So now I know

Now I understand why I never got my blackberry canes tied up properly last summer. It's because I'm busy in the summer. Not only is there all the usual work busyness, but there is the busyness caused by going on vacation, and the busyness associated with the garden (maintenance/weeding/ bumper crops of everything/canning/freezing). Right now we have tomatoes, tomatillos, and peaches that need to be made into sauce or cut up and frozen.

Biking in hot weather

Its been hot for most of this week. Ted showed me a little trick he uses to help manage the heat. Put your tanktop under the faucet! Wearing a soaking wet shirt does help, but by the time we've reached the bottom of the hill and are starting the ascent our shirts are dry. Last night I also put a wet kerchief inside my helmet and that helped some also. Ted dunked his head under the faucet before starting!

Field work

Went to Annadel today. We expected it to be cool. We didn't expect to be working in the fog until 3 pm. My pants, gaiters, and boots were soaked. A bad combination around poison oak. I hope I don't get it.
On the plus side, we saw a beautiful California Sister. It might have just emerged, as it was in perfect shape. It seemed to be too cold to fly, it just hung on a grass seedhead.

At the beach

We've been at the beach!! My favorite place! Walking, boogie boarding, bocce, board games, seefood (as in see food eat food- my sisters-in-law put out a never ending spread!), fireworks (it was the Fourth of July after all) campfires on the beach, and I even got some work done on our manuscript!
The beach is the land of the constantly sloping horizon. It's so hard to get the horizon level, so you'll have to forgive the sloping horizon in these pictures. We had a whole week from July 3 to 10. Everyone was there except F. She called and sounded pretty glum, but I'm sure she is so preoccupied with her program that she didn't suffer too much. Stopped and saw her performance in SF on the way home Saturday. Took her and her friend D to dinner. The show was long and we didn't get home till midnight.
Unfortunately, I won't have much time to savor this vacation, as duty calls and its back to work. I have a nice pile of beach stones on my desk as a reminder, and of course a beach scene for wallpaper.