the five Mikes

 

Finally I have captured all of the Mikes in one spot. Unfortunately the occasion was a send off paella bbq for the tallest and the shortest (although not for long) also the two youngest of them. Michael (in purple shirt) and Mikey (top right) are moving along with mother/grandmother Denise who has been our neighbor for 22 years. But thanks to Michael T (bottom right) organizing a neighborhood group dinner with my Mike (blue t-shirt) and his Mike (tan shirt) and our neighbors who are not Mikes, Johanna and Cheryl we enjoyed a warm evening along with Denise's sister Mary. It's quite a challenge to ask "Mike will you pass the salad" at a dinner table with five who will answer to that name. A good time was had by all.

eclipses, mercury, and hats

 

I think this hat may be a reaction to sun, moon, and stars. I'm really not a glitzy sort of person but somehow I found myself in the plastic box with my ribbon yarn. Make note of the year on the hat form. Was 1967 really 50 years ago?
I had to add this photo of my collection of the usual wool tams.

summer in the mountains

This lovely brown trout came out of McGee Creek. The proud fisherman called to me just in hopes I would see this fish and I happened to have my camera at the ready.
This is quite a year for the Sierra, the streams at levels that you usually see in June, and the wildflowers in full bloom. We even caught a thunder shower on our walk out of Rock Creek.

Now we are home and you can feel fall creeping in on us.

where did july go?

Somehow the month disappeared and I found myself another year older.  The last four days of the month were spent in a yoga intensive, 20 hours of yoga completed? Survived? Enjoyed? It is hard to explain to others who are not serious yogis why you would choose to do such an intensive. But the body seems to shape it self in ways you would not think possible with that much focus. And the body extends to the mind. The hardest part is having to go back into real life. But I can't complain too much about real life, at least in my own backyard microcosm.

And the wandering Aero, who chose to not come home for two days, reappeared while we were stapling his picture as a missing cat on all the telephone poles in the neighborhood. He seems moderately guilty for causing us grief and is making regular appearances. This will last only until we think perhaps he may stay home and then he will go walkabout again. He is a cat after all, and they have their own ideas.

This odd humid weather today reminds me that we are in the Dog Days of summer. But at least we are living on the coast and not inland.