on cutting board.

Add:

     15 oz jar/can applesauce

in a bowl. Stir in:

     4 oz cranberry sauce

Serve with the crackers and cheese and a good book.

Substitutions: Use peanut butter instead of cheese. 

Everything Is Different

"Toby, I was thinking yesterday that all the infants and toddlers around the world now are Pandemic Babies."

"Why do you want to give them a category name?"

"I don't know, maybe because this era is so different than when you and I were that age."

"Oh, yeah, when you and I were back at the condo in Tucson, I was a kitten there!"

"I was a kitten."

"What do you remember?"

"I really liked that fluffy, orange rat you gave me. Oh yes, and my two cat trees. It was fun doing my claws on the living room one. It was a pretty good launch pad for the top of the cabinets, too."

"Which one was your favorite?"

"Hands down, the one on the screened patio. I loved perching there so I could see the outdoors, the trees, and the wash next to us was where the wild things are. Still, I couldn't go outside the porch for dinner and a show like here at the farm."

"What do you miss the most?"

"Those early afternoons when you took a nap on the couch and I took a nap on your stomach."

"Wow, me too! I miss that the most. Sure was peaceful."

"It sure was." He was quiet for a minute; then said, "Something I don't miss--that awful broiler pan full of soap and water flopping over onto the floor when I jumped up on the kitchen counter."

"Oho! so you remember that!"

"Yeah, it totally scared me. You don't forget stuff like that. You were away on an errand. I felt bad about it."

I couldn't find him when I got home that day. I searched and searched and grew worried he'd somehow gotten outside and a coyote got him. When I saw the quilt covering my bed slightly rising and falling right where it was tucked at the pillow, I knew I'd found him. "I was so glad you were OK, my friend."

"You can have whatever it is you have on your counters! I never want a nasty pan of soapy water crashing again!!!"

"Here at the farm, you don't need to concern yourself about that anymore," I reassured him.

"Everything is different," he said.

"Yep, everything is different."

***

Another basketball weekend for Elijah and his team in a Las Vegas tournament turned instead into a weekend there with Covid. Elijah and his dad Duane both came down with it. Thankfully, both were fully vaxxed and boosted and are recovering. The rest of the family, all there for both the tournament and some visit time together, have supplied their doorstep with foodstuffs and other essentials.

We can't report anything from that sports angle, so we'll back up a couple of years and post a video recently found buried in an incorrect folder for the 

Sports Desk...

Young Kingston and big bro Elijah practicing their basketball moves.

________

And, Wendy was pursuing her riding sport, and while grooming the horse she rides at a local stable a deer strolled into view with her twin fawns not far behind. Wendy captured this...

***

From the Arts Desk...

I see the family art streak has cropped up yet again among our dear youngsters. This time it is Lilly...

Great-grandniece Lilly (6) drew Great-Grandma Sandy, Lilly (herself), brother Hunter (8), and sister Paisley (5).

Keep it going, young lady. 

________

And, the rocks Sonja sent me are now all painted...

***

We'll pause now for a Milestone. Yours truly had another birthday. It was special sitting with Pat and Marge one last time on Marge's back porch and having a takeout lunch with Pat's homemade pound cake and some ice cream to go with it. We were saying goodbye to that lovely backyard, too. Her place is now sold and Marge will take up residence in Ohio in a few more days.

Marge.

Pat.

________

Then, evening time Wendy, John, and Aidan had me for a birthday dinner at the Spinnerstown Hotel outdoor deck where the family also had our Christmas dinner...

Wendy & John.

Aidan and Me.

The lovely birthday flowers they gave me.

We finished off with a dessert at the farm. On the way back, Aidan drove himself and me in my car to our fave local store for me to choose a dessert. A big lemon meringue pie caught my eye. Great pie, great treats, great fun having a grandson drive my pony Subaru. What's not to like?

Family and friends' messages and remembrances arrived in abundance that continue to charm and fills me with thanks for the wealth of grateful, happy feeling each one brings.

***

As Aidan and I had driven along on that special day, the roadside Queen Anne's Lace was everywhere. It doesn't mind our heat wave much at all. I related to Aidan that my dear cousin Jackie had liked to gather them into a bouquet when she was a youngster. The birthday greeting I got from her brought them to mind because I like to send her pictures of them. In lieu of new photos taken during our heat, I gathered up ones from the past blog postings and Photos let me put them into a slide show. The final slide is from Keoni.

***

We Are Stardust

"Toby, can you think of what a billion years is?"

"Do you mean in cat years, or human years?"

"Our years, like how many times Earth goes around the sun."

"Well, no, I can't," he said.

"Me neither. I can't even imagine a billion years of our Earth circling our sun. Did you know Earth's been doing that for around 4 1/2 billion years?"

"Whatever made you think about this?" he asked.

"I just heard that a million miles up, way, way out into the sky, into space there is a telescope named James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that was rocketed out there last December. Now it began sending us infrared pictures that show what was happening 13 billion years ago, even way farther beyond that. That's the back of beyond--the Big Bang--where everything began 13.5 billion years ago."

"Rockets!" he exclaimed. "That Tesla guy is out there doing this?"

"Ugh. No way! Perish the thought! Our NASA and European Space Agency got together to do it. They started working on it back in the 90s."

"What are they seeing?"

They are seeing "...the universe turn the lights on for the first time right after the Big Bang," is how Eric Smith the Webb program scientist put it. Webb will look at five cosmic phenomena that are 7,600 light-years away and send us some more pictures. Richard Ellis, professor of astrophysics at University College London who was part of the committee that thought up the telescope said, "...we are ourselves made of the material synthesized in stars over the past 13 billion years."

"We are? You and me?"

"Yep! Your stardust made a cat; my stardust made a human."

I could hear him purring as he said...

***

Number Seven of the January 6th Insurrection Hearings took place this afternoon. It covered a lot about the militias and people that took part in it, and much else. My hope is that our ballot box is strengthened so nothing like that ever happens again.

When I slid my 2020 ballot into a ballot collection drop box, I had for the first time in my 60 years of voting a disquieting, uneasy feeling that it might not be counted because of mounting disenfranchising manipulations and obstructions going on. How could something so base and out of line with America happen? How is that still happening right now?

Here we are. We who are made from the dust of the Universe, running around in senseless ways destroying our planet, each other, and the societal governing fabrics that make it possible for 8 1/2 billion (and counting) of us to live on our beautiful, blue planet. The Universe will go on without us. 

Just as Ben Franklin said, "It's a democracy if you can keep it."

It's our planet home, if we can keep it.

There are ways forward. Here are a couple...

ELECTION INFORMATION from League of Women Voters Education Fund
*Your ballot's candidates and issues anywhere in the USA--any political affiliations! 

*The office function.

*The candidates.

*Each candidate's answers to their background, why they're running, their answers to questions on current issues--local to national.

*Side-by-side, interactive candidate comparison tool.

*Your districts' ballot issues in plain summaries with published Pro and Con views.

*Print your own personalized, informed list while you're reviewing the candidates and issues. The interactive lets you check your choices, print your list, or email/text it to yourself,

*Find your polling place.

*Discover debates in your area.

*Checklist for first-time voters.

*Election problem phone numbers for multiple languages. 

________

"Writing letters to voters is one of the most effective ways to increase election turnout. And you can do it right from home," says Vote Forward's website. It's about getting out the vote. It rejects political partisanship. There is a comprehensive how-to. You can choose current campaigns and issues that are near or far.

________

Please, feel free to forward this voting information to others. One-by-one, vote-by-vote, we'll make democracy work for every single, last one of us Americans!!!

Shirt courtesy of Sandy. Thank you. Just what the doctor ordered.

***

And, we had that summer holiday and Aidan was well prepared for it. He put together a fun rocket fest out behind the barn, and yes, he made the rockets...

***

Here we want a shout-out to congratulate Jeff over in Utah who will start a new job working for the VA on August 1st. That rocks, Jeff! And, it's working from home. Sonja's VA job has been from home since before the pandemic. Now Jeff will be similarly employed. I'm really happy for him and for them both. 

***

And now! for the art part, we go to The Arts Desk:

Paula has given us a new look at Rose Canyon in the Catalina Mountains in the northern reaches of Tucson, Arizona...

Paula sent this summer's pink cactus in bloom again. If you're a reader of this blog you probably remember that this was one of my several cactus plants that needed a new home when I moved to my condo and the Javelina started to eat them. Paula and Carl rescued them and often I get to enjoy a picture of their blooms...

Within a couple of hours of Paula's email, I received two pink cactus flower pictures from Gloria, also...

These began as a few pups from the mama plant, now at Paula and Carl's, which I had given to Gloria during the early aughts, before I moved to the condo. I think I purchased the original plant at the Oro Valley Farm Market one Saturday morning.

I'm always struck by the energy of their cells rapidly multiplying to make such glorious beauty out of so very little.

________

Keoni is at a music institute in Chicago. He sent us Jesse Montgomery Ravinia Performance. He says, "Jessie Montgomery (the composer in residence) speaks to the audience at 8 minutes in, my quartet performs her piece Break Away at 48:55. It's a striking and vivid piece about 10 min long and I think it's one of the coolest string quartets I've ever performed."

***

And here at Dock, the summer flowers are everywhere...

***

Yes, We Are Keeping This Democracy!

"Gee whiz, Toby, war and pestilence took a back seat to extreme political, authoritarian, takedowns of our democracy. I'm going to lie here in the grass and look up at the blue sky."

"I'll join you." 

"What do you long for, Toby?"

"Oh...dinner and a show, I guess."

I didn't ask him to elaborate on that. My mind didn't want to wonder about his menus and entertainment. Besides, the endless blue sky saturated and cooled my heated thoughts.

He distracted me from my reverie when he asked, "What do you long for?"

"Survival of the kindest."

"Good luck with that! It looks like you humans are all about 'Survival of the Craziest.'"

"Oh-oh, you listened to the neighbors' audio again. Don't believe everything you hear. There are plenty of us taking a breather this holiday. We'll be back."

"Be back and do what?" 

First, tell Ben Franklin he can stop spinning in his grave because, yes! we are keeping this democracy!"

Here's how--

VOTE!!!

ELECTION INFORMATION from League of Women Voters Education Fund
*Your ballot's candidates and issues anywhere in the USA--any political affiliations! 

*The office function.

*The candidates.

*Each candidate's answers to their background, why they're running, their answers to questions on current issues--local to national.

*Side-by-side, interactive candidate comparison tool.

*Your districts' ballot issues in plain summaries with published Pro and Con views.

*Print your own personalized, informed list while you're reviewing the candidates and issues. The interactive lets you check your choices, print your list, or email/text it to yourself,

*Find your polling place.

*Discover debates in your area.

*Checklist for first-time voters.

*Election problem phone numbers for multiple languages. 

            --bullet points are taken from The League of Women Voters website.

________

"Writing letters to voters is one of the most effective ways to increase election turnout. And you can do it right from home," says Vote Forward's website. It's about getting out the vote. It rejects political partisanship. There is a comprehensive how-to. You can choose current campaigns and issues that are near or far.

________

Please, feel free to forward this voting information to others. One-by-one, vote-by-vote, we'll make democracy work for every single, last one of us Americans!!! Rule by Few is over!

***

There is nothing like a good old-fashioned air show to spark up patriotism. Sonja, Jeff and family were recently at Hill AFB in Utah for just that...

Thunderbirds!

Kingston & Sonja.

And, there is nothing like getting a better view from your dad's shoulders.

From Jeff...

The Arts Desk begins today with Paula's Haiku and illustration that capture how dominant June's immense heat is in the desert southwest. Not long after she made this, there was a 0.75-inch rain thunderstorm that launched rainy season. We all hope more will come to fill the promise of the once-reliable summer season of rain.

________

Back to the painting of rocks, Sonja, Jeff, and the boys hid their batch of colorful rocks all around their local park. Here are some of them...

When they went back the next day every single one had disappeared. Fun to think they found their way into pockets and live somewhere else now. 

I didn't get quite as far with my rock painting as yet, but I will share one day soon.

***

I think The Green Goddess is happy we are looking into better foods and products. There are a couple of helps we've found...

From Wendy: Environmental Working Group has tons of good product information for "smart, healthy decisions" of what to buy.

Valerie sent: Yuka the mobile app that "scans [bar codes] your diet and cosmetics" with a wealth of info on each product, good, bad, or otherwise.

***

Well, it's time to sign off for today. Aidan is going to set off the rockets he's made to celebrate our Independence Day holiday.  He sent over a picture of Toby's nap time today.

***

HAPPY 4th of  JULY!!!