July

Not getting much quilting done, but I am working on the butterflies slowly in the evening, spending time on the porch reading during the day and late at night.  Our focus has been on being safely out of the house as much as possible before things start to change again this fall.   Michigan has been misbehaving and our numbers are rising and the governor is shaking her finger at us and speaking sternly about moving us back to phase 3.  A bit like putting us in the corner for time-out but if that's what it will take to get the mask-less politicizers to wear them then so be it.  In anticipation of that we are wearing masks and gloves when we go out, and trying to enjoy what July brings to Michigan.

Blueberries.   I have to admit for the record that this was the first lot of blueberries I've ever in my life purchased that I didn't pick myself.  Picking fruit IS my summer but the week got busy and I was having a friend over for lunch Saturday and wanted to make two pies and just didn't have time to pick them.  We were meeting friends for dinner and across the street from the restaurant was a blueberry farm so we bit the blue bullet and I bought ten pounds.  It was really kind of traumatic.

 Meeting Bob and Dodie for dinner was one of our highlights so far (besides eating in at a restaurant again!)  We dearly love our time with them and when they call we clear the calendar - again these are friends that engage with us in amazing stimulating conversations on every topic.  We agree politically so there's no need to go there and nowadays that is something that almost has to be said.  We were in Saugatuck and it was a picture perfect evening.  Bob is the most dynamic 90 year old I've ever known.  He's unstoppable.  Dodie is, among her many traits, a quilter, too, so if there is ever a lull in the conversation we can revert to that.  But truly, we all four share every conversation at top speed.  Nothing is out of bounds, they hold us to being true to our beliefs.

We were babysitting our son's dog all that week and surprisingly they came to pick her up very early Saturday afternoon.  We tossed a few things into a bag, I grabbed blueberry pie number 2 and off we went to our daughter's cottage.  It was stiflingly hot and unbearably humid this past weekend and it wouldn't have taken much to convince me to stay home in the air conditioning.  But like I said, the days of enclosure are coming sooner than we want so we went for the company and conversation.  Notice PH's distance from SIL. 

In the morning PH and Adelaide walked across the street to the lake so she could have a morning swim. 

 In the afternoon we went to Lake Michigan because the lake is Michigan's heartbeat and if you have the chance you go.  We were at a secluded beach all to ourselves.  I have to say the humidity was in credibly intense yesterday and I've never in my life handled heat well.  If you were in the lake, or directly on the shore with your feet in the water it was ok.  But get even so far as the car and it grabbed you by the head and just squeezed.  So in the lake was the place to be.  We were on what we call the Mission Peninsula (hold up your left hand, back of your hand facing you, in between your little finger and ring finger a small piece of land would fit in the space between the two fingers), the home of vineyard after vineyard after vineyard, cherry orchards between the vineyards and Lake Michigan.  It's a heavenly beautiful place.