Signs of summer

• a yellowjackets' nest in the outgoing compartment of the communal mailbox


• big swallowtail butterflies (black and yellow) flitting about, probably impatient for the lavender to bloom


• a small spider's attempt to anchor my car to the rose bushes (sorry!)


• a woman wearing a surgical mask at the bus stop (Eugene having far and away the highest grass pollen levels in the country in late spring, being at the upper end of a valley whose main crop is grass seed)


• a mysterious aluminum foil packet left on the trunk of my car, containing pollen of a different kind...

R. spends time every morning and afternoon thinking up daylily hybrids and then fertilizing this year's blooms with pollen from previous years. He spends the rest of the day planting last year's seedlings into the ground at his personal little "daylily farm," near the river in Springfield, at the edge of a friend's berry orchard. By the end of the week, he'll probably have about 2,000 plants there.

Finally I get to see Return of the King. I saved $13 -- $8 on a store discount and $5 for buying some AA batteries at the same time. Today it's sunny and I can't really resist getting to read outside, whereas Thurs. (my next good opportunity) may be rainy and perfect for watching it. But can I wait?

A pre-Spock thug

It's just as well that I didn't try to watch RotK, as D. popped up about a dozen times and asked if he could get up, instead of napping. On Perry Mason, Leonard Nimoy played a small-time crook who turned out to be the real bad guy. No courtroom confession, though -- they dragged him away kicking and screaming.

And what color are you?

you are springgreen #00FF7F

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definitely strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard, but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life, and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

It probably says something about me, too, that I fixed their spelling when posting here.

For the curious, JVW is "light cyan." And if I limit myself to just five adjectives, I am "pale green" -- which would actually describe me better than the other if it just didn't have the line "You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do." *lol*