a better Monday

Life has been complicated recently. Grace had a bad wreck. We are grateful she did not get badly hurt, although she is still struggling with pain and tight muscles. We took our vacation to Santa Fe anyway (we had the airline tickets) and it was her vacation week. Last week was consumed by post vacation and trying to find a car to replace the white one that was destroyed. We found one in Columbia and the whole process was complicated by driving back and forth twice to that city. But there was success despite the stress and...

Just to update, we took the little red car to Fisher's this morning to have it checked out. Yesterday we drove it up Caesar's head and had a picnic of tomato chicken sandwiches. It was surprisingly cool up there, refreshing really, although we shared both the road and the park with a gaggle, roar (?) of motorcycles.

The car handled beautifully, took the hill with no apparent strain, the lighter body apparently compensating for the 4 cylinders. It took the curves nicely, hugging into them. No problems with the brakes on the return trip, either. All good news for you, Grace.

We saw a hummingbird drinking out of jewel weed blossoms and Dad, of course, was targeted by a couple wasps. But the breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay and it was heartening to see how the vegetation has recovered in this rainy year, despite the drought of the previous 3.

Bubba

Bubba is suffering from kidney and thyroid problems. We don't know how much longer we will have her. We will board her at the vet when we visit Grace next week and hope they can get her stabilized. We have her on pills (ever try to pill a cat?) and special food right now and she is slowly, let me emphasis, slowly, improving.

Bubba this past Christmas

Bat box

Well, the bat box is up. John did an absolute meticulous job. Nice guy. Kudos to anyone willing to dig a post hole in summer!

I will post a picture later as I was too tired yesterday to get a shot and it is dark outside at the moment. B spritzed the little brown things to give them an incentive to go looking for accommodations outside our attic.

The garden is not as prolific as in past years, but has been producing a steady stream of cucumbers and tomatoes. The beans have started to come in. I planted a number of home grown seeds and have a bean plant that seems to be a cross between what southerners call field peas and black beans. OK with me. Seems just right.

There is a red and yellow theme to this time of summer. Blooming are fennel, evening primrose, those native cone type flowers whose name I do not know, and red swamp hibiscus. Also some fiery hot peppers are reddening. I don't think I planted any fiercely hot peppers, so there must have been a mix up in the seeds somewhere. Of course, they are prolifically thriving, while the tamer peppers are just in a medium mode. What shall I do with all those intensely hot peppers?