Night and Day

I was lying in bed last night, not moving and yet sweating in the heat, and not sleeping due to all the neighborhood fireworks. I got up to get myself a snack and looked outside to see if I could at least see some of the fireworks since I had to listen to them. Nope. But look what I did see! This is a supermoon, but it's a day past full. Close enough. I do wish there wasn't a stupid wire between it and me, but. There is.

A supermoon occurs when the moon is full AND the moon is closest to earth in its orbit.

The hot night led right into a hot day. I managed to do about an hour's worth of work outside in the morning, but then I just couldn't stand it. I had errands to do anyway, so that was OK.

My car thermometer read 92 when I left my house. I had to go to downtown Ludington. Of course, the big lake moderates the temperature there. It was mid-seventies with a light breeze. That was certainly a delightful difference!

Each year, the edges of Ludington Avenue is lined with red, white, and blue petunias. They are planted with the goal of having them look fantastic for the Freedom Festival on the 4th of July. This year has been so dry that a bunch of the flowers died and had to be replanted. The volunteer crew doubled down and started watering them twice a day. This is quite a feat because it has to be done at times of low traffic. A small tanker drives the streets slowly, watering the plants. Perhaps they aren't mounded as full as some years, but they look pretty good. Service clubs and individuals volunteer to plant and weed the flowers.

Ludington in summer is all about the beach and the tourists. I really hate going into town. It's even hard to get out of my driveway, and we live six miles away. True to form, the line at House of Flavors for ice cream was half a block long. Drivers were honking and yelling at each other. And, the beach isn't even crowded yet.

This is my favorite picture. The sky was hazy... maybe I should have titled this the Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer. But the beach umbrella makes the shot. You can faintly see a couple of sailboats out past the lighthouse.

Whether you want to sing a Cole Porter song or prefer Nat King Cole, it is certainly summer. Post 4th of July, Ludington solidly enters its tourism phase. Since I had to go downtown, I tried to do all the errands there that I could think of. I hate going there at this time of year.

Places are starting to mark down their plants. Yeah! But there were also mundane needs like an inner tube for the wheelbarrow wheel. The free table at the library had a Ngaio Marsh book that I didn't own, so that's now mine.

After I got home, the temperature began to cool significantly. We may get rain tonight. But the cooler temps allowed me to get some plants in the garden. I've got both doors open with fans pulling in the cool air. I've already gotten the inside temperature several degrees lower. I'll keep this going until the bugs start to come in.

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