Summer Wildflowers

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Time for more of the One Hundred Species Challenge. I really wonder how long this will take me!

42. Blazing Star: Mentzilia multiflora var. multiflora. This is in Loasa family, It is a desert plant, and likes sandy soil and loess.

43. Desert Heliotrope: Heliotropum curassavicum

This plant also likes salty soil, sands and fines.

It is part of the Borage family, and ranchers like

the family because most of the plants

are good for grazing.

44. Miner's Torch (Mullein): Verbascum thapsis. This plant
is mildly poisonous, but is used extensively in the herbal healing arts. It is found where soil has been disturbed, and the yellow flowers have a very sweet smell and attact bees and flies.









The late summer flowers are now blooming and I will have to see what I did not have here last year!

Skate Boarding!

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The Boychick entertained his cousin, D., here at Ragamuffin house for two weeks.

We picked D. up at the airport on Father's Day, and I took him back to the airport Monday morning for a flight back to St. Louis, where he would be picked up by his mother and taken home to Bloomington, IL.

Aside from one trip to the VLA, and a day at the Tea Party, the guys spent most of their days, and some evenings, trying out the skateboard parks of Central New Mexico.

D. demonstrates his skill on the back patio.

The Boychick, in very good form,

on the back patio.

D. shows his stuff at the new North Albuquerque Skate Park. The boys also went to Los Altos Skate Park frequently, but Mom kept forgetting the camera!

The Boychick coming down the steep form.

That's a pretty steep angle to the unitiated.

Like Me!

A good time was had by both boys. They didn't have a lot of desires.

They just wanted to hang out with each other.

And go "boarding."

Next year, we'll do it again!

Updates: 'Da Floorz' and 'Da Boyz'

Update: 'Da Floorz'

Bruce did work on putting in the wood floors again over the weekend. Although he had great intentions, he did not work on them in the evenings last week.

Monday he took a vacation day to work on the floors, so the week nights consisted of Tuesday through Thursday. Tuesday he was very tired from working late into the evening on Monday. Wednesday he had an astronomy phone/internet conference. Thursday...I can't remember why not on Thursday. And, of course, Friday was Shabbat.

Then came Saturday. He went into town with MLC and I in the morning. It's amazing how often you have to run to the hardware store when you are doing a major project. We dropped him off there on the way to pick up our Harry Potter pre-orders. Then he had to eat lunch. By then he was tired from the morning and took a nap, so he didn't really get started until about 3:30 in the afternoon.

I would have been getting upset--just a little, mind you--but I was deep into Harry Potter by then. Still, he got some of the pieces cut for dealing with doorways.

Sunday morning, Bruce was cutting and laying out pieces by 7:30 AM. But the doorway problem was taking a lot of time. Along the 51 foot hallway that runs across the house, there are five doorways. And for each one, the boards have to be cut so that theyfit under the doorframes. Also, the hallway expands to form a half-hexagon at the bedroom end. It something similar but wider where the living room meets the entryway. This means that boards must be cut at a 45 degree angle to fit the space.

The picture at the top shows how the boards had to be cut to form a point at the end of the hallway between the master bedroom door and my office door. From there, they run straight back for 51 feet to the guest bedroom door, just off the dining room. There are 4 boards, each 3 inches wide. That's about 64 square feet of floor laid.

The second picture is of the boards laid out into the area where the hall expands out toward the entryway. The first 5 boards from the left are continuous with the 5 shown in the first picture. The rest had to be cut at an angle to fit the expansion. The tools are laying right in front of Bruce's office door.

The third and last floor picture shows Lily standing right where the hall starts to expand to the left toward the entryway. I took the picture from Bruce's office door. Bruce is working at the bedroom end. All this work around the doors and in the half-hexagonal areas is taking longer than Bruce anticipated. But it is looking good!

Can you see the dust tracks? I can see I will have to use the dust mop frequently.

Update: 'Da Boyz'

N. called this evening and my sister 'Madge' sent me the last Illinois update yesterday. N. will be arriving home tomorrow around noon.

This past week has been very full. On Sunday, he went to Allerton Park. On Monday, it was Lincoln's home and the Illinois State Museum in Springfield. Tuesday it was the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Wednesday, the Field Museum. They took Thursday off, but on Friday that went to Starved Rock and Buffalo Rock State Parks on the Illinois River. Saturday, they went fishing at Dawson Lake. Finally, yesterday and today, they did some "hanging out" which included a lot of skateboarding outside Madge's house in Bloomington.

An 'Aspie" moment occured when I asked N. if he was ready to come home. By tone, I implied 'ready' as in emotionally ready. But he did not hear that:


N: "Almost, but Aunt Madge is still washing some of my clothes."
Me: "But are you really ready for your trip to end?"
N: "Well. And I have to wait until I brush my teeth before I can pack my toothbrush."
Me: "But are you --you know--ready to come home. You know, get into the routine again."
N: "Almost. But I still have to put my little bottles into the zip-lock baggies."
Me: "Okay. Do you feel like you want to come home now?"
N: "Oh! That. Yeah. I want to see my room and my dog and hang out with you now."
Me: "So in that way you are ready to come home, then."
N: "Oh, YEAH! And I took lots of pictures. I even took one of us brushing our teeth. Aunt Madge is gonna burn 'em on a cd for you 'cause there's too many to e-mail. I even got a picture of Tyrannosaurus Sue! And of the U-boat at Science and Industry. And Lake Michigan, too! You'll like all the pictures I took."

Well that's the longest sentence he's said on the phone to me in the past three weeks.
I didn't tell him that Madge had sent a few pictures by e-mail. A very few.

I can hardly wait to pick him up tomorrow.
People said that I'd really enjoy the time alone. And I did. But there was an empty spot at the table.

And in my heart.

He's still my baby boy!

Walking through the Meadow Early in the Morning

I could sleep late this week.

But the sun is up early of a summer morn.
And the cool of the night is still over the meadow. And in the meadow, the flora is burgeoning and blooming.

Staying in bed is just not an option with beauty like this just out of the door.
So I rise with the sun and walk with the dogs in the meadow--early in the morning.




The wildflowers look new and fresh--and very tall--in early morning.

Here is yellow sweet clover and purple "pinks" abloom where the road meets the meadow path.

The wet spring has given us an abundance of tall grasses and wildflowers, early summer blossoms.









And now at mid-summer, the grasses are flower in the meadow.

The morning sun slanting on the grass flowers makes them pale gold against the green of the grass stalks.








Here are yellow asters blooming in the rocky soil just where the meadow path intersects the forest trail.

They are in the sun, but the path is still in the long shadow of the ridge behind.

Although these asters are now in the bloom, the New Mexico sunflowers are not yet in bud. The stalks are growing, but they flower later in the summer.

Coming 'round to the house by the forest path, we get to pass by the Mexican Lilacs blooming in the dooryard.

Growing up in Illiniois, I loved the lilacs that bloomed in April and May next to my window. They had a wonderful, strong lilac scent that lasted only a few weeks.

The Mexican Lilacs bloom from mid-summer until fall. They have a more delicate lilac scent that lasts all summer. As the day progresses, the dooryard will hum with the activity of bees coming for lilac nectar. But in the early morning, the dooryard is quiet, waiting.

After our early morning meadow walk, the rest of the day is almost an anticlimax.

I can't imagine sleeping late and missing the cool freshness of the meadow in early morning.

On these summer morns, I come to breakfast with a heart full of wonder and graditude. I am so fortunate to be alive one more day to see the great sights of life around me, to feel the cool morning breeze off the mountain, and to hear the morning greetings of the birds.