Summer Eye Candy

 

I vowed yesterday to outwit the blogger gods today. 

Shortly after publishing my blog yesterday morning, I happened to look at it and noticed there was no text. 

Never mind the fact that I had included a story and a few comments about photos. These were saved several times in the usual manner, and when I published, the text was there. 

Something happened.  

I have no idea what the glitch could be, but the post remained just a bunch of photos for the rest of the day. 

It's not fun rewriting---in a hurry---what you've spent considerable time crafting.  Never the same and often not as well written. 

So, today, I'm hoping the "something" with the Blogger program has been resolved.  

A while back, when I vowed to end the blog, the problem involved highlighting text to give it a color which contrasts with the background. 

One morning I discovered that I could no longer highlight text already written.  It took me until the next day to figure out a different technique from the one I'd been using for nearly 20 years.

That discovery seemed to solve the problem.  For several days, though, I kept checking to see if the problem with highlighting had been fixed.  It wasn't. 

BUT a week or two ago, I checked again, and voila, the original strategy for highlighting had returned.  So, I'm back to writing my text and then deciding on a color other than black. 

I tell this story simply because with blogging come technical mysteries, sometimes only lasting a day; sometimes longer. 

So, this morning's approach to outwitting whatever blogger god ate my text yesterday will involve copying and pasting it and putting a copy in a Word document so I do have it should the text disappear again. 

In short, there's a lot behind the scenes, including a few choice words, whenever the blogging procedure goes wrong.  

Usually, I have no idea that there will be a problem until I publish.  In yesterday's case, the problem occurred afterward. 

With all that said, yesterday's blog message dealt with our method of beating beastly hot weather in the evenings after dinner. 

We load up the dogs and go for a drive in the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle.  This week we have picked a different route for each hot evening. 

Sunday we went to Upper Pack, while last night we drove the Grouse Creek-Elmira loop.  It's a bumpy road but passable.

Many of the open hillsides along the road are filled with a sea of ocean spray. It's beautiful and abundant this year. 

We also drove past a few syringa bushes.  Syringa is the Idaho state flower.  

Until last night, when I stepped from the pickup to get some closeups of syringa, I had never known that the flower had such a pleasant fragrance.

Lovely. 

Both of our trips to the mountains have taken us just a couple of hours.  By the time we return, the sun has gone down and the house is reasonably cool, thanks to covered windows and a big, busy fan. 

In the past, we've tried to tough out the heat around here at home, but I have found that, if we make a plan in advance to go for these drives, our moods remain positive throughout the day, knowing we can escape the heat.  

Plus, we don't have nearly as much perspiration dripping down our brows and providing discomfort in other parts of the body. 

These planned mountain excursions solve a problem, and the eye candy is spectacular.  Even with the heat, things are still colorful around the Lovestead too. 

Happy Tuesday.  Enjoy the photos. 

Syringa:  inhale and enjoy the fragrance along with the beauty.