One third of the way through July

 Amazingly we are now one third of the way through July and it is in some ways a typical July as we wait for rain. It is dry out there and the large trees all around us are soaking up the water when I do water and the grass is slowly browning. I would water again this morning  but it is really not useful as the tree roots quickly gobble it up! We need a heavy rain shower and that will benefit all the plants. Trees are very dominant but also very needed in our world. Plants always seem to come back even after a forest fire - nature does tend to win in that regard. 

Yesterday a little work on the Pincombe Newsletter but not too much eye work - heavy transcribing is something I always need to work up to or I have eye strain but once I am more organized I can really get back into that - there is still a lot of downsizing to do. The tool library will be our next visit likely once we make an inventory of what is here. A lot of it is old and possibly not useful but hammers and the like never really lose their usefulness. I have always been glad to have been a tradesman's daughter because I learned a lot of skills as a young child - like sorting tools! My father was well educated though for the times having completed high school, graduated from college studying business administration but electricity drew him in and he apprenticed to an electrician and was a Master Electrician eventually and owned his own company working on air conditioning. 

Looking out the window just the top quadrant is open now and not all of it. The trees are growing quickly and filling up the sky. I notice that the house is cooler because of all the trees (and the air conditioning). But the air conditioner does not run as much as it did when the trees were much smaller thirty years ago. 

The hoeing has defined the garden although we still like the idea of restorative gardening I think hoeing is probably still needed. The lettuces are growing nicely and we have had a lot of green onions already and the parsley is also thick now and we have used it fairly often. The tomatoes are abundant on the vines and will start to ripen towards the end of July but the peppers are not doing as well as one might like. However that is just one crop and they didn't do that well last year. I need to plant them back in direct sunlight somewhat difficult to find these days but will try again next year for a better crop. Our best crop was the summer before Edward passed away. He loved peppers fresh from the garden and they were abundant that year. 

Today is cleaning and the robot is busy working away on the first room upstairs. I will vacuum the main floor and dust whilst the robot vacuums the upstairs. I have loved this house from the time I first saw it and resisted the efforts to move to a single up on the hill. Edward traveled a lot then and this house just suited that life style and it continues to suit although the stairs may defeat me one day and I will have to go to a single floor. 

Maybe some work on the Pincombe Newsletter. I would like to complete it this week and then start extracting the information on the Somerset Subsidies to see if the mystery of Humphrey's parents can be truly resolved or will always be a thought more than a proven line. I did receive some wills which I will investigate although I think I have transcribed a lot of the Somerset wills but these may not be PCC wills but rather from the diocese. I will have a go at them as well once the Pincombe Newsletter is completed. 

I also need to work about eighty new matches into my database and will do that as well in the coming weeks. 

The Celebration of Life Service is prepared and I just need to enlarge Edward's favourite picture. Mostly we celebrate Edward every day in conversation and just personally remembering him. He was so much a part of the girl's life as they pick up his love of gardening and remember everything he taught them. Although he was a very busy person when he was here with the girls he concentrated on being with them. They did astronomy together and they gardened. In the summer they went camping (I generally stayed home and did my proofreading/copyediting unless it worked out for me to be gone for a few days but they generally went for a week to ten days on their annual fun camping trip. The pictures they brought back showed me how much fun they did have - canoeing, water parks, roller skating, hiking, astronomy and camp fires. Whenever they do any of those things their father will be fresh in their minds. 

On to the day including breakfast! A new addition to my breakfast cereal is a square of 70% cocoa chocolate - a wonderful energy addition.