Is It Possible to Have Too Many Pairs of Sunglasses (Or Too Much Free Time)?

It all started, benignly enough, with the discovery of a cookie jar filled with sunglasses...





Do I need to remind you that we haven't got television? Have you ever imagined what would happen if your evenings weren't safely packed with Animal Planet documentaries, "Survivor," and "CSI" reruns?






Words can't contain what followed---an exploration of protective eyewear that ranged from the innocent and playful to, well--the brink of madness?



Sufficient to say that we explored the issue until we felt we had no questions left to ask....






And in conclusion--No, no. You really CAN'T have too many pairs of sunglasses!

June Garden

It's been steamy-hot this week and the garden is already well on its way to jungly. I am always pushing to expand the rainforest--doesn't that expanse of zoysia seem like a waste? The resident Engineer thinks otherwise (he's the one who has to plow up all that hard red Virginia clay!)...


Butterfly bush begins to spread its wings...


Catnip and bees...


Globe basil lives up to its name--I don't want to pick it--it looks like an entity--a little green Tribble!




"Homemade Pickles" in flower and fruit....


"Sweet Baby Girl" tomatoes are still dark green and translucent.

"Someday--And That Day May Never Come--I'll Call Upon You to Do a Service for Me. But Until That Day..."

Drew's nephew and godson, Cory Johnson, graduated from high school this spring. here, the Graduate with the Godfather.

Colonial Beach, Memorial Day Weekend

Touring the shoreline at Colonial Beach in grand style, courtesy of Seville Cruise Lines (also known as tagging along with Rick and family on their pontoon boat!)


A sea osprey guards its nest on a shoreline channel marker--a common nesting site for these small raptors. Poetry in flight; alight, they have a slightly wild-eyed and frazzled look--they remind me a little of Wiley Coyote.



On Rick Seville's pontoon boat: Rick stays the course, while his wife Laura, daughter Shawna and granddaughter Jordan sunbathe; Drew enjoys being a relaxed passenger, for a change!



Images of Colonia Beach taken from Rick's boat: One of many beautiful old private homes that hug the shore; the red place on stilts was washed away in a fierce storm a few years ago--recently rebuilt; I love this sweet yellow Queen Anne house--Alexander Graham Bell's house--that's my fantasy home, and not because of AGB...


This is a view of Rick's community's private beach. In the water, Drew, Rick, and Rick's extended family.

Rick's neighbors have turned their old boat into a backyard fountain.

Garden in May, 2007

Catch the roses while they are new, in that fragile moment before the blackspot sets in and the beetles begin to nibble...still a good bit of dead rosewood to cut out, but aren't cameras wonderful? They have no peripheral vision! Here you see Buff Beauty, Weisse aus Sparrieshoop, and Supurb Tuscan.





In other news, the garden is dug and weeded and nudged into life--everything, even lettuce is planted now, but the bean trellis not up yet...catnip in deliciously smelly bloom already...

Bike Week, Myrtle Beach, SC--By Night

Bike Week by night takes some careful editing to maintain this site's PG rating. Sufficient to say--it is glamorous, dangerous, sometimes ridiculous--and well worth staying awake for: here, a late-nite glamour girl with a glitter-cycle...


Burn-outs can erupt anywhere--in the parking lots and streets, as well as in the "burn-out bars." This one was at the Red Rooster, right around third set...




We heard and saw some great bands--here are "Those Guys" of Ft. Lauderdale.





Mechanical bulls bucked off the beautiful and--well, everyone, eventually...





A shooter girl at the Red Rooster with one of her victims--uh...customers!


Sharon and Mike joined us at the Red Rooster...


Drew and me at SuckBangBlow--
















In the small hours of the morning,
a veteran rests up before finding his way home....