Sweater Weather

 

On Thursday I dug out some shorts and found that only two pair from the collection fit somewhat, especially if I tighten my belt. 

In my lifetime, I have never had this problem of most of my wardrobe being too big in my lifetime, and when summer rolls around, the challenge of finding clothes to wear in the heat increases. 

But wait!  

Only one day of wearing shorts and we're back to digging out the winter sweaters.  

Happily, I have a fairly good collection of winter clothes. 

If I had it my way, we'd be layering the year around because I'm not a fan of extreme heat.  

Like my politics, moderation should be the key to everything, especially the weather. 

So now, it's back to starting with at least three layers for tops in the morning and shedding as the day goes on and the temperature goes up. 

This summer weather in May has my garden plants in a quandary too.  My spinach has gone to seed. It's only about four inches tall and pretty skinny. 

I don't think spinach likes the heat. 

So far, the lettuce isn't balking at the temperature.  It's growing nicely, as are my beans and tomatoes. This week I even put out three cucumber plants from the greenhouse, and they are doing just fine.

The real mystery is the pumpkin seeds that haven't sprouted after two weeks in the ground.  Last year I had to plant my three pumpkin seeds twice.  

Same is true for this year.  Yesterday, after deciding the first batch wasn't going to come up, I stuffed three more seeds in the mound next to the barn. 

Gardening is always a mystery.  It's frustrating, but whatever we can grow always tastes good. 

So, I keep at it.    

Yesterday turned out to be a basketball-orama. 

The Sandpoint Basketball Tournament brought in players, coaches, families and friends to the high school and middle school gyms.  

I watched a Lake City-Clark Fork game at the middle school and then moved over to the high school to watch Willie's Bulldogs take on and defeat Coeur d'Alene. 

It was fun to see the players and their parents again and to start placing some names with the new faces.

While at the tournament, I learned that Willie's team is selling raffle tickets for a 2026 Subaru Crosstrek.

So, of course, I purchased a couple of tickets.  Looks like there's plenty of time to purchase some and help out the Bulldogs.  

Spending time at the basketball clinic later turned into spending time watching a WNBA game. 

I turned the channel to ABC, and, by golly, a game between the Portland Fire and the Indiana Fever. 

The Fire were on fire while the Fever seemed pretty tepid.  

The Fire are the new WNBA team coached by Willie and Debbie's friend Alex Sarama, and what a game they played. 

It was neat to see Alex on the side court and to listen to his interview. One of the commentators called him a basketball savant. 

He surely fit the description while coaching his team to 100 points and a significant win over the Fever and Caitlin Clark. 

After the game, I learned that the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Oklahoma Thunder to move on to the NBA Championship. 

Turns out that even with Chet Holmgren out, the championship game will have a Gonzaga grad playing.  That would be Kelly Olynyk.  Bill says that means that three years in a row a ZAGS player has been in the Championship. 

I guess they put out some pretty good players. 

Anyway, lots of basketball yesterday AT THE END OF MAY.  

Debbie and her friend Tammy worked the desk at the middle school during the Sandpoint tournament.  It's obvious they always enjoy working together. 

Besides taking a few photos, I bought coffee for a couple of Love's working the tournament. 

It was a fun segment of a rather cold Saturday. 

And, now we say good bye to a busy month of May and welcome all that June has to offer tomorrow.  

Time flies. 

Happy Sunday. 

Saturday Slight

 

It's a glorious iris year, and my only complaint is that the exquisite blooms don't last long enough. 

Below:  same story with the white rose bush. The pop out and fall off much too quickly. 

And, that's a problem for the honey bees.  With the blooms disappearing so quickly, the bees have to bunch up on utilizing their work space. 

Some Saturday morning factoids:  

Here's a good job for someone:  spelling bee coach.  

There's a guy who charges $180 an hour, and people say he's worth every penny. 

~~~~

Of the 1,913 recommendations for Project 2025, the architect behind it all says 1,055 have been implemented. 

Betcha feel good knowing there are only 858 to go.

Can ya hear me now??? 

~~~~~

A judge has ruled that the Kennedy Center will remain the Kennedy Center and that the Trump name needs to be removed. 

Was renaming the Kennedy Center on the Project 2025 list?  

We heard from a reliable source at last night's Friday night dinner that there's a basketball tournament in Sandpoint today, at both the high school and middle school gyms. 

Coach Love said teams will be coming from around the area and that the focus is on junior varsity players. 

It's from 10-3, and there is a small fee.  Debbie Love will be managing the tickets at the door. 

If you can't seem to get enough of basketball, go cheer on the locals. 

It's nap time for Lily. 

A full tummy from grazing on grass for a couple of hours does that to an old lady. 

Below:  One week from today.  

Looks like a lot of work is going into making this event something special. 

Below are a few photos of Annie's from her day in Switzerland and Italy yesterday.  Some show the geocaching mega event, which she is attending. 

The folks from Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle are known as lackeys. 

Annie's been a lackey for almost 20 years. 

Bryan, on the right in the photo below, has been one of her bosses for all those years. 

They have met up at major geocaching events around the world as representatives of Groundspeak, Inc. in Seattle. 

This is a small-world photo.  

The lady with Annie is a friend of Swiss Miss's mom Caroline.  She's a geocacher and knew from Caroline that Annie would be at the Italian Mega Event.  

Once the evening get-together started, she walked up to Annie and introduced herself. 

What she didn't know, however, was that Annie had just spent the morning visiting with her friend Caroline's daughter in Switzerland.  

Fun connections.

 

Friday Mutterings

 

Annie Love and Laura Schmid aka Swiss Miss in Lugano, Switzerland, earlier today. 

The last time we saw Laura aka Swiss Miss, she had flown from Zurich to Dublin, taken a bus to the north of the Republic of Ireland, checked into a hostel at Malin Head and then walked a mile to the Seaview Restaurant where Bill, Willie, Debbie and I were about to begin our dinner. 

It was one of THE wonderful and happy surprises of my lifetime to look up and see Swiss Miss walking into that dining area. 

She spent a couple of days hanging out with us, then took the bus back to Dublin where we met her that evening and hung out in Dublin, mainly walking alongside the River Liffey. 

Earlier today she took a shorter trip to meet up with Annie in Southern Switzerland. 

Swiss Miss stayed with Willie and Debbie as an exchange student for a semester a few years back. While here, she rode horses, played basketball at Sandpoint High School and even attended a ZAGS men's game, compliments of a very generous Pat West. 

The first tradition Laura learned after touching down in Spokane and heading to her home away from home in Sandpoint was "GO, ZAGS," but she gave it her own sophisticated style:  "GO, ZAHHGS," she would say, and we were okay with that. 

We have many wonderful family memories with Laura since those days.  This is the second time Annie has met up with her in Switzerland. 

Laura now works two jobs---in a museum and in animal rescue.  With her intellect and passionate love for animals, I am sure she's in Heaven with her careers. 

And, we are thrilled that the long distance relationship between the Schmid family and the Loves, et.al. continues to unfold whenever and wherever possible. 

My lettuce crop is coming along nicely.  

Bill has been eating homegrown romaine lettuce in his salads for three weeks, and hopefully the heat will hold off for a while to allow salad fixings for the next few weeks. 

She's going to be 94 in August, and she says "you've got to keep going." 

Frankie and I enjoyed a quick and lovely visit yesterday in the Yoke's parking lot.  

I asked her what she was doing these days, and she said "the usual---pulling weeds and caring for chickens." 

Frankie has a wonderful attitude about life, and she definitely continues to be an inspiration. 

This was the sky before the storm last night.  

Happily, the worst that happened here was a brief power outage. 

I heard there were some problems in other areas around the community, including a direct strike sparking a fire at an apartment building in town.

I don't think I've ever seen so many lightning strikes so close together. 

Along with the lightning came a good amount of rain but no wind to speak of. 

Nice to have no damage and a day when the earth has been cleansed and very little watering is needed. 

This is a view from the dockside road to the jetty near City Beach.  

The locust trees are in bloom and the fragrance is pure delight, as is the view. 

One would have thought it was July with the beach parking lot almost full. 

With temps in the 90s, it felt like July. 

Gary Finney's pasture, up the road from us, includes three brands of riding/driving animals:  mules, light horses and draft horses.