So . . . How's Your Day Going?

                                                      I've been better.

On the other hand . . . I've also been worse.

(I guess that about evens things out. Dontcha think?)

Quote of the Day

Exposure to a shocking thing is not equivalent to promotion of that thing.

- Josh Corman 

Where Do They Find All This Great Stuff? Books?

from: Teddy Roosevelt's 10 rules for reading. Thank you, Book Riot.

1. “The room for choice is so limitless that to my mind it seems absurd to try to make catalogues which shall be supposed to appeal to all the best thinkers. This is why I have no sympathy whatever with writing lists of the One Hundred Best Books, or the Five-Foot Library. It is all right for a man to amuse himself by composing a list of a hundred very good books… But there is no such thing as a hundred books that are best for all men, or for the majority of men, or for one man at all times.”

6. “Books are almost as individual as friends. There is no earthly use in laying down general laws about them. Some meet the needs of one person, and some of another; and each person should beware of the booklover’s besetting sin, of what Mr. Edgar Allan Poe calls ‘the mad pride of intellectuality,’ taking the shape of arrogant pity for the man who does not like the same kind of books.”

{Photo: Teddy Roosevelt reading with canine companion, Source}

Kilt Monday!

'Cause let's face it,

Mondays can be so rough, hard, difficult.

Quote of the Day

"Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Saturday Farmer's Market - Dog Days . . .

Created by Heather at Capricious Reader, and now hosted by Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made on.

UPDATE from Last Week:  

One: It's still pretty hot here. We're moving into our third week of triple digits, although the forecast did call for temperatures to drop - into the high nineties. The first week wasn't too bad because the humidity was low, but it has definitely risen, And for those of you who don't know, a swamp cooler becomes much less efficient as the humidity rises. I won't complain (too much) though. All you folks in the south, and even on the east coast, have much higher levels of humidity than we have here.

This is the time of the season when all of nature seems to slow to a crawl, like it's looking for a shady tree to nap under until the heavy, oppressive heat breaks. . . the Dog Days of summer. (They happen to coincide with the time Cirrus, the dog star, rises at the same time as the Sun.)

Two, and this is one of those good news, bad news situations: The soaker hose that I was so worried about being clogged by the areas hard water, wasn't. (That's the good news.) It was cut in two pieces so that all my water just soaked into one place without reaching any of my plants. And during a drought, too! My Rose bushes were extremely stressed but I only lost one. I spent the last week cutting them all back and retrenching to give them the best chance and I think the rest will pull through. The garden looks bereft. I will be replacing the hose soon, but in the meantime I'm back to hand watering.

The Birthday Roses seem to be happiest right now with their beautiful little drops of sunshine.

Even the Bees seem to be dragging these days, their movements plodding and deliberate. Not at all like their joyful dance earlier in the season.

What's that? Anthropomorphizing, you say?

Right. Maybe that's just how I feel and the Bees are only doing what they always do.

We have a new family member. This is a Variegated Lemon Tree. The skin on the fruit is yellow with green stripes and the flesh is pink, but it tastes like a regular Lemon. At least that is what the tag says. Of course, the leaves themselves have a lovely green and white variegation that grabs the sun. In this picture we had just gotten it into the ground.

Zucchini Squash. 

The fruit is only now starting to form. I think mine are late this year.

There is only one Morning Glory blossom. I think it's time for some fertilizer.

The first Tomato from the 'Abe Lincoln' bush. They're not big, but they are tasty.

If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

- Henry David Thoreau, Walden. 

Quote of the Day

I take care of my own. You are my own, and I am yours--I think this is what God is saying, or trying to, over the din. We are each other's. There are many forms of thirst, many kinds of water.

- Anne Lamont via Michael Horvich Cares.

(There's much, much more to this quote, and it is truly worth reading in full.)

There Are Many Ways to Look At the World . . .

 Poland based artist Pawel Kuczynski 

and the World Behind the World.

 
Source: Pawel Kuczynski Via Imgur