The catalpa is in bloom. It’s always tricky getting a photo because it’s so, so tall. When you walk nearby, you get a whiff of its glorious scent, which reminds me very much of the night-blooming jasmine that surrounded us when we lived in San Diego.

Last night – because we haven’t installed the a/c yet – we had a fan on in our bedroom and it was bringing the scent into the room. Talk about a heavenly treat!

Groundhog family update: Off and on throughout the day yesterday, one or two or three of them would hang out. Actually, they don’t get going until late morning, so it was more like from 11 am until 5:30, which seems to be the hour they return home. They don’t seem to be going in the garden much, if at all, they’re eating the grass and the weeds that are on the parking level and funky patio.

At one point, mama was hanging out! She was lazing in the sun by the maple tree. I also saw two of them go into one of the tunnels under the shed.

So basically they go in and out of their burrow, the tunnels under the shed, and their original home under the tree.

The world is their oyster.

Zoe and Lucy are wearing new pinafores made by the amazing Hilary Wagstaff of Moshimoshi studios. Hilary lives in England, Cornwall, specifically, and I have acquired several pieces made by her over the past couple of years. They’re a little more expensive, so I only order something once a year. When I first started in with Blythes, I noticed this style of pinafore on Hilary’s account. I always wanted one, but she is very creative and is constantly trying new things, so I didn’t see them again. A month or so ago, I messaged her and asked if she’d ever consider making this pattern for me. Yes, she said. I picked out the fabrics.

And now, they’re here. Bonus for my fellow Blythe friends: she’s put this pattern back into the rotation!

Hilary also does the embroidery. She has the cutest studio in a shed on her property. I’d love to hang out there.

We ended up watching the Tonys last night, simply because I knew the opening segment was choreographed by Karla Punto Garcia, and I know her – she worked on Darko’s project. And two of the dancers were actors I coached in that project. I must say that the entire show worked much better without the addition of written dialogue. Most of the extraneous banter was missing and so they just got on with it. I do hate that the creative awards; set design, music and lyrics, lighting, costume design, etc. are now relegated to an earlier show on a network that nobody has heard of. It shows a disregard for designers that pisses me off. I get it: they’re trying to show musical numbers for every show nominated and it’s prime time. I’d rather see less musical numbers and see those artistic components included.

I saw lots of people who I know or have worked with. I’ve even met Tom Stoppard, that genius of a playwright.

Anyway, we enjoyed it, though I found some of the musicals less than interesting, more pop music-like, lots of big voices and sound with very little depth – “a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing” was Don’s response. When the two revivals by Stephen Sondheim hit the stage, both of us gave a sigh of relief. The difference between his work, and most of the other musicals, save for Parade (brilliant) and Kimberly Akimbo, couldn’t be more stark.

Obviously, my personal opinion.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

We had exactly 2 minutes of light rain yesterday.

That’s it.

Storms all around us, Don drove through a whopper about 20 miles north of us. Here? Not enough to make a difference. But the temperature has dropped and I’m very grateful. It’s a rather cloudy day today. I may take advantage of the cooler temperatures and do some much needed garden clean up.

Two beauties.

I spend a couple of hours (much longer than usual) changing out Nina’s body. She was on a taller body, which I didn’t mind. Her neck joint, however, stabilized her but didn’t allow for head tilts, etc. I tried to remove that neck joint so I could keep using the body but it was glued on. For some reason, the process was harder than usual and I made little errors and had to start over again. I do have the excuse of incredible heat and humidity and you know I don’t function well in that kind of weather. After I got her reassembled, the head still seemed too loose. After taking it apart about 4 times, I finally hit on the idea of removing the neck joint and swapping it out with the only other neck joint I had on hand. It worked. The other neck joint was, I don’t know – a bit wider? Not sure.

Then we went out on the porch while we waited for the thunderstorms to roll in – they didn’t – but it was nice and breezy.

The wild roses are in bloom all over the property. These are up in the woods.

Don had to emcee a concert last night – it’s part of a free summer series in a town north of us. He booked the musicians, etc. It had to move to a church, rather than its normal outdoor venue, because of the threat of thunderstorms.

I didn’t know what to do with myself! Couldn’t watch anything that we are watching together. Most of Jeopardy was preempted by Biden’s speech. It was hot and humid, so I just sat here with the fan trained on me. And then I took a bath, something I normally don’t do because we go to bed early. It was lovely.

When I was going to grad school in Philadelphia, which is notoriously hot and humid in the summer, I shared an apartment with a fellow classmate during my second year. She went home for the summer and I stayed in town doing my usual temp work to help pay the bills. We had no air conditioning, and after work I walked the 20+ blocks back to my apartment, took a cool shower since I was dripping from the humidity, and sat on my bed in my underwear with three fans set on high speed. One at my right, one at my left, and one facing me. It was the only relief available. I can still see myself on that bed – in fact I mentioned it to Don again last night (he’s heard this story more than a few times.) A very strong memory from long ago,

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday,