It’s been a lovely hot week here. Lots of swimming and badminton. Then when we come in at night, there’s been the wildly exciting Tour de France to watch. Viva Floyd Landis!

The gardens seem to be enjoying the heat as much as the people. Blueberries are sweetening up in the sunshine and the raspberries have been abundant and juicy. The peaches are getting rosy. With all the rain we have had, I have never seen such a lush July. Nary a brown spot on the lawn.

The Red Shiso is doing beautifully. The Angels asked us to leave the self seeding Calendulas around the Red Shiso. I don’t know why they had us weed out everything else, but then leave so many Calendulas. It works for me! Not only do the Calendulas make for a gorgeous garden but they bring such a grounded but uplifting energy to the Red Shiso and the whole farm.

We have had some good news on the web site overhaul. As you may recall, Ben and I had thought that his job at the ceramics studio was going to leave time for him to work on the web site to create a splashy and frequently updated site. This turned out to be optimistic thinking as the long hours welding, heaving rocks, mixing enormous batches of clay, loading the gigantic kilns and generally using his back every moment of every day left him, well, toasted most nights. Buff but toasted. However, this fall he has a different job working at his alma mater Kimball Union Academy. And at least to begin with, it looks like there will be time for the web site work!
Building in cyber space is looking more and more appealing! Here he is getting ready.