This morning our fourth and final lotus blossom of the Summer bloomed in all it's glory.

A week ago we lost the fairest of the fair. As I sat admiring the flower this morning some parrallels struck me. Let's start with the obvious, for it is lovely as was she. Her favorite color was pink and on the first day the blossoms are a gorgeous shade of pink. It smells nice, not overpowering, but sweet and delicate. They both have a heart of gold. Each lotus blossom takes a week or two to form and is only with us for a brief time, but completely worth the wait. The large leaves of the lotus provide shade and shelter for the fish and frogs and other fauna. And finally the lotus can be surprisingly fierce. Much like roses have thorns, the lotus has rough bumps on each stem forming a serated edge to cut out anything not working in harmony with it.

Or I could be a bit nuts. Regardless, I wore all pink today, from my scrunchie to my shoes, in Courtney's honor.

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To top it off, this morning I wake up to a Blue Heron in our backyard. dammit. It looked to be immature, smaller and speckled on the breast, but took a few tries to chase away. First I just opened the sliding glass door, then I had to actually yell at it, and finally I had to yell and clap from the bathroom window. Stupid bird. I thought of digging out the bird netting, but couldn't be late, so I just added some more water to the pond to give the fish room to maneuver and was vigilant as I was getting ready for work. I didn't see it about on nearby roofs or anywhere when I left. I'm hoping that if the heron did try for the pond that Bubba and the other big fish bitchslapped it into next spring.

Anyway, we're mostly packed, after long afternoon naps, and will be ready to go in the morning. sigh.
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Our plans for Sapphire are to drive down Sat AM (early morning, like leave the house around 5am early) to make it to site to set-up our tent on the field and have it ready to go for the fighting and other activities the day brings. We'll be camping under our shade overnight and hanging out, and attending meetings on Sunday, and then pack up Sunday afternoon/evening for the trip home. Hopefully we can catch a movie and some relaxing on Monday. The days should be fun, if a bit warm. I haven't signed to work anywhere, and am actually looking forward to simply playing hostess under our shade. We'll have a good group of folks that I don't get to spend nearly enough time with.

Yesterday was a lovely day. Despite the fact that I slept terribly on Wed night, tossed and turned a bunch, I awoke refreshed and fine, put on a pretty dress and come into the office. After a day of meetings and projects, I get a message from Wendy that she had to cancel her appointment with Wendy OTMH, and would I want the time slot. So naturally I said YES! and called the Salvation Army to see how late they accept donations, called the salon to schedule the appointment, and took off a little early. My evening consisted of dropping off four bags of too-big clothes at the Sal Army, an hour long massage with Wendy OTMH (hadn't seen her since before Gulf Wars!), and then an hour of shopping at DSW for shoes. Okay, despite the hour I spent there, I left empty handed. Yes, no more new shoes. The only things that attracted my eye were the pale yellow chucks with daisies and ladybugs on them and since I don't wear my pink ones often enough, and I have NO yellow in my wardrobe, I decided to pass on them. I tried on, what felt like, the entire store's selection of shoes in my size, but nothing was tempting enough to come home with me. The lovely peep-toe leopard print low wedges from Nine West would have been wonderful, but the 8s were too tight and the 8.5s slid around on my feet. So sad. They were very cute. The pale pink ballet flats were also cute, but I could see them dirty in two shakes of a lambs tale, so left them there. As I did the pale pink Nine West purse, since really, I've already got at least 4 pink purses. Odd restraint, and yet it did feel good to at least check to make sure there weren't shoes out there that needed to come home with me. And I walked around the store a bunch, which was good for me. Does bending to try on shoes count as calisthenics? Afterward we had some adult chat time with the Olney's, I got to play with Speedwagon some and help put him to sleep, and then Akbar's Indian carry-out and home for a late dinner and lovely chat with my sweetie before collapsing in bed before midnight.

The pond irises are in full bloom. I took some pictures this morning to show the full impact of our Gyrth irises. We have several bulging pots and I'd wager they are so tall Tonwen could hide in the forest and so big that I could park Jabba the hut behind them and obscure him completely. We've also got some crazy growing sweet flag pond grasses, if anyone needs some of them. I have great and glorious (which means unlikely to actually execute) plans of harvesting the sweet flag in the late summer, and drying it for basket weaving. We shall see. I've also seen a cool picture of a basket of iris leaves that would be awesome to try. Any basket weavers who'd like some of the materials?

So, other than that, I've got my new Ann Taylor casual pants on, a more zen approach to the world, and a truck to pack once I get home tonight. I confess I kinda miss the days when Jason used to tell me that if I were more laid back I'd be in a coma.

See some of you folks at Sapphire.

Still sick, but less so. Have play tonight that I'll pack cough drops for.  Need a nap.

Chased a large blue heron out of the pond this morning with a knock on the window. Hooray for the bird netting. Should probably add water to the pond.