A counting of blessings

      Some weeks the world just keeps sending you blessings, and this has been one of those weeks. First off, the visit of friends from Bulgaria necessitated the hosting of a rather large party at our house, which necessitated scrubbing the house siding in preparation for an outdoor concert by the band in which my husband plays. (The siding REALLY needed scrubbing, so this was a good thing.)

Because we needed to set up equipment outdoors, the fact that we had no rain that day was a good thing.
      The day was, however, a little warmer than was strictly pleasant, so late in the afternoon a slightly different cohort (as is the way of open house-type gatherings) moved into our music room, which we finally were able to get air-conditioned. Given that the room is oriented to the southwest, air-conditioning was also a good thing.

      The existence of this cool spot meant that we could have more hours of music with musicians of different cultures, styles, and generations, a very good thing.

Then today brought delightful surprises in the garden. A scraggly little volunteer that I've been watching proved to be a native lobelia, exact species yet to be determined.

 Asclepias curassavica decided to bloom,

   as did this monarda, both plants acquired only this season from Hazy Hollow Herb Farm.

      To add to the blessings of the week, yesterday brought rain but no downed trees or power outages to our neighborhood, and on this mid-July evening, I am contemplating heading for the dresser for socks because the air has cooled off so much.

      How lucky can one woman get?