Summertime Gloriousness

We are fully in it around here . . . it is full on Summertime.

The beach is glorious . . . 

Cacti Corey threw out blossom #s 9, 10 and 11 . . . 

 . . . we tried to emulate Tony's Tomatoes . . . 

. . . and did a pretty good job, I might add.

The Sailfest Boom-Booms came back . . . 

(Sailfest Boom-Boom photos stolen from Sailfest site)

And if all that doesn't scream Summertime . . . 

. . . rum and pineapples certainly do.

Happy Summah!

Fly the Flag

 This 4th of July, we're going to fly the flag.

We're going to fly this one . . . 

. . . and this one . . . 

. . . and this one . . . 

. . . and this one.

And, of course, this one . . . 

We Dissent

After the world turned upside down on Friday, we sought beauty and joy where we could find it.

We found it right here, in Cacti Corey . . . 

And we needed it:

After today, young women will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers had. The majority accomplishes that result without so much as considering how women have relied on the right to choose or what it means to take that right away. The majority’s refusal even to consider the life-altering consequences of reversing Roe and Casey is a stunning indictment of its decision.

[The majority] eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women’s freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Court’s legitimacy. 

In overruling Roe and Casey, this Court betrays its guiding principles. With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent.

-- Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan 

We dissent.

1 Time day

Our great and glorious friend Kat Murphy found this list yesterday and brought it over and nothing has been the same ever since.

Bella and Addi have some ideas about the powers they wish they had. I wish I had their powers.

Bella's list  . . .  

 

1. Super Speed ¹

2. ice ²

3. fire ³

4. control weather ⁴

5. green lantern ⁵

6. Invisible ⁶

 

Signed by a probably very young tiny tot Bello/Bella

 

Addi, on the other hand . . . 

 

1. Read minds ⁷

2. heal myself ⁸

3. Move things with mind ⁹

4. water ¹⁰

5. when I touch people I see there past ¹¹

6. Teliport 1 time day ¹²

 

Oh my darling girl.

My thoughts, you ask? Oh, I have many thoughts . . . 

¹ Of course.

² Sure. But, like, to *make* it? For beverages?

³ Okay. Just be careful.

⁴ Yes please. I like it hot and steamy.

⁵ Whatever you say, honey.

⁶ Oooh, now we're talking . . . 

 

And Addi's ist? . . .

⁷ Good luck with that honey; better you than me.

⁸ Ohmygod. Okay. That stopped me in my tracks. Oh, Addi.

⁹ I would dearly love to know what you would move.

¹⁰ To swim in? To drink? For flowers? Elaborate. Please.

¹¹ Oh dear. Are you sure? Because that is a *lot* to take on, you gorgeous empathetic creature.

¹² Again with the stopping in my tracks. Because only 1? One time a day? Oh you modest glorious soul.

 

I love Addi. And I love Bella. And I need to teleport with them.

1 time day.

The Anti-Dust Bowl

 It was a week. 

Mom would have been proud, and I'm quite sure of that.

We finished clearing out Mom and Dad's place, and it was emotional and exhausting and has taken me all weekend to recover.

I drank approximately 75 gallons of wine, too, but that's not important right now.

In the meantime, Mistah and I can't keep up -- *nobody* can keep up -- with all that is growing out there in the Field and in the World, but who cares, really. I'd rather have this absurd amount of green growing than what the poor Joads* had to go through during the Dust Bowl years.

*I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath**

** for the first time ever***

***I know, right? It's awesome.

Anyway, here it is green. And here are some photos of the green side of things. The other side of that green wall has purple and orange and yellow and white and red.****

****You'll have to trust me on that one.

The new tree is happy.

Oooh, here's some color! Of the sugar snap pea variety . . .  

And here's some more . . .  

. . . compliments of Lydia and Sebastian at the Dutch.

And here is our absurdly awesome Nancy orchid.

And let me tell you this, my people . . .  

. . .  keep your eyes on Cacti Corey.

Talk about ready to Bust Loose . . . 

Bustin' Loose

When I talked to Mom at 4:44 every day, I'd regale her with stories of our Field Work. She'd always said we were (well, *I* was) working too hard but I always said, "But it's not work; I love it." 

I love it.

There needs to be a different phrase for Field work.

Work is work. But gardening is fun. Hard, yes. Taxing, sure. But fun. And ever so rewarding.

Exhibit A. 

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C.

Okay, we can't go on like this, plus I'm a terrible photogrophist, but let me tell you this . . . 

Cacti Corey is about to bust loose . . . 

And we will be there for her.

Let's just call these next photos Exhibits A through Z . . .  

. . . everything is busting loose.

These make me happy.

And these make me happy and are soon going to make me even more happy. When they, you know, bust loose.

And the hydrangea? Oh, loose it will bust.

The Iri have already done all their busting, and have made this season so spectacular, and are handing it over to their next friends . . . 

. . . these guys . . . 

. . . and this butterfly bush guy . . .

. . . and these grape vine guys.

We are all about to bust loose together.

Happy Memorial Day!

Around these parts, we celebrated by planting a tree. In honor of the Field, and Summer, and being in our home for 14 years, and everything that is good. Because there *is* good out there. There is.

Have a spectacular day.

Roll With It

 You never know what Life has in store for you . . . 

. . . so you roll with it.

When your sisters send you plants . . . 

. . . you plant them in the ground.

When Nancy gives you a gorgeous orchid for Christmas . . . 

. . . you bring it outside for some sun.

When a rouge band of bees builds a new hive . . . 

. . . you watch Science in action.

When you bring Big Cacti out for the season . . . 

. . . you give your kitchen floor the rock-'n'-roll dance party treatment.

And when your lovely eldest sister is in town and it's a spectacular 80-degree May afternoon . . . 

. . . you know what to do.

The Greening of America

I think that every year I post about the Greening of America but here's the thing. It happens every year.

And every year it is magical.

This year is no exception.

The grass is deeply green, the flowers are going nuts, and the grape leaves . . .

. . . are starting their annual entrance into this world of ours.

I love them because you can't quite tell if they're flora or fauna . . .

  

I love them for a million reasons because they're so weird and awesome.

One might call them weirdly awesome.

Steven's house loves this time of year . . . 

. . . the juniper loves this time of year . . . 

. . . everybody loves this time of year.

It's the Season of the Greening.