Hail puddle.
I updated my operating system, finally. I hadn't done it since I got this computer in 2008! There are new wrinkles to be worked out every day.
Oscar has gotten a lot happier about the hammock since his first foray. He likes trying to stand up on it while it's swinging, of course. He had the best time playing on it while Karl and Bouchra's son Marvin was here. They played together on all kinds of things, in the classic parallel fashion.
The biggest news of the garden is that I had day lilies of all three colors blooming at the same time! I think they all look very nice together. The raspberries have also started to be ripe. I showed Oscar the raspberry bushes today, and offered him one. He put it in his mouth and then spit it out, but when I put him down he decided to try pulling all the raspberries off at once, even the completely white unripe ones. And if any fell into the tall grass, he crouched down and searched for it. The crocosmia have emerged and they look very fancy. I completely forgot where I had planted them, too, so that's a bonus surprise. And that cucumber is from our very own vine. We'll have to harvest them all this weekend, for pickling before they get too big. I have already done some good summer preserving - I made cherry jam from our sour cherry tree out front. Once it was made, I saw cherry trees laden all over the neighborhood, and wanted to harvest all their fruit for jam (or crisp) too. But I held back - it's too hot. Pickling doesn't require heat, at least.
We had my birthday party last weekend and it was a great success. Eric bought us a croquet set, and everyone enjoyed playing even though it was really too hot to be outside moving around. He took it in to work with him today, and coerced a few weed scientists into playing a game before the end of the day. We even played last night after we got home. So far Eric is the champion.
Oscar can say "peach," which is quite hilarious, especially after two cups of coffee. He doesn't pronounce it quite correctly, you see. The peaches have been really delicious this summer, even if they're not coming straight off our backyard tree.
