a metaphor, this 4th of July

On the next street, an American flag attached to the mailbox, decidedly inelegantly, by some strips of duct tape.  Or duck tape.  I've never known which ... and on checking, I find it was originally duck tape, invented during WWII to tape boxes tightly so that they can be carried safely through water.  Then it started to be called duct tape, and used - well, maybe used, on ducts.  It shouldn't be used on ducts, because the heat melts it, and it turns into a sticky mess - but there again, I don't suppose it should be used on ducks.  In any case ... the flimsy precarity seems about right for this particular 250th birthday.

 

bobble head

This is the inside of a Blanket Flower (gaillardia grandiflora), after it's bloomed - it has a fringe of yellowy-range petals before hand.  It's a member, roughly speaking, of the daisy family, and it's the state flower of Oklahoma - a fact that I've known for about five minutes.  I can't claim that I particularly like it (gardening here is a compromise: Alice likes yellow flowers - as well as others - my choices are always white and blue and pale pink and purple) - on the other hand, it is, as my father would have pointed out, Cheerful.  He did, mind you, call all yellow flowers daffodils, as a matter of course.

 

a relaxed attitude

This is what I had to contend with today, by way of example, or assistance, as I tried to move onwards with book revisions.  Their sense of energy, focus, commitment ... it's not infectious.

 

bzzzzzzzz

A very happy, very furry bee on one of the earliest sunflowers to come out this year (all on the very same plant!) - just down the road.

 

moonscape

It's very beautiful out there tonight: a bit of wind, a bit of drizzle coming back from town, but then this.  Admittedly this took several photographic tries and googling, and I did manage to take a couple of images with an absolutely clear, no-flare moon - but then nothing else is visible, either.  So this is a pretty spectacular way for June to exit.

 

Los Lobos open the Summer Bandstand

You'll have to take my word for it, that Los Lobos (bringing LA to Santa Fe, including a Dodgers cap) are in there, playing away ... a somewhat strange set, with Something For Everyone - rock and roll to TexMex to psychedelic sub Grateful Dead, but so long as they played Can The Wolf Survive? (which they did) I was happy (at least until the slightly weird guy standing in front of me started his wolf-howl).  How wonderful to be in a town where Los Lobos play for free, and cram the Plaza, to open the summer bandstand series...

 

the first of the season

And so my Morning Glory horticultural obsession rolls round happily for another year's blooming.  As usual, Grandpa Ott is the first to make an appearance.  Usually they wait until they've climbed a little higher, but it's wonderful to have a flower before we've even been here for two weeks ...

And for good measure, our first good sunset of the summer ...