July 1

Always a special day in the middle of the calendar year, very early summer, delicious, paradise, dreamed about all year, and not yet so hot or droughty that it makes us lax or gives us headaches or the cicadas keep us up all night. So with appreciation, here's the creek and its creekbed wildflowers, Queen Anne's Lace and phlox and junk lily, and also an Allium head that's past peak but still beautiful, like so many people we know.

Something Royal

I never met a George I didn't like. At church there was a tall gangly one. In graduate school, George was the "golden boy," on fellowship, and teachers favored him, and unlike many teachers' pets he was still nice to the lesser people in the world. My father-in-law George was as good to me as my own father, and compassionate because he understood what it was like to have a high IQ in an extended family whose other patriarch didn't have $25 to put his sick dog to sleep so instead got a knife and chased the dog around the yard trying to catch it so he could stab it to death instead. The dog knew the score and outran him. Another George was the organizer of a singles group, and despite his appearance all the females liked him because he could partner-dance while the other guys stood around mumbling, "Two left feet."

So to honor the new Prince George and hoping we don't have to hear about him again for 18 years or so, here's a Queen Anne's lace so beautifully heavy with summer blossoms it can't hold its head up.

July Morning

With temperatures around 100 humid degrees at noon here in Missouri, the only time to go walking is before 7 a.m., when it's only about 80 degrees...down by where Doc Sargent Road intersects with F, right next to LaBarque Creek, it was all gold light this morning, with platinum mist and silver dew.