Back to the Here and Now

Well sort of. We're a week behind; frankly there isn't much to tell. As predicted, last week was quiet for the most part, however, every now and again this little girl entertained me. At least I think this is a little one from our nest because of both her flying skills, and her breast coloring.

June rain is expected, but holy cow, we got a lot--more than 9 inches. This of course has put a huge damper on outdoor vending. I checked my Square report and the charges I processed last month were 8%, yes you read that right, EIGHT percent of my May total! Sunday was more of the same. I skipped Saturday; the forecast was 80% rain, which mostly never materialized. With that in mind, 70% rain chance on Sunday sounded pretty good. Wrong! By 12:45 I was calling Bruce for help.

Arriving earlier for set up I could not believe how vacant the market was--turns out there was no electricity which kept many of the vendors away. The bridge was so empty it looked like when I first began, with just a smattering of vendors.

For the last month, the park service has been remodeling the area adjacent to the market, tearing down four beautiful old houses and replacing them with grass. I suspect they were hoping to be done before the huge onslaught of visitors for the Fourth of July fireworks this week. Only one home was left standing to serve as the park headquarters which you can see in this photo. All of the orange temporary fencing reminded me of our trip long ago to see Christo's "The Gates" in New York's Central Park. The link takes you to their website with the cool renderings of how it was to be installed.

We managed to get home without incident, however, once there we discovered this:

Our crazy expensive umbrella snapped in two! Even Mr. Fix-it could not salvage this mess! The wiring for the LCD lights ripped right out. You can imagine our distress. A very inexpensive replacement was purchased later in the day from Target. Good thing it happened when it did because they were doing a close-out; I suspect in a week or so the bin would have been empty.

All this rain has made the grass grow like CRAZY! Because the edger operation is beyond my capabilities, the mowing waited until Bruce got home on Friday. Although I'd mowed the previous Friday before our trip, the edging did not get done, so two weeks without would have had the grass growing into the street.

Can you see how long it was? Of course the ground is wet--more rain began whilst he was mowing.

One of the driving skills tested when you get a British license is backing up around a corner. Who does that very often? I couldn't think of an instance when it would be necessary, but now I can. Cleaning out my closet the other day I had some things to take to Goodwill. A new Express drop off is located in a former branch bank with a drive through. Good deal, EXCEPT, when I came around the curve look what kept me from leaving:

I sat there for so long waiting for the truck guy to finish his business, the attendant offered me a bottle of water! Express indeed.

Make that Xpress.

Another Baxter photo, showing off his new haircut:

That little kerchief lasted all of about one day. As I type, he's taking up most of my chair, sitting behind me. :-)

Hydrangeas are blooming in various neighbor's gardens,

bringing some beautiful color to this dreary weather. Every now and again the sun will shine, mostly as a teaser. Riding my bike by this house in the winter I had no idea the six trees were crepe myrtles but now I do:

Everywhere I ride they are blooming like mad. Hot pink, light pink, white, lavender; it's nothing short of fantastic!

For no other reason than that I covet this house, I'm including it today:

Mostly it's the screen door I love.

Not selling very much means not ordering, signing, picking up and the like, leaving me with more free time than I am accustomed to. As such, for the first time in as long as I can remember, (which isn't saying much!) I have read every one of my library books and every single one of them were great! Here's the list:

• "More Than You Know" by Beth Gutcheon
• "Saints at the River" by Ron Rash
• "Faith" by Jennifer Haigh
• "Mrs. Kimble" by Jennifer Haigh
• "Trains and Lovers" by Alexander McCall Smith

Beth Gutcheon and Mr. Smith are new authors for me--excellent writers both. Ms. Haigh and Mr. Rash are the kind of storytellers who test your scheduled bedtime. I so admire people who can firstly, dream up entire worlds, and secondly, write it all down with language skills I can only dream about. I suspect with a summer full of rain, Mrs. Peck will be reading, reading, reading.