tuesday : the beach

There are certain things we just Have To Do.  Some we do because most of us are very sentimental about such things, and some are because it's our thing.

Whatever the reason for this day, eventually we were to the beach.

That'll do.

of the sun

 After a morning of... tumult.... we eventually got on the road.

While I love summer (we all love, love, love it), the relief from one hundred degree days -- and lovely, cool nights-- is most appreciated.

I'd be far more saddened to feel the decline of our beloved summertime if it weren't for the magic that the late days brings.

Tall, golden grasses.  Beautifully bleached deserts.  Wild ghost chases.  Deserted highways.  Whirring grasshoppers that at first seem the size of birds, when they fly past you.  Cricket songs at nighttime.

This time of year often prods and pushes and lures me into the desert... "Come... you are safe, here.  We welcome you.  Come see what you can see."And so, we do.

Not everyone appreciates the beauty of the desert, I think.

Its beauty isn't always striking or obvious.

But I am an appreciator of this life, and it isn't difficult for me to find and fall in love with the magic.

at Sunstone Knoll

 Giant holes and tiny holes abound.

 Looking for Sunstone

 Horned Toad lizards!

Sunstones and shells

 Tracks

Wind

 

The day inevitably neared its end, and it was time to turn away from the setting sun, and set our eyes toward Home.

Which is always a welcome sight, too.

springing earth

 calendula

 vinca

 lilac

 peppermint

 mirabelle plum

 comfrey

 valerian

 peach

lilac

Ready or not..... here it comes.  ♥

sunday

Maddie has brought up Highschool a couple of times in the last few months.
As in "I might want to go.  Because there are things I think I need to learn."

I have a while, before that happens, yet.
I'm not sure if one her friends has been talking of the imagined glamour of such a grown-up, magical, high-fashion place, or if she's thinking she's ill prepared for adulthood.

Regardless, I have a few years to remind her that she's fully equipped to learn whatever she needs to learn.... there are resources aplenty, abounding.

 Maddie chooses Khan Academy

Quarto

Quoridor

Brain games whilst eating cinnamon rolls...
that's how I'll encourage her to find her Girl Power.