..I find that summer is upon us. I am not ready I think and furrow my brow. ‘Spring has just begun and I am not yet prepared for the season after summer.’ But it looms already now that we have passed the summer solstice. The days are hot and already heavy with smells and bees and spider webs and crickets in the evening.

A good friend from work came by today and we spent a lovely afternoon wandering the back half of the property and getting mired in Owen’s stories and need to check out the minutest details so hidden from six feet above the ground. Being so much closer, so much more is noticable to him. I am thrilled to my core that he is exploring the world and getting scrapes and playing by the stream and hunting insects and so on. Finney just follows him everywhere and does whatever he does. Drives him absolutely nutty sometimes, but he is remarkably patient with her, trying not to notice that she is copying him on everything he says and does. We have twice now observed him publicly defending her at those crazy play-places in fast food restaurants (we only just been a couple of times, after all): “Don’t scare my sister like that” and “No shouting at her!”, while he bustled himself between Finney and a larger kid who was going too wild in front of such a wee lass. This was on different occasions too.

Here are some images from today: