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Finally, my efforts to make the lily pool look good have begun to pay off. By draining much of the water out every couple of weeks or so (putting it on trees) and refilling it, the clarity has improved to the point that the fish are easily visible. For the first time all three lily colors, white, pink and yellow, have had a blossom at the same time. It has been well over sixty years since I asked my long-suffering father to build the lily pool for Mother’s Day and I’m confident it has never looked better.
This past week I launched my eighth decade on Planet Earth and I took Wednesday off to celebrate. It is the custom among the mall walkers to bring donuts to their morning mall convocation in honor of their birthday so Joyce and I loaded up on a couple dozen on the way to walking with her friends. Most of the mall walkers walk too slowly to give Joyce a satisfying workout. Many of them are one to two decades older so they are to be forgiven. However, recently Joyce has started walking with a woman a little younger than her who really steps out. I managed to keep up with them but felt I had earned my donut by the time we finished. I only had a half of one, though, since we were going to breakfast after. Most of the rest of the day was spent lounging around the house but we did have dinner out, with the Zbindens joining us.
Speaking of the Zbindens, they returned from Europe that morning. They were supposed to get in Tuesday evening late, but a delay on the east coast caused them to miss their flight from Dallas to Amarillo and they spent the night in a hotel. Most of their trip was spent in Switzerland but they also spent a couple of days in Rome, which they described as hot and crowded. We really haven’t heard much about their trip because everyone has been so busy since they got back. Abigail left early Friday for a volleyball camp in Fort Collins, CO. Li’l r and I played golf Friday morning and she played in a tennis tournament over the weekend. Last night Joyce and I attended her high school graduating class’s 70th birthday party. Most of her class turned 70 this year or last, so it was an excuse to party, don’t you see. Joyce had debated with herself whether she wanted to go and waited till the last minute to RSVP. She was glad she did because she had good time catching up with old friends.
We’ve gotten a couple of showers recently. Thursday morning we got .30 and this morning (Sunday) there was another nice little shower of .37. There is a chance of rain tonight and tomorrow and it would be nice to get another decent shower. The daytime highs were in the low 100s week before last and it has been nice to have some cooler days. Friday morning when Rebecca and I were golfing it was almost chilly. Tomorrow is predicted to barely break 80.
Dave bought a Mini Cooper convertible in Houston. He apparently found what he was looking for there rather than in Dallas. The family went on to Galveston for a little R&R and Jill sent me a picture of Dave and the girls driving with the top down along the seawall.
There has been an out-break of purslane, not seen since 2013. Also, there are more goatheads on the place than I’ve ever seen. They are usually rare, thankfully, but they, like the purslane, seem to like the conditions caused by dry weather punctuated by a solid rain like we had in June (1.5″) I’ve just about cleaned up the purslane. It has to be pulled since I haven’t found any herbicide that bothers it. I may use a combination of herbicide and pulling or digging on the goatheads.