Saturday, June 26, 2010

summer stuff



Our beautiful summer puffy cloud sky is here. They tower on the horizon.



We've also been getting some really good sunsets lately after a span of slowly darkening nights. Rain is teasing us. We hear the thunder, see the rain coming down around us in the afternoons but not on us. The days are hot and still, no breeze to help. I have to fill the birdbath nearly every day. The cicadas drone up and down their scale during the day and the frogs and crickets sing at night. Dragonflies patrol the fields and yards. It's summer in south central Texas. The humidity, despite no rain, is high.





It is so hot the fire ants have gone deep underground but the crepe myrtles have been in full bloom and the roses and day lilies are not put off by the heat either.

















The cotton in the fields across the road is waist high and blooming.


Work on the shop continues, slowly. A couple of hours out there and he comes in shirt soaked from collar to hem, the framing complete except for one long line of 1” x 6”s. Really, it's too hot to continue.



One of the grandgirls, Jade, is here for her week and we are busy doing grandgirl things. We cook, made a delicious key lime pie topped with fresh blueberries and have other delights on the agenda, we went to the movies, we play scrabble, do little crafty things. We stay up late and sleep in. Oh, and I'm trying to get the stencils cut for this job we are working on while she is here. When we take her back to the city we will stay for a week to finish the fabrication.

The Freedom Festival is today here in Wharton...classic car show and parade, helicopter rides, arts and crafts, barbeque cook-off, street dance and fireworks so that's on our agenda for this evening.








24 comments:

  1. The pie is awesome.

    I think those same clouds came to visit Washington DC today. And yep, day liies - check. Crepe myrtles - check. Heat and no breeze and no rain - check.

    xx

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  2. I love the pie! I would like a slice right now.

    Dr. M was looking for some daylilies to plant along side the house, but we don't want to actually have to BUY them LOL. I imagine some late-night thievery might be in order.

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  3. Your summer days, companions and activities sound (and look) wonderful!! The only thing I would find difficult is the extreme heat and humidity.

    Have a festive evening out with your family!

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  4. Gorgeous, gorgeous skies. Just breathtaking. We've had some heat here in New England this week that felt like Texas heat, Wow the humidity just stopped us in our tracks! It feels like it's going to be one of those old fashioned, sizzling hot summers here.

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  5. It has been too cool here in Oregon for what few crepe myrtles I see to be in bloom yet. They're one of the things that I miss about the South. Fireants are something that I DON'T miss about the South. On the other hand, okra blossoms--and okra itself!

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  6. From your description (and lovely photos) I can almost imagine being in Texas in the summer - but the heat would be tough. We've had some 80's temperatures, and that's hard enough. (LOVE that pie!)

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  7. I can't imagine that kind of heat. But that pie I could certainly handle...

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  8. Your description of Texas in the summer sounds like Florida in the summer, but much more poetic. I have been using words like steam bath and muggy and oppressive. I like your description better.

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  9. Hello, south Texas, you hot miserable place, you. Mwahs and love from your wandering adoptive daughter.

    I love the pix, Ellen. Especially the cotton field! All that healthy growing green just seems to say that all is well.

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  10. PS--I posted again at Night Blooms a couple days ago. :-)

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  11. Quite the same in Bastrop. Now for the important stuff: I need your key lime pie recipe; how about in your next post or put it on FB! It looks wonderful.

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  12. So much beauty in just one post! How can you contain it?

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  13. Lovely looking pie. Your summer sounds grand, except for the heat, which would render me useless and languid.

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  14. I would enjoy doing grandgirl things.

    Your words paint as pretty as picture as the ones you have posted.

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  15. Your sunset picture is simply lovely :0)

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  16. It's hot here, too. Unlike living at the Lake that stays 10 degrees cooler, the valley is warming up. I had to use air conditioning first thing in the morning for the first time this year.

    Love the agenda with the Grand. She must love coming to visit you.

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  17. Love your clouds - as a cloud-spotter I'm a sucker for clouds from all over the world.

    Your summer days sound idyllic - tho it sounds as if you could use a bit less heat. Come to Scotland!

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  18. It's hot here, too but we're having afternoon showers, at least! Sounds like you're enjoying yourself! Wonderful pics and agenda! And that pie looks fab! Have fun! Cheers!

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  19. Gorgeous clouds, all the pictures are lovely.
    Isn't summer great!
    I have been standing at my open window at 1 am taking photos of the night sky and listening to the gentle purling of the stream.
    The world is so wonderful at the moment that I feel cross about every hour of sleep I have to sacrifice.

    But my garden needs rain. Surely we'll have some soon and then I'll sleep again.

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  20. Love your two sky photos ...

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  21. YUM!!

    I wish our fire ants would go deep in the ground. They're all over the place this year!

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  22. these photos are all so beautiful

    I love the crepe myrtles - their looks and their name

    and grandgirl things sound so wonderful

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  23. Sounds and looks perfect. That pie makes my mouth water.

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