The Odyssey

It's supposed to be another scorcher today. Not quite as bad as yesterday, which got up to 93º F (34º C) according to the local weather people. Today will be a few degrees cooler, but only a few.

Yesterday morning wasn't bad, and after I walked the dog, I did some reading and took care of a few online errands. Dave and I had pre-planned to go to "The Odyssey" at the local IMAX theatre, so we left after lunch, with a little uncertainty about how Bailey -- alone in the house for the first time -- would handle our absence.

"Iron in the Fire" dahlias

I really enjoyed "The Odyssey," and it's pretty remarkable, when you think about it, that we are still mining one of humanity's oldest stories -- or series of stories -- for new inspirations. It was big, sweeping, dramatic and LOUD -- too loud, honestly. I covered my ears for parts of it, like the fight with the cyclops in the cave and some of the battles. Dave has a decibel warning monitor on his watch, to alert him when his music room at school is getting too loud, and it was going off like crazy.

I thought the one thing Christopher Nolan could have done better is reinforce the names of the characters -- like, just say their names every now and then so the audience could hear who they are. I know some of the stories in "The Odyssey," at least roughly, but I could not remember the name of Telemachus' mother, and I swear no one called her Penelope until practically the end of the movie. Or maybe I was just overwhelmed by everything else going on.

Anyway, it was a good way to kill off a couple of hours, though expensive. Our tickets were £49, or $66, for the two of us -- and that's before any snacks! Odysseus could have outfitted his whole freaking fleet for that kind of money.

But it got us out of the house and into an air-conditioned environment, which was the goal all along. And when we got home, Bailey was waiting patiently for us, with no evidence of discomfort or anxiety and no damage to the house. Good dog!

And now, as I sit on our garden bench, she's lying on our poor dead grass, and it's time for me to walk her.

Dave made a blueberry pie yesterday, so we now have that for dessert. I teased him for deciding to bake a pie on one of the hottest days of the year, but it did taste good -- so I can't complain too much. We were out of cornstarch to thicken the filling so he used arrowroot, which he read could serve the same purpose. Well, it didn't. (I looked at the container this morning and it expired in 2015, so that could also be part of the problem!)

Supernatural Events

Cosmos in the garden

Today we're supposed to have crazy heat, in the mid-90's (F) by midday. It seems hard to imagine now, with the temperature a comfortable 66º F this morning, but that's what the weather folks are saying and there's an orange heat warning. So Dave and I have arranged to go to an IMAX showing of "The Odyssey," which should kill off a couple of air-conditioned hours this afternoon.

Bailey will have to hang out at home, which should be interesting because we've never left her on her own for more than half an hour or so. But she's gotta learn sometime. If we didn't have a hosepipe ban I'd reward her with a kiddie pool so she could get in the water, which she loves, right in the back garden. Instead I'll take her to the Heath for a cooling soak tomorrow.

I took her to the cemetery yesterday. You can see how cracked and dry the ground is. There are several areas in the back of the cemetery where the paths have been blocked by fallen trees, and this is one of them. I'd have to limbo pretty low to get beneath that branch. Fortunately a new path has been worn to the left, allowing us to go around. (I see now, looking back at old posts, that this particular tree fell a couple of years ago. Some of the others falls are more recent.)

As we approached the fenced path that cuts through the center of the cemetery, I heard some anodyne version of "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" echoing through the air. (It wasn't The Carpenters version, which is pretty anodyne, but it was similar. If I had to guess I'd say Engelbert Humperdinck, though I have no idea whether he ever recorded "Jambalaya.")

A couple walking toward me were looking around, trying to figure out where the music was coming from, and we realized the source was a parked car nearby. "Oh, I thought we were getting a concert!" I said.

"Go on mate, join in. You know you want to," said the man, and we all laughed.

Sure enough, a woman had parked her car, opened all the doors and was sitting on a nearby grave, blasting "Jambalaya" for all it was worth. She was also on the phone. Bailey didn't know what to make of that, and neither did I.

I tried to take a picture of her showing the vast and moistureless blue sky. She's very squirmy around cameras and I got frustrated with her, but later I was happy to find this shot. It worked out after all.

Oh, by the way, yesterday we officially told the dog rescue that we'd like to adopt Bailey. (Technically we've been fostering her up to now.) They're drawing up the paperwork and they're going to make an appointment for her to be spayed. We went through the same routine with Olga and I remember it well.

Then, last night, we had THE ECLIPSE! I thought Dave and I might walk down to the bridge over the tube tracks, where we have a clear view of the western sky, in order to get a good perspective on it -- but then Dave put dinner in the oven so we didn't dare leave the house. We wound up being able to see it in our back garden until the sun sank below the apartment buildings behind us, and then we went out on the street in front and watched from there.

We used the colander method, in which a handy kitchen colander casts tiny images of the eclipse onto any available surface. You can see the little crescent-shaped eclipses on the white paper. The sky got surprisingly dark at its peak, and although I did not look directly at the eclipse, I did sort of let my eyes sweep across the sky and in that moment I got a glance at it. Very weird. I can see how our cave-people ancestors would have been terrified (and probably blinded!) by such an occurrence. I don't think I've ever seen a solar eclipse before.

Child of Nicole

Dave and I played host yesterday to one of my former library co-workers, Staci, who came over to hang out for a bit and exchange school gossip. She and Dave reminded me that I would have been going back to work this week if not for the fact that I retired. I swear, every year the return date creeps up a little bit. Staci has already been in for meetings and Dave goes back early next week. (Different people return at different times based on their responsibilities.)

All I can say is, thank goodness I'm out of the mix. This is when I've expected the fact that I'm retired to really hit me -- when everyone else is returning and I'm not. So far I'm not feeling any negative emotions about that.

Anyway, we ate lunch in the garden and drank rosé as Bailey snoozed nearby on her blanket. There's already talk of people I don't know, as Dave and Staci compared notes on new faculty and staff and students. I, meanwhile, told the story of my stolen camera as well as all our adventures in Italy and Croatia.

Speaking of my stolen camera, as I was telling the tale I was inspired to check the "Find My" app on my iPhone and see if the AirPods were still in the same location in Rome. And no! They had moved -- they were now here. Presumably still parked in a car, though, because they're in the middle of another street. It will be interesting to watch them move around, at least until the battery dies or they are discarded. (Presumably someone is going to realize that I can see where they are, although maybe they don't care, because it's not like I can do anything about it.)

While walking Bailey yesterday I noticed this plant growing in a crack in the street pavement out front. Can you tell what it is? The sticky leaves give it away -- it's a Nicotiana, presumably one of the children of Nicole, which probably re-seeded itself last fall after I cut off the seed stalks and discarded them in our garden waste bag. Too bad it's growing in a place where it will never get big enough to flower.

At least we have one in our garden that is destined to have a future.

It's a pleasant 63º F (or 17º C) this morning, but it's destined to get up to 90º F (32º C) later this afternoon. And tomorrow will be even hotter. But at least the nights cool off -- that's a major plus.

The Stragglers

Well, Dave made it back from the states safe and sound, so our little family is complete once again. Bailey not only remembered him but was positively joyous at his return, jumping up to give him kisses and climbing into his lap in the recliner. I think she sees Dave as the "fun dad," as she always runs to him with toys and when she wants to roughhouse. I'm not much of a roughhouser, it's true.

I'm giving you a picture of her relaxing on the couch because Dave doesn't love having his picture taken, and I was struck by the light in the living room at that moment. We do get good sunlight in this flat.

Things are still dry as a bone. When I went to the cemetery with Bailey yesterday I found these desiccated blackberries hanging from the vine. There's just no stray moisture out there at all. There's rain in the forecast (a 33 percent chance) in about ten days, so we'll see if that comes to fruition.

This is one of our buddleias. Isn't that the saddest looking thing you've ever seen? And I've watered it multiple times! We have another one that looks just as bad. I hope they make it.

We have had a few more tiny gardening successes, though -- and I mean literally tiny. This is one of the sunflowers, the last to bloom. The flower is only about as big around as a half-dollar -- but hey, we got a flower! I like that it's a sort of rusty brown compared to the other two, which are bright yellow.

And here's our last zinnia, which is only about a foot high. It produced this purple flower the size of a quarter. I'm glad these last few seedlings finally made good.

Dave went to sleep early last night, so I watched "The Graduate" again for approximately the five thousandth time. That movie never gets old.

Thug Life

Another photo of a Kniphofia. But this is a special Kniphofia -- it's the one that I transplanted to a pot last year after watching it struggle in an increasingly shady area of the garden, where it was slowly being smothered by the surrounding plants. This is the first flower it has produced for years. I'm glad that experiment in transplantation worked out!

Yesterday was very low-key. I read more Len Deighton; I walked the dog around the neighborhood and back to the cemetery.

I came across these two characters on a rubbish bin on West End Lane. Google can't identify them. Any guesses? The hat on the guy above says "Thug Life" backwards, so I guess the photo is supposed to look like a selfie in a mirror.

Did I mention that I've arranged a trip to Florida at the end of September? I just bought the ticket the other day, and got a pretty good deal, I must say. I'm going primarily to spend some time with my friend Sue on Anna Maria Island, but also to see my stepsister and brother. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do with Bailey yet, since Dave will be working, but we'll figure something out. Maybe he'll come home to let her out at midday or maybe we'll hire a short-term dog walker.

Dave returns from his own trip to the states this morning, by the way. I also have a tree-trimmer coming by to give us estimates on yet another round of tree work. It's never-ending!

I gathered the rest of this week's footage from the wildlife cam for a more complete sense of what's going on in the garden since we got Bailey. I showed you a short video of some foxes several days ago; well, they're still around, as are a couple of cats -- Pale Cat and Mustache Cat -- and of course Bailey herself, bounding around like a maniac after squirrels in the trees. At 0:58 you'll see a fox carrying one of those mysterious dog treats that they occasionally find somewhere.

My impression is that many of the animals aren't lingering near the house now, but staying more in the back of the garden. I'm not seeing many small animals like birds or squirrels on the ground, but then, I often turned the camera off during the day so it wouldn't record excess footage of Bailey and me.

One of the videos ended on this frame, which made me laugh. That captures the energy of our insane dog about as well as anything.

West End Brown

Another shot of our canna lily, which is definitely having a good year. I guess it likes all this sunshine! And it's in a pot so we keep it watered -- from its perspective, what's not to like?

We had a quiet day yesterday. I wanted Bailey to rest up after our urban outing the day before -- and frankly I needed to rest up, too -- so we stayed near home. I read some of the Len Deighton novel I found in that stack of books outside my neighbor's house several weeks ago, and I also worked my way through all the articles I'd bookmarked on my computer for later reading, so I'm caught up now.

When I walked Bailey in the morning I found that one of my neighbors had discarded two orchids in their yard waste bag, so of course I grabbed them and brought them home and put them in new pots. I now have 13 orchids, which is insane. The next time I complain about having too many plants, remind me why. I just can't pass them up, knowing they will bloom again given enough time.

In the afternoon, we walked to the cemetery. This is West End Green (above), soon to be renamed West End Brown.

And here's the cemetery, with Bailey parked next to that bench for photographic purposes. She still doesn't know how to pose as well as Olga, who was a natural in front of the lens, but she will learn. That's the so-called "butterfly garden" behind the bench, but I didn't see much sign of life there yesterday. The flowers have all gone to seed.

When we came back I knocked on the new upstairs neighbors' door and introduced myself officially. I met the dad and the daughter, and the "wee dog," Wally. I told them Dave was away but as soon as he returned we'd have them over (sans Wally) so they could see the garden and we could all get to know each other. Since they're Americans too, I feel more of an affinity with them than with previous occupants of that flat!

A Dish and Parched Westminster

Our sunflower is as high as the satellite dish on the outer wall of our living room! In fact I had to move the planter to the side by a few inches to keep the flower from bonking into the dish as it grew. I should blog a picture of the whole thing so you can see it in context.

That dish is old and no longer works -- as you can see part of it is broken off and hanging, and we've removed the related cabling indoors. We've asked the landlords to take down the dish as well. (Doing so requires tools that we don't have, not to mention a ladder.) Mrs. Kravitz has complained about it and it's true that the side of the house would look much neater without it and all its associated "gubbins," as the landlord called the bits and bobs required for such a device.

That's the Russians' terrace above the dish. Or the terrace of their apartment, now occupied by another family. I still haven't met them. Bailey is barking less at their upstairs noises, so that's a good sign. I think she's getting used to hearing them.

Speaking of Bailey, I'm sure you're all wondering how our adventures in London went yesterday. I took her into Westminster to meet my friend Chris, a former co-worker, for lunch. We met in Parliament Square (above) and went walking along the Thames back to Vauxhall, where Chris lives.

Look at the poor sad grass in that picture. All of England looks like that -- absolutely parched. Here are some dramatic photos, and here are more. The grass will bounce back, if it ever rains again, but for now it looks like California. In fact the weather feels like California -- days and days of sunshine and temperatures in the 70s and 80s F. It would be paradise if all of nature weren't struggling.

I had Chris take a photo of us on Westminster Bridge. Bailey was very interested in what was going on beyond the railing. (A big boat had just gone by.)

As we walked along the south bank of the Thames, we passed a dry spot in the river where lots of seagulls had gathered. They weren't making noise and Bailey couldn't see them, but she must have been able to smell them, because she kept trying to peer over the railing.

Finally we found a pub called the Pilgrim in Vauxhall, and we sat out on the patio. We spread Bailey's blanket on the ground and she settled in and was perfectly calm. I had Waldorf salad with chicken and a beer, and then we moved on to another pub for a second beer. Bailey only ever got overexcited if she saw another dog, as per usual, and fortunately they were few and far between in the middle of a weekday.

We left Chris at a plant nursery near his flat -- he was buying some stuff to revive the plantings on his outdoor terrace -- and Bailey and I made our way back to Westminster and the tube. (And she was fine on the tube, by the way -- didn't seem to mind it at all, though I'm pretty sure it was her first time.)

All in all, a good day out and a good test of the dog's behavior. I'm more and more pleased and comfortable with the way she conducts herself, and we're both more and more comfortable in each other's company. I think Dave is a little jealous that I'm creating such a one-on-one bond with Bailey, but he returns on Monday so he'll have plenty of time with her after that. I know she'll be ready for "chair time" in his recliner!