Happy Summer Solstice!

The days are longer and it stays light until about 8:30pm here. I love looking at the fireflies at dusk and the hummingbirds are just humming along at our feeders in those lazy afternoons. Crazy hubby

has put up at least 6 bird feeders. He really loves to make the birdies happy! He also put in another fishtank, and we recently took a trip to the store to buy a few finned friends. I swear he od'ed on Mutual of Omaha as a kid on Sunday evenings, just like I did.

Life is settling down a bit finally. Mom, Gd rest her soul, was a saint. She was amazing and was very much the glue that connected the old-world generation to us. We had a Father's Day Barbeque in my cousin, Mark's backyard and it was just classic. Lots of conversation, some of the crowd swam in their pool, and a perfect evening where no one wanted to leave. The food was terrific and I really enjoyed a rare glass of wine. My cousins all knew the heartbreak I had endured and despite trying so hard to keep things light, there just was that heaviness in knowing Mom was not there to enjoy those stupid burnt hotdogs, chasing it was some good cold chardonnay. I had some for her, and I hope she enjoyed the wine as much as I did. As usual, the more intellectual of the crowd ran toward me and engaged me to talk politics and religion, because nothing really upsets me and I do enjoy a good meaningful disagreement every now and then. Hubby stayed in the background, which he tends to do anyhow. Probably thinking far away thoughts like where to put up even more bird feeders and fish tanks.

Our garden is producing a bumper crop of lettuce and I slowly turning into a rabbit. We are also having fun with our pea plants which are, well, pea-ing nicely this summer. Out tomatoes are starting to tomato, but those won't be ready for a few weeks yet. Oh, I cannot wait to eat those tomato sandwiches! Also, new on the (hah!) bucket list was our new plantings of Raspberries, in the new "fruit orchard". Those, with luck, will be ready to harvest in a week or so. I plan on making Raspberry preserves and can them if not then eat them. We transferred the pepper plants into the garden and I hope to transfer the basil plants as well. Lots going on in Gorby Farms.

I just got word that Mizz Thang lives with a cat now. She is thrilled. We are not. However, I highly doubt that I will be sleeping over again in Oberlin any time soon, and it is her pal's cat, and thank goodness the landlord was ok with it. She loves her house, her friends, and now the cat. Oberlin is better for it all. She has another 2 years to go, and I hope that she stays healthy and happy.

Mr. Sonnyboy returned from traipsing all over Europe but based in Denmark. He is at Richmond and squirreling away his money while he applies for scholarships. I think he may stand a good chance of something like a Fulbright or Luce etc. Pretty soon he will look forward to applying to grad schools, but that is yet to be seen. He seems pretty jazzed about the future, other than possibly AI wiping out human progress and all of humanity, but them's the breaks kids...

Life is not the same without Mom, but it does go on,, and I have reopened the studio, I am back to "show business", and I made the hard decision to stop doing wholesale as there just is no room for profit. It is a positive move and a realistic one. I am in quasi retirement, and this also creates more space for me to travel and enjoy my family, instead of living out of a suitcase all the time. Trust me, after 30 years of that, you would be thrilled not to do that.