Saturday, June 30, 2018

hotter hottest

When the weather throws you a heated punch, you look for sidesteps and workarounds. It truly is hotter than hot and it feels especially toasty hot because, well, because it already has been so hot!

The lilies are waking up. The true lilies are first in line. These tall flowers are off the wall magnificent!


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Breakfast. Despite the heat, I would have like to eat outside, but the construction crews did not break for the weekend and the slam of the tailgate is just too loud. We eat in the kitchen.


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Immediately after, I rush to meet up with Snowdrop and her mom. We're going to attempt a market run, but it has to be early! The temps are going to climb through the roof today! (Sparrow stays home with his dad. He can't possibly have the stamina for this yet.)

As has been the pattern now, we again run into school friends of Snowdrop.

(What I love about this image is that it's so much a picture of every child who waits patiently, wrapping herself in mom's skirts as mom talks to grownups.)



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Snowdrop survives the market! The girl is well trained.

(A pause to swing her pretend character on the pretend swing.)


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(Snowdrop loves a good laugh, even if it's a laugh at herself.)


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Happiness is...


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On these market days, there is always a sidestep into the cool interior of the Capitol Building. Today, she climbs many stairs with her mom so that she can look down at me from a higher perch.


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There is a public art project on display this summer: 85 six-foot tall Bucky Badgers (mascot of the University of Wisconsin) are positioned throughout the city. You can get a list and check off as many as your parents will indulgently take you to. Or, you can find one and love it for its... pig.


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And now I'm home again, checking the garden for signs of heat stress (none found: these front bed flowers are loving the warm sunshine!)...


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Snowdrop and her mom pay a visit. We were to go to the pool, but frankly, the idea of being outside again, even in the cool waters of a pool, is not quite pulling at Snowdrop. Can't we just play inside?

And why not!


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(A Snowdrop pretend game is like a story without an ending...)


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Evening. Storms rumble. They say the hottest of the hot air streams will be moving to the east. Oh, poor souls of the eastern states! Stay cool, drink lots of water and if you must go to any outdoor market, say a kind word to the farmers who labored in the blazing fields to grow their crops and now are working hard to keep their produce looking fresh and lively in their market stalls just for me and you.