Summer. Summer. Summer.

There's not much to report on at the moment, here in late July in rural Kansas. 

Dullsville. 

Ruttsville. 

The weather, they say, is mild (I am STILL hot).  We are watering gardens and such every day.  The farmers are irrigating every day.  I kind of take my lead from them: if they are watering, well, then, so am I. 

In addition to the 169 lavender plants I put in this summer (The Summer of Lavender), I also declared it the Year of the Perennial.  Whether it was the lavender field (weeding, tilling, making troughs with a shovel, planting on hands & knees, weeding, coddling on hands & knees) or my age (54?) or the heat and wind (definitely), I am tired of the annual Planting of the Flowers.  Annuals, being the operative word.  Annuals must be put in every year.  The positive of annuals is that they flower all spring, summer, and fall.  Perennials, on the other hand, need only be planted once (with luck & a prayer), and the bloom for a few weeks each summer. But, with luck & the prayer, they will hang around indefinitely and bring joy each and every summer to one's garden.

Sadly, I think it's the "54" thing.  My knees hurt.

But!  Enough of that nonsense.  In other news, I feel like I have been inundated with negativity of late.  So much so that in my morning prayer today, I asked God to make sure I am a Positive Polly each day.  I don't want to be a 54 year-old Negative Nancy. 

I just looked out the window to across the field where a man on a tractor is taking a huge drink of water from his thermos.  He is cutting/baling hay.  Interesting that he is making small square bales (what we always ask for ) as opposed to the big round bales more prevalent these days. Our hay man stopped by yesterday to tell me that he will not be cutting our hay this summer - too short, too meager.  This is not a concern of ours, really. When we had horses, we wanted grass in the pasture.  Now that we are equine-less, the hay man benefits from our field much more than we do. 

Here's a happy:  Two of our kids are winging back from Australia this week, after having visited the Aussie Grands and extended family for a month.  Gillian is heading directly to her new museum job in Colorado, two days after arrival (Jet lag, anyone?), and Graham will retrieve his car and head back to Washington state and commence his post-grad/post vacay job hunt.   All happy, all positive.