July 22, 2011

Heat wave here still pleases me better than the bitter drizzle of London.

The downside is what a month did to my garden. It appears I’ve lost a holly, the magnolia, two yellow rhododendrons, two azaleas, the whole ginger plot, perhaps the white rhododendron, and who knows what else. R did a yeoman’s job of saving what he could, but the weather was so hot and dry there was no real hope but to be here and to water every day, a sad lesson, but one now learned. May yet save the magnolia and the azaleas. Time will tell. If the flowers were dying, the weeds were prospering, huge stands of them, the stands huge and the individuals in them. I tore into them this morning, clearing most of the slope of the front terrace, pouring sweat under the dry and upturned earth.

Out with the crowd last night to see the last Harry Potter movie. It was exciting. Then dinner at Avenue M, where we were greeted like old friends. Michael and Amanda leave today for Boise, so last night was sad, or would have been had I not poured the first four vodka martinis I ever had in my life down my gullet. I was unconscious for most of the dinner, and have no recollection of getting back into the house.

New tires for the Prius, a run for the truck to see if it survived the abandoned month. It did.