It's High Summer

It is high summer in Indiana and we've had a brief break from the extreme heat and air quality issues that we endured just a week or so ago. (Canadian readers, I hope you are safe from the wildfires and that all is well where you are.) 

There are a lot of good things to see and enjoy this time of year.

Curt and Vanessa have a gorgeous hibiscus that has really put out the blooms this July.

Each one is as big (or bigger) as my hand; I had to take a picture when I dropped off some sweet corn (another perk of high summer) for them the other day.

Not the best picture as I had to snap it fast, but as I continued my sweet corn delivery route and pulled into Lisa's driveway, Nash and Rosie (standing on her hind legs) spied me approaching from Lisa's office window.

Rosie is a little firebrand and loves Nashie. Fortunately he likes her, too, and tolerates her antics.

Florida Boi Tammo doesn't mind the heat and enjoys sitting out on the patio with us.

Pepper's black fur picks up the heat more than his does, so she prefers lying in the cooler grass.

I've been in physical therapy for a couple of months now and I am improving. Right now I am doing what they term as land therapy; in two weeks I will begin aquatics therapy. (I tried my new swimsuit on and Nashie leaped up and barked at me when I walked into the living room - he didn't recognize me in it!)

I was sitting in the waiting room this past week when someone very familiar and dear to my heart walked in for her own appointment. 

Jackie! We worked together at Hershey Elementary for twelve years and although we were in different parts of the building, our paths crossed most days and we got to be good friends. We caught up as quickly as we could - it was good to see her.

High summer can have its down side, though.

Leslie and Rick had a scary incident - Rick was mowing and the mower caught fire.

He'd stopped it, turned it off, and gone into the shop to get more gas when it suddenly ignited.

Rick grabbed a fire extinguisher and got the fire out, but the mower is a total loss. We are all grateful that he was not sitting on it when it caught fire. 

Why did the fire start? We don't know but we feel very fortunate that things were not worse.

The barn swallows living over our front porch and who lost their first brood to an aggressive male sparrow had another clutch.

Susie, Kate, and I enjoyed sitting on the stairs and watching the parents feed the chicks. We only saw one baby but there may have been two.

We have Red Shouldered and Cooper's Hawks in our neighborhood, and several times I watched the adults bravely chase off one of the Cooper's hawks. 

One day I even watched five or six barn swallows drive the Cooper's hawk off its perch on the neighbor's roof. I am pretty sure the hawk knew about the nest and was watching it.

Yesterday the nest was suddenly abandoned - the baby(ies) had fledged. And then later that afternoon while out with the dogs, I spied two tiny baby wings lying in the grass by one of my birch trees.

It was the baby barn swallow. Taken on its first day out of the nest.

Not the first time that's happened - a few years ago I actually saw the nestling fledge and the hawk swooped down and grabbed it before it even got across my front yard. Apparently something similar happened yesterday.

Sigh. Sometimes the circle of life can be hard to watch.

I am back in the sewing room (no surprise there, right?) and getting things organized and ready for a lot of 18th century sewing.

Cole gave me some electric scissors and I am learning to use them. They've very effective and make a nice cut, but currently the only speed seems to be GOGOGOGOGO. There's a bit of a learning curve but they are really fun to use.

I finished all but the hem on a chemise yesterday - Monday's project will be to hem it and then I will start on the next chemise.

Finally, last night Lisa came over and we did a high summer family tradition, always done as close to July 25th as possible.

Can you guess what that tradition is?

Stay 'tooned!