Summer Journal: Week 7

Is this normal behavior for day lilies? Is this a day lily?

When we went to Buenos Aires earlier this year, I bought some variegated yarn, and, as is often the case with me, I had no idea what I'd do with it after I bought it. I finally decided to make myself a shawl, striping it with a solid color. It's the most basic triangular shawl pattern, but it's the perfect thing to knit in the evenings when I'm too hot to do much else.

I'm having mascara problems. If you have a favorite drugstore mascara that doesn't smudge, let me know. I think the heat is melting mine.

Hot, smoky days. The sun looks cool in the evening on the hardwood floor.

I am really hoping this hazy condition doesn't ruin the eclipse later this month!!

Sunflower Watch 2017. Everyone else's has bloomed and mine are so slow. A watched sunflower never blooms, apparently.

A Bicicletta cocktail is the best way to use up the last ounces of Campari and best reason to open up a new bottle of white wine on a hot Friday night. Add club soda and lemon.

I love summer Margot. She never quite knows what to do with herself.

Whitworth is getting new turf installed this summer. It's fun to be here to see it all take shape, knowing that it will be a bit like magic when students return in a few weeks.

Chamomile around the house. Confession: I didn't do a great job of taking pictures this week.

You can see the haze hanging. But it's still beautiful.

Other highlights of the week included seeing Detroit, watching half of the Daughters of Destiny series on Netflix, cooking in my Instant Pot (beans and shredded chicken, separately), training my new employee, making and eating a loaf of zucchini bread, getting back on the Italian-lesson wagon, and nice long walks with Luna around the neighborhood. Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting, too.

I listened to a little bit of Glen Campbell this evening (Tuesday) upon hearing of his death. His music has always made me so melancholy in a particular way that songs from the late 1960s/early 1970s often do (like the Carpenters, Bread, Nilsson, Gilbert O'Sullivan, just to name a few). I reluctantly saw him perform a few years ago on his farewell tour - reluctantly because I knew he was declining from Alzheimer's and, combined with the fact that his music already made me feel a little sad, it seemed like a real bummer of a concert. But my cousin had a free ticket and it was a chance to hang out with her and my dad and brother, so I went. There were a few shaky moments on stage but I was touched to think about all the people in the room who were true Glen fans, my family included, there to support him in his final performances, laugh with him through his missteps and forgotten words, and jump up with applause after some impressive guitar solos. I'm glad I was there for part of it (though I left early) and even happier my dad and brother - the real fans - got to meet him in person.

Of all the Glen songs I know, there's always been something about "Witchita Lineman" that has captured my imagination. It was only a few years ago when I realized that it, along with many other Glen Campbell hits, were composed by Jimmy Webb. So I'm concluding tonight listening to Webb's "Just Across the River" album, which is more my speed, and features other favorite musicians of mine. There's a duet with Glen on there, too. It's a good one. But also, sad.