" seems like no one wants to do fun things anymore".. Steve S Lol, those are fighting words, my man. DS#1 is about Dorf's age and he is doing pretty much what Dorf is doing. He joined a running club and has a great time. Some of the members are a lot older in years than he is but a lot younger physically. This weekend he and his running club acted as spotters for an Alcatraz run. He got up at 4:30 am PS to make it to SF and back to the valley for Father's Day Celebration.He had a great day. DH and I have been active all our lives in one sport or another. In our advanced years we have changed our sports but not our fun or competitive spirit. We just do it slower these days. We bought automatic gear shift bicycles,(can't see the gear shift any longer) we put on cat eyes to measure our, speed,distance,average speed, high speed, low speed and time. We do an average speed of 7.5, distance about 4 miles, time about 30:33 minutes and we have fun. On alternate days we walk about 30 minutes. I have a wrist watch with a huge number's dial, so I can see it w/o my glasses. We have fun.

Yes, Happy Solstice! It's officially "iced coffee and air conditioning season"! And it's only four months and 10 days until Halloween! Just in case anyone was wondering... We've had a few afternoon showers, and thank goodness for them! Cools things off a tad. Wow, 9 years old? Mine's... let's see... counting on fingers... 8 years (9 years in November). Wow. It doesn't seem like we've lived here that long. Cheers!

I started to map my shady areas this morning but couldn't maintain focus. I know the shade pattern has changed over the years since my first shade study in 2006 but since everything is going gangbusters, I'm guessing the plants don't really care/have adapted themselves to their growing conditions. I did plant some winter sown Dianthus, dig out & pot up a handful of volunteer Virginia knotweed seedlings.

My bottlebrush buckeye today, note the ones to the right haven't opened yet. On an average year the flowers are infested with Japanese Beetles but this year, nary a one. BTW yes hummingbirds will come to white flowers along with so many winged insects too numerous to mention. I can't name any other plant with such a contrasting appearance summer vs winter. It is thick and lush now but in winter just bare stems. I raised these plants from buckeyes that I collected.