A Walk Between Showers

Our next door neighbors have a different variety of St. John's Wort growing in their yard than we do. Theirs has larger blossoms and greens leaves rather than the smaller flowers and purple leaves that we have.

What you see above is the result of rain beating the stamen down. Since they are growing in a ring around the central part of the blossom and are mostly all the same length, what you get is a bright red ring where the tips land. This, combined with the five petals give it an appearance of a star all aglow in the night.


I found another blossom that has not been assaulted quite so vigorously by the rain and rendered it in B&W. This all seems to be a good metaphor for our recent lives. Some of us are emerging from the isolation feeling intact but colorless. Others are showing their colors, but are pretty well beat down.

The official self-isolation order lasted here in Washington from about March 11 to June 6 (or thereabouts). During this time, E and I toasted 38 years together. Seamus turned 3 and Charlotte 1. We bought our first vehicle since 2016 and the first new one since about 2003. Life continues even if we are stuck in one place with not much to do.

We've used the time of not travelling and the many cancellations of future trips to pay down our credit cards (yah!). And I've gotten to spend time walking the neighborhood photographing flowers. Unfortunately, it seems we are likely to be in this mode for quite some time to come. Reports I hear are that in some form or other, the pandemic will be with us with no real end in sight.

I do not imagine that we'll be allowed to travel internationally, nor would we feel safe to do so, until we can get vaccinated against the virus. We'll just continue to Zoom, email, text, and call our friends and I'll keep blogging about silly things to keep you ever so slightly entertained and me from being excessively bored.

The folk wisdom here is that summer doesn't start until July 5th. Even at that, the driest, warmest months are August and September. We have, at random intervals, a day here and there just now that is in the mid- to upper-70's. Even the Seattleites are calling it "June-uary" because it is so cold and rainy. Typical days now are 50-ish at night and 65-70 during the warmest part of the day.

I'm quite sure that some of you are envious of this mild temperature since you are now sitting at home running the air conditioner and still sweating. We are, as we did last year, still running the furnace and sleeping under a comforter and a blanket to stay warm at night.

On November 1 least year, while we house sat in Budapest, the switch was flipped and it started raining. While we did experience some sunny days, we had a pretty steady diet of rain from then until now. So, we are quite ready for summer, such as it is in this corner of the country, to get here.

Enjoy your summer. Stay safe and be healthy. Wear your mask and keep social distancing.