Heres a new one. Neighbor knocks on door and says he was flying his drone and think it is stuck in our big silver maple tree. Well, hope it blows down soon! It is brown, about the hardest color besides green to spot looking at a big tree.

Stealth gizmo?

He found it and showed us- it probably fell to the ground, glad he found it. seems like a hobby model, but it does have some video ability. No more World Naked Gardening Day celebrations!

I went to the veg garden first time since Saturday, oh my- Kale, chard, romaine look good, some yellow squash fruit just set, buds on Hungarian Heart tomato

on your neighbor flying a drone around with video capability. Some guy was buzzing one around the other day, chatted with him while walking Josie... He thought he'd be clever and get some video of a hawk sitting in a tree enjoying his bunny lunch... the hawk took exception. Violently. He stays away from the birds now!

I hope I wasn't the only one stargazing tonight! Jim & Joyanna & I drove about 10 miles out into the countryside in an attempt to escape light pollution and see the meteor shower. Fortunately, it was a really clear night, and the main viewing area was almost directly overhead (out of the light haze)... still, I am sure we saw one in ten at best. That still translated to two dozen in 20-30 minutes! It could have been a total fizzle or it could have been 100,000 in an hour. I wonder how many the guys with the telescope saw.... there was a live video feed from somewhere.

The fireflies were also spectacular, shimmering all through the fields (and seriously interrupting our night vision!). We also saw a large owl fly overhead and land in a tree. Pretty wonderful night! I'm winding down; Jim and Joyanna are asleep. Going to let Joyanna sleep in tomorrow... Jim will write her an excuse that says she had "an early morning appointment." They don't need to know it was with some shooting stars!

Love the drone stories!! I missed that dang meteor shower...was so sad! The adult tribe reminded me how I used to wake them up in the middle of the night to watch like events from our deck

Hope everybody had a Happy Independence Day!

Watched "A Capitol Fourth" last night, and it was really lackluster. Short fireworks program, no "big name" music artists. Jim says a recent survey had numbers indication that about 70 percent of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats answered "yes" to the question, "Are you proud to be an American?" I know this isn't the forum for politics, and I'm not going there, but gosh, I think people have gotten so busy criticizing, they've lost track of the big picture! More people are immigrating than emigrating, that should tell us something.

Went shopping today: all kinds of snacks from Ross and bath stuff, also 1 pair of shoes! And went to Home Depot--looking for stainless steel bucket with tight lid for fertilizer so the mice won't have a party with MY fish fertilizer and blood fertilizer and bone fertilizer. They did not have it and end up buying powder laundry soap!
Also went to eat at the Global Philippino or Filipino Market and had lunch there, they closed at 4:00. I ordered Pork Sisig (forgot to tell them to make it mild and I had to pick out the tiny bits of bird eye peppers!) and Pinakbet---both delicious! Shared my table with 2 nice Filipino ladies, one called Lany should have asked her phone number, she lives 5 minutes away from me, hope to see her again one day----Then watched fireworks on my street but just standing on the street in front of my house. Nice ones, also includes big things going up the sky! But most of them in the middle of the street--did not turn on TV at all, before shopping, I was weeding----a very productive Fourth!

That all sounds lovely, Francine

We got a needed inch of rain yesterday when the warm front moved by. Everything is lush including the population of the mosquitoes.

FALL SWAP !!!

The fall swap needs a location! As those who have attended through the years know, you don't have to have perfect landscaping, spotless housekeeping, or a roomy McMansion in order to host. You just need to be willing to say sure, come to my place! We've had swaps in townhouse parking lots, in driveways, in back yards, in front yards... You could even organize a swap at a nearby park, although we do all enjoy seeing one another's gardens.

If you've hosted in the past few years, yours is not the arm I'm trying to twist.

If you have any questions about hosting before you step forward, send me (or RickM) a message, or just ask here. Bonus to hosting is that you don't have to drive anywhere. You don't have to dig and pot, either, if you're willing to just point and hand somebody a shovel.

I'm speaking up for hosting the spring swap. By then we should have our heads above water after several years of caring for our parents (lots of being away from home, many boxes to go through, etc). Also, nobody wants me to host in fall. No matter how vigilant I am with mosquito bits, by this time of year I can't go outside for 2 minutes without head to toe bug repellent -- and even then, I get a few bites.