Lily

The Stargazer lily is opening.  Hooray!  Look how gorgeous it is--and I don't even like pink.

Speaking of pink the Pink Rebel Girl Hat #3 is getting knitted on.  I was tired enough last night--again--that I only managed a half-dozen rounds but every one counts.  Later today I have to search online for a charted alphabet so once the hat is done I can get to work putting the DIL1-invented Rebel Girl mantra on.  She and LC say that Rebel Girls are: Strong, Smart, Kind, and Brave.  Good words to have on a hat, I think.



The sole surviving hosta up on the retaining wall in back is in bloom.  Hosta leaves are so pretty I forget that they blossom until the first little lavender trumpet opens.

I learned why half of the butternut squash blossoms fall off without making a squash; it's because they're the male ones.  The female ones, like this one, start growing a squash under their blossom.  Pretty cool info, huh?







While admiring the squash blossom I saw a hint of red-orange in the Celebrity tomato plant.  Durwood's excited and I am too, I might get a bite of this one.

Yesterday afternoon I made a batch of Chicken Soup with Mustard Greens and Spinach.  It's my adaptation of a Green Soup recipe I cut out of Reader's Digest a few years back and the Fast Chicken Soup recipe I've used for years.  I found that not having any protein in the soup didn't help it "stick to my ribs" through a workday so I kind of combined the recipes.  It's especially good in the winter when there's nothing green and fresh to eat, but a cup of it makes a great summertime lunch too.


July 24--Katsushika Hokusai, South Wind, Clear Sky or "Red Fuji"  When the wind blew from the south all of the clouds blanketing Mt. Fuji blew away in tatters before it leaving the mountain out for all to see.  Wan Li watched the way the light changed the mood of the mountain.  His field was far enough away that he saw Fuji-san, as he liked to think of it, from top to bottom.  He liked to see the way the shifting light cast shadows that revealed valleys and ridges, then disappeared as the sun changed position.  He told no one but he had always thought that the mountain knew him too.  It visited him in his dreams and it spoke to him with rumbled and sent smoke from its peak when it had important things to say.

I'm off to meet a new writer friend to see if we want to start up a little, two-person writing group.  I'm excited.
--Barbara