Yesterday we celebrated the upcoming birthdays of Gkids Y and K, before they have to return to PA.  We spent most of the day there, decorating, cleaning, playing, and getting ready for a full house of friends, young and older.  It was a scorching hot day, though not quite the record-setting  triple-digit temps much of the country is experiencing.  Still, it didn’t dampen the high spirits of the kids’ big day.  Here’s a random sampling.

Hummers are a-hummin’; mowers are a-mowin’–I wish I had the energy of a hummingbird!  It’s all I can do to slog my way through the sauna with the push mower.  The good news is, the “meadow” is really turning into a grove of baby trees–lots of dogwoods, redbuds, maples, oaks, pines, cedars, walnuts, and others, with blackberries and many wildflowers filling in between.  Just a matter of time.

Here are scenes from the heat wave.

Considering Louisiana is being drowned again by hurricane and storm surges, this latest monsoon of ours is nothing but a relief for the plant world.  The meadow is starting to come alive at last with wildflowers.  I’ve been harvesting a few veggies each day.  Once more TN proves to have some advantages location-wise, despite the obvious climate changes.

I forgot to mention a few days ago that I witnessed another first for me: an albino (pure white) squirrel.  Unfortunately, I was unable to provide evidence.  Likewise, the hummers continue to elude my poor excuse for a camera, as do the hordes of goldfinches swarming the sunflowers, but I’ll get them yet.  Instead, here is Misu being decadent yet vigilant in the southern heat.  So many rabbits to kill keep an eye on.

Here are more obligatory flowers and scenes between deluges.  The pollinators are keeping busy.

As is our latest tradition, we hung out with my son and kids up on his hill.  He had a good friend and colleague, J, in town visiting, so when they left off collaborating, we all sat around, first out on the deck until it got too hot, then inside, sampling all the interesting liquid refreshments they had picked up.  Most of the time I played with the kids.  The more liquids I sampled, the more fun it was.  A quite pleasant time was had.  Less fun is how soon I reach my alcohol limit these days!  Spluh.

Is it me, or does this humanitarian crime at the border look increasingly like a nazi holocaust?  It’s just a matter of degrees until we reach concentration camps.  I don’t think it’s an exaggeration.  I hope these repug criminals get all the justice they deserve.

On a lighter note, some summer scenes…note the flower-like ‘shrooms.

From my early morning venture into the tropical jungle, here are some “exotic” specimens I captured before I sweated to death.

Right now it’s 94º, feels like 106º.  Just standing outside feels like a broiler.  Across the road, a crew of Spanish-speaking workmen have been building a house like a construction machine.  From early morning until late afternoon, they’re out there toiling on the roof in this blistering heat.  Yet they seem cheerful, probably glad to have the work.  I don’t know how they do it.  I know I couldn’t, even in my more productive years.  I wonder who will do all the dirty work for us when trump gets done alienating, killing, and deporting Mexicans and South Americans.

Meanwhile, flowers and bugs are soaking up the rays like mad.  Even the wildflowers in the field are finally starting to bloom.

It’s in the 90s, i.e. it feels like 1000º out.  I’ve never appreciated AC more than now.  Still, we try to get stuff down outside as best we can.

E was trying to remove a very difficult woody root with an electric saw, and accidentally cut some wires that were mystifyingly buried right under the deck.  There went the power to the shed.  Hillbilly wiring, unbelievable.  Also unsurprisingly, the current was all wrong for the intended purpose.  Unrelated but simultaneously, an ancient breaker died, leaving us stove-less.  We had to run out to Lowes (our other home) to pick up parts, so E could finish the jobs.

After a lot of digging, sawing, heaving, and sweating, E was able to remove the stump, rewire the severed connection, and rebury it properly.  All this in dangerously hot conditions.  My garden maintenance tasks were nothing compared to her ordeal.  Now if only the power will stay on!  A typical day in Tennessee.  Hey, at least we’re not experiencing extreme earthquakes like those in southern California right now.  [Knock on woody stump.]

Still, it didn’t stop me from snapping these photos of flowers, a stalk of millet/sorghum seeds, bees enjoying comfrey flowers, and this large skink cooling off in the pool.

Our power goes out a lot here, but usually only briefly.  This time time it took four hours to be restored.  So I read classic short stories aloud by lantern light:  James Herriot, Mark Twain, and a grande finale of Edgar Allan Poe.  Have you ever tried reading Poe right after Twain?  It’s hilarious.  Hard to keep a straight face.

It got a little warm inside, but finally the power came back, just as these solar dragonfly lights lit up.

Only Hort/Bot geeks will truly appreciate my latest fun fact, which is: did you know, the wild blue chicory flowers (Mediterranean origins) that grow along roads, the chicory roots that are ground up for a coffee substitute, the salad greens called chicory, the Belgian/French endive, and red endive also known as radicchio (this:) ,

are all in the same family?  Ok, maybe y’all knew that, but I just discovered it by accident.  Blue flowers, identical to the roadside weeds, were growing on the radicchio stalks, and upon researching them, I found out all the above.

While I have you captivated (?), here are more okra shots (again, boring, but exotic to me), a sweet banana pepper, and more purple pole beans.  The latter are normal size; that’s how long these okra got, by comparison.

Which leads me to my other fun fact of the day–the humble okra and this tropical hibiscus are both in the same family, which also includes hollyhock, mallows, rose of sharon, and perennial hibiscus, among many diverse others.  I think they’re all beautiful and exotic in their own way.