4:00 A.M.

... is just too damned early to wake up and not be able to fall back to sleep.  That was the time when Durwood called out that he couldn't find his cannula this morning and, since that's the hose that delivers the oxygen he needs to breathe, it's kind of important.  Well, I helped locate it, patted his head, went back into my bed, and COULD NOT FALL ASLEEP for the life of me.  I even staggered up and dialed up the guided meditation I play as I turn out the light so that the correct "time for sleep" voice played.  Nope, I lay there for over an hour with no luck.  By then my eyelids kept popping open so I gave up and got up.  Of course, Durwood was back in bed and back asleep.  *sigh*  So I went out in the relative cool of the early morning to hose the cottonwood fluff out of the air conditioner vanes so it doesn't get choked out and then I weeded around the straw bales (not the bales, just around them, because the bales don't come with weeds).  Around 10 o'clock I decided to get back into bed and try to nap.  No luck.  After lunch I lay on the couch listening to/watching mindless TV which is where and when I nap, if I nap.  No luck.  I even sat here playing computer games during which I have been known to nod off for half an hour or so.  Not today.  Grr.

I noticed this morning that there are green tomatoes on the Wisconsin 55 plant which means that there are tomatoes-to-be on all four of our tomato plants.



 




The "thank you for the tomato cages" plant has a whole cluster of tomatoes on one stem, kind of like a group of grapes.


 

Tonight when I went out to unplug the fountain and say goodnight to the garden I saw that there's a bud on the butternut squash plant.  I love when things start to fruit.  




After supper I cast on and knitted six rows of the Montparnasse Eco Cardi right front.  It's the same yarn as the first sleeve.  I plan to put the light gray sleeve on the brown gray front and vice versa.  The back will be dark red as will the collar that ties the whole thing together (or maybe I'll use the medium gray skein, hmm).  I think it'll be one of those sweaters that goes with just about everything and gets worn to shreds.  At least I hope it is.


July 1--Ernst Deutsch-Dryden, Poster for Salamander Shoes.  Harriet watched the parade of feet that passed her window like a fashion-conscious centipede.  Her window was level with the sidewalk so she only recognized people from the knees down.  There was a woman whose tights always had a run up the right leg.  She wore high heels in bright glitter colors and skirts so short that Harriet wondered how she sat down without baring her bottom.

That's all I wrote last night.  I was tired from a day in and out of the heat and humidity and having company all day.  I'll be pleased if I get even those few words tonight.  My eyelids keep slamming shut.  Better wrap this up, slap on some pictures, post it, and go night-night.  (All of the pictures above here are either green, gray, or dawn pale so I thought I'd share a picture of more little zinnias blooming in the planters with the petunias.)
--Barbara