Nothing really on my mind....

 Well, we are moving through the month of July...just about the time when one thinks that summer will never arrive, July is sneaking out the back door.  Our very rainy days finally moved elsewhere.  Wish we could have shared some of that rain with the very dry and hot states in the south west.  I remember living in the Cascade mountains one summer when there were forest fires...and as we watched one huge cloud of smoke pour up into the sky, we realized that the fire had taken the lives of several firefighters.  Weather can bring such tragedies...and yet, on the other hand, some days are too beautiful for words.  

This is one of those months when I don't have many thoughts in my head.  Sometimes, when I write, a significant issue has jumped out and grabbed my mind.  Other times, I am thinking back on some special memory.  But, today there is nothing in particular on my mind.  I guess that is good...kind of a quiet time.

Our neighbor brought over a bag of garden green and yellow peppers.  Not being a gardener, that was a very nice treat.  The hanging tomato plant that our grandson gave me for my birthday has grown beautifully...but as soon as the little green tomatoes popped out, he thought they were ready for picking!  He carried the little green tomatoes around for a very long time so his mom said that he had enjoyed them...in just another way.  The Farmer's Market is open at the entrance to our community.  Peaches, blueberries ( which reminds me that the blueberry season here is about due), and everything else wonderfully edible. 
All good signs of summer...

We bought an IPad.  I don't know what to do with it yet but I am thinking I can learn.  It seemed that maybe we should be doing something to keep up with the times and this was a good place to start.  I also have a PhotoShop for my 'picture taking' and am having fun changing what I 'really' saw.  I can make a sunset more fabulous than you could ever imagine!!  My husband says, "But that seems like cheating!"  I guess he is right.  Several years ago someone told me that photos of politicians are enhanced so much that we probably wouldn't recognize those people face to face. Now I understand what that person meant...but it is kind of fun to play around with reality!

I'm reading...still into Tolstoy.  I am about up to my ears in Russian history.  After I complete this last one it is time to move on to something else.  I have two new books - both speak to an issue that breaks my heart.  The first in the series of three books is  "A Child Called 'It' ".  All three address the issue of child abuse and growing through and out of the experience...as though one could ever grow out of such trauma.  I remember, as a very young teacher, how traumatic it was to see children living in less that ideal conditions.  Hungry, dirty clothes and dirty bodies and sad faces.  When I think of very young children in dangerous or even unhappy situations, I feel sad right through my whole being.  It's one of those things that I really don't know how to change... I guess that's what the quote "It takes a village" means.

Maybe that's why I am so into loving our grandson...If you ask me on any Thursday or Friday what I have been doing I would have to tell you that I have been 'playing cars'.  He and I can play cars any time of the day for as long as we have time!  My husband and I brought him to the bi-plane show in our town.  He loved the airplanes.  We also took him on the lake in our boat but I'm not sure that was a much fun as the airplanes...or playing with his cars! 

So, I guess this is what you call the 'lazy days of summer'.  And lazy days are good too.  I'm glad to be retired...actually it allows me to have lazy days in every season.  Not boring days, not empty days...just lazy days.  Days when I say in the morning, "I can't believe it is already that late!!"  Days when I can read all morning and say, "Well, I'll finish my work tomorrow."  Days when the most exciting thing in the day is 'playing cars' or listening to the rain!

So, I really don't have anything special on my mind.  I would still like to know how people manage to find this blog in Indonesia,Cambodia, Brazil, Russia...do you think someone is checking up on me???  If that is the case, I hope they take my advice and find some time to have some lazy days this summer.  I'm a little off schedule from my 'first of the month' posting but that's okay.  I'll check in with you again...someday when I am through being 'lazy'.