Summer arrived here a few minutes ago on June 20. For those in the Atlantic time zone or Europe, the magic day will be the 21st. At any rate, here's wishing you a lovely summer.

If you'd like to look back on where we've been, go to The thread "Support-for-a-Healthy-Lifestyle-in-Spring 2021!" in Sandbox forum

Thanks, Ann! For us summer started last weekend with those high temps and high humidity! Geez, I never though I would be looking forward to rain, which it's supposed to do today, plus a nice cool down for 2 days. It will be a busy day; a lot of phone calls to make and I need to take one of my cats, Googie, to the vet today if I can get an appointment. She has what seems to be a nasty abscess on the underneath side of her tail.
I also need to record all my volunteer hours for Master Gardeners and plan the budget for next month because all the bills are in. I'm moving forward with all the work that needs to be done on the car; up next is a Freon recharge so I can use the air con! Then there's buying fireworks for the 4th…..I would like to get out of buying them, but the truth is I enjoy them as much as my son does if not more…..

Howdy. Yes it sure feels like summer here last couple days. Today too but then we get another more moderate few days.
Thanks Ann for doing the new thread

"Summertime.................and the livin's easy................
Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high.................."

Thanks for starting the new thread Ann.

It's not too hot here yesterday, but I did wait until the late afternoon to go for a walk with my kids, we did walk about 2 miles to/from our house to my sister's yard. I wanted to show the kids her yard, they never saw my sister's house ever. So we all had a nice relaxing walk after a very good BBQ meal with our fresh garden produce. We also played Scrabble on a big board that they bought for us Christmas. It was very enjoyable and I won, my husband was second, lol.

My fashion consultant said to return the fancy shoes because it will be hard to walk on them, she said if the new shoes that will becoming don't fit, it's ok for me to wear the pair I already own. It's a good suggestion because it sounds like a long event.

Today the weather will be cool enough that I can do some planting of plants that I bought recently. I will also able to go swimming for at least 30 minutes in the morning.

My Black Swallowtail has emerged!! Still trying to call the vet; the numbers busy every time I call.

Beautiful Lynda, I don't think I see them often here.

My first one of the year. I don't think I will have any more. Last year I raised 30 cats; the year before, nearly 50. The numbers wax and wane here.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, not too hot, about 75, sunny with a nice breeze so I worked outside most of the day, trying to get caught up on the never ending weeding.

My haul for today, summer is definitely here. Time to make French tomato tart, my husband is going for a walk and getting Dijon mustard for me.

My knees are doing much better and I noticed that I go up the stairs faster. Weather is pretty much and will be for months, but mornings are o.k., thank goodness.

This was last week. I was surprised the flowers have lasted so long. It has been over 95 and 100F many days. Some people think the palm tree steals the show. The color of the sky is accurate.



This is the garden, which has been giving us plenty of cucumbers and more than enough zucchini. DH covers it with shade cloth when it is really hot. I think you can see how strong the sun is. I don't notice the solitary Italian cypress, but my friends back east think it is strange.

Rainy here today. I was going to take a round of hosta pictures, but I wasn't in time and I prefer pictures of them when they are dry. I have been doing major pruning on a couple of very large Christmas cactii before I put them in the screened porch for the summer.

SoCal - go for the comfortable shoes. If you had Lasik years ago, have the eyes changed that you need glasses? I had Laser surgery, but not the Lasik procedure in late Dec. 2016. I did have one eye undercorrected for easier reading. I'm legal to drive w/o glasses though if I'm out of my local neighbourhood, I have a pair that offers light correction and I always use them at night. But I can also read most things w/o reading glasses. And I play in the orchestra (or will when the pandemic is over) w/o glasses.

Re makeup, I hate it. Have even given up mascara. For awhile, I had my lashes tinted but they didn't seem to hold the tint for very long; so it's been a long time since I've done that. Too much makeup is toxic - https://www.cbc.ca/player/play... And when I used a covergirl product a few years ago, I kept getting excrutiating pain in my eyes and concluded that it contained something that was a real irritant. No problems at all after I quit using it. I use a very good moisturizer which has a light sunscreen in it and a lip gloss and that's it.

Ann, my LASIk was done in 2001-2002 time frame, I don't need reading glasses now, I can read very comfortable without reading glasses, no computer glasses either. I think I can drive in the day without glasses, but I feel comfortable with one. I don't want to drive down to the ditch like my sister, she doesn't wear glasses after her LASIK, I think she's now required to wear glasses for driving due to glaucoma.

I used to love buying make up, but I only wore them when I went out for special occasions, I only wore lite lipgloss when I went to work. So this buying of make up is only one time off. I can't remember what happened to the set I bought for 2017 wedding.

This morning I did 45 minutes of swimming, but this afternoon, I'm going to go to the mall to return stuff, I better do it before I lose the receipts. More walking there.

Kelli, glad to hear your knee is getting better, my itchiness at a very low level has also disappeared. My neck used to turn red after a hot shower. I'm too happy to see this problem went away.

I'm making cherry clafoutis, I thought it would be hard to pit a cherry without a tool, but surprisingly it was done in less than 30 minutes, I still have one bag left, these cherries I bought on sale for 99c a pound.
Anyway, I'm cooking it outside on a grill, it's too hot to cook inside, so the temperature is not as reliable as the oven. I'm still waiting for it to be done before I can go to the mall.

SoCal, I wanted to ask you about that pic of tomatoes you posted. What were the varieties? I think there was a purple/black in there.
They were beautiful, BTW!
I should have posted a pic of all the cherry tomatoes I've picked in the last 2 to 3 days, I'm picking 8 to 10 a day. A lot get eaten as I pick them, but I used 12 of them last night in our supper, a sort of Latino style dish with ground sirloin, rice, chili beans, and hot tomato sauce. I just quartered them and added at the last 5 minutes of cooking. Because they're so sweet they gave a cool taste to a dish that was quite spicy.
My two big ones on the Mountain Pride are ripe, I will be picking them today.
Because it's so nice and cool outside,, it will be a great day to work the garden. Lots of chores to get done, and I won't break a sweat doing it! Not supposed to be but in the 70s today. Unheard of in late June here!
My cat Googie has an appointment with this vet today ,she needs an antibiotic shot because she has a bad abscess underneath her tail. It has busted and drained. I have no idea what has caused this, it could be from a bite from one of the other cats.

Lynda, they are Chef's Choice Orange, Cherokee Purple, Carmelo, and Better Boy.

Ok! I thought that was a Cherokee purple. They were so pretty together in that container.

Here in the high country, we're finally getting some spring/summer. Last 3 days have been 100 degrees, but down in the high 40's in the mornings. Now only 85 - 90 for a few days. Everything is growing at furious speed, but not too much blooming yet. My clematis is in full bloom, and some salvias, and the wind decimated my peonies (damn!!). Weeds growing as you watch. MY solution for weeds is vinegar!! I've become obsessed with it - 45%, not store vinegar which is only 5%. It is so rewarding to see the bindweed and malva just curl up and die in a half hour!! Yes, there is some resprouting, but not much, and with my little 1 gal sprayer, they get a second dose. It's a very strong acid, so you do have to be careful with it - will burn your skin and make holes in your clothes, so gloves and slow spraying is necessary. Not selective, so a piece of cardboard to shield good plants is a help. Not poisonous to anything, not systemic, just burns whatever you spray it on. I'm hooked!!

It was so cool - no, cold - and windy last night, I tacked the plastic sheet back up to protect my young melons. Still cool today, but didn't rain as much as they said it would - just enough to wet down the firewood, just when it would be a pleasant temperature for stacking. So I have to find some other exercise to take advantage of relatively pain-free joints. Mix the soil for the big indoor plants I'll have to repot (though I usually do it in fall before i bring them back in. And top-dress tomatoes and peppers in individual pots. I'v put manure, but not yet any more soil on the large bins. Tied up a few tomatoes....
....anything but look at the kitchen floor and hear its pitiful cries for a wash....

I had to vacuum the living room floor because one of the cats knocked over my very large tree philo! It broke two of the leaves. We mowed and got the weed eating done, and I planted a fennel that I ordered, it's been sitting on my carport for a couple of weeks,. I was astonished to find two good sized BST cats on it! I'm sure I looked at that plant nearly every day since I got it. I know I've checked it for watering. So, a mystery! I just came in from picking tomatoes and checked on the plant, the two of them are happily munching away. Here's my first big ripe tomatoes!