The Fifth of July

Bizarre berry blossom

Well at least my 'hen and chick' or should I say rooster, is happy to see me. He grew a few more inches in the last few days

Lilies..lilies..lilies are all over the place now

More lilies

Bag O'impatiens The cool moist weather has caused my impatiens to take over my beds threatening my other flowers. I need to balance them more carefully

The Fifth of July. Thirty years ago, I waited impatiently for this day as it was the due date of my first child. Although it was not a particularly warm summer, I had trouble with the heat and we had no air conditioning then. I had preeclampsia. Every day I would gain 10 lbs of water weight, spend all night peeing and then repeated the cycle the next day. I vowed no more summer babies; spring babies or no babies. The day came and went with no baby to show for it. On the tenth, I was sent to the hospital for an induction, which did not work and my sky high blood pressure had dropped to normal so I was sent home. Shanna finally appeared on the 15th.

The Fifth of July is also a name of a boring play we saw on Broadway back when I was pregnant with Josh. We had gone to it specifically to see John-boy of the Waltons fame (a friend who was with me had a huge crush on him) but at the last minute, he was substituted because his wife had gone into labor with triplets. Stick to musicals.

These clouds of mosquitoes have not abated. We walked in the Arb last night to check on the 'bizarre berries' which we still can't identify. Big purple blossoms-almost 2 inches across versus the half inch white ones of regular raspberries. Some of the leaves are a foot wide versus 2-3 inches. The fruit are the size of regular raspberries but have a velvety texture and are made up of much smaller cells. The fruit appears in the fall. My raspberries are producing fruit now as are my wild blackberries that suddenly appeared. The blackberries are very tiny-not like the black berries found all over in Seattle's alleys.

It is becoming toasty again. I was able to get a nice run in today with no interruptions.

This week has been very difficult for me. How fragile everything is-especially relationships. Some things have been resolved but other issues just make me sad.