The Miracle of Grace…

Next week’s Produce sale items from Market Basket. Used to be full page with flowers on the bottom. Now 6 items supplemented by plant based meats and smoothies. I have been noticing how the offered fresh ingredients are shrinking, the prepared items more prevalent. Scary.

Sent by a knitting friend and I think it’s perfect.

Samuel Johnson and Hodge dispute Webster‘s definition. 🐈‍⬛

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The pollen coats everything. My car has a yellow bathtub ring around it!

Another year around the sun. Gifted a piece by McCoy Pottery from the ‘50’s, as old as I am. Still lovely and functional into the 7th decade. 🎈🎂🎉

Today was the Plant, Book, and Bake Sale at the Emma. A woman bought 2 plates of cookies and gave them to the volunteers inside and outside. She said no one who was working should be denied a sugar rush! So very kind….

Discovered why the neighborhood lost power during the storm.

Beauty from nature’s amazing colors on our evening walk.

The reason we think dandelions are weeds is because of a 1950s marketing campaign. Dandelions, native to Europe and Asia, were brought to North America in the 1600s by European colonists who grew them deliberately. Every part is edible. The leaves are a salad green, the flowers were made into wine, and the roots were roasted as a coffee substitute and used medicinally for liver and kidney conditions for thousands of years. They were a kitchen-garden staple well into the 1800s. The shift happened after World War II, when 2,4-D (originally developed for chemical warfare research) was approved as a residential herbicide. Companies like Scotts built the modern lawn-care industry around the idea that a perfect green lawn meant zero broadleaf plants. Dandelions, being bright yellow and resistant to mowing, became a visible enemy, and the campaign worked. By the 1970s, "dandelion-free" was synonymous with "well-kept." They aren't native, but they aren't doing significant ecological harm either. The herbicides used to kill them, on the other hand, kill bees, contaminate groundwater, and have been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma in humans. If you hate dandelions, it's most likely due to a marketing campaign that ran before you were born.

I love the rabbit holes, the serendipitous learning.🐇

"Taking the time to appreciate the small things—a quiet street, a familiar face, a moment of unexpected connection—is where life truly happens." — Haruki Murakami

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade. - Gertrude Jekyll

Another night I dreamed I heard heavenly music sounding in my ears, and a flock of sheep was gathering round it. When the music ceased, the sheep leaped for joy, and ran together, shaking their heads….. Joanna Southcott

“How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight.” – John Ruskin

Large boom sent neighbors into the street at 2:30. Turns out it was a meteor. House shook like it did with the earthquake last year. Crazy day today.

Not saying the storm was wild but found the pot on the lawn across the street. Limbs down. Drove a mile to the service and four side streets blocked off by huge limbs, branches. Even worse on our way home. Whitecaps in the river.

For thee to bloom, I'll skip the tomb And row my blossoms o'er! Pray gather me -- Anemone -- Thy flower -- forevermore!.. Emily Dickinson

Sky watching as the sun goes down. Looking East.