Raccoons snooze, Birthday girl, lunch with Stella and Gudrun.

See the fur marks on the glass door to the deck- the raccoons love to sleep close to the magic.  When I get up in the morning , there they are, usually the three siblings, snoozing in the  dawn's early light.  I get a cup of coffee , I say good morning, they yawn and stretch and ask what's for breakfast. Sometimes it is egg! 

No one has brought any babies by this year. It has been a strange summer, everything is off kilter. Where are the babies???

 

The two days of rain leveled the flowers pretty well. All are horizontal at the moment, except for the sunflowers by the garage. If the sun comes out for ten minutes they stand up and shout. Sunflowers are so amazing, towing over our heads looking down  at us like bosses.

The reddish brown sunflowers are called "chocolate". They are smaller than the monster yellow ones that Dennis is more fond of. He is pretty sure that bigger is better-  the monster sunflower does have it's issues. like being top heavy, falling over too soon and being unattractive. Rabbit is grateful!

Best flower in the garden celebrated her third birthday. My lord she has grown so much this summer- look at how tall she has grown. 

I gave her stainless pots and pans child sized , her Grandmother got her a broom, her auntie got her a vacuum , battery powered that makes the appropriate  god awful noise.  Flora is ready for her own apartment... she even got transportation- a hobby horse (unicorn- pink) that will take her where she needs to go.

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Today the Gudrun catalogue came. Beautiful clothing, beautiful photos of the clothing in beautiful surroundings. Is there a more beautiful catalogue, I don't think so.

 The older model has been in every catalogue since I have been buyng Gudrun clothing which it to say - a very long time. I keep thinking that this season will be the last for her, I said that 30 years ago! Yet she is still modeling and still as lovely as ever.

The photographer is such an artist!  This is the way to show clothing, I fall for it every time- but these models are about seven feet tall and thin and gorgeous- I am always a bit disheartened when I buy something and just don't quite do it justice.  Round  short squatty body baggy knees and four chins somehow do not look  quite as stunning as these...Also there is no corner in this house, for a pose, remotely as cool as Sweden.

Painterly!

See what I mean- all of that layering- One must be super tall and narrow  to pull that off nicely!

Yeah...so, I ordered something.... denial, slow learner.

Stella came by this afternoon and took us out for lunch and to sign a rental agreement for us to stay in the boy's condo in Palm Springs in October. We exchanged monies for stay and flights - already getting packed....in our heads. We will be gone for only one week but we are so used to taking bigger longer trips that we are conditioned to organize well in advance.  A week is but a blip.
 (Milli looking out at the traffic below)

A building went up overnight across from lunch- I like the building very much. It has a bit more pizazz than the usual  unimaginative lego structures around town.

Now leasing in case you want to start a business in the best part of town...I especially love the street, a patchwork of history, trolley tracks, old roadway, new tar, cement. 

The colors please me. Stella reckons  yellow is horrid...because she is Finnish and Finns do not like yellow. I learn many things from our Stella, most of them astonishing....anyway, This building gets an A+ from me.  It's cute. Another sunflower that got started late in the season. It will become compost before it has proper seeds. 

Strange strange summer this year.