August

I never supplied the butterfly update. It emerged from its chrysalis on July 4th, in the late afternoon, after Claire and Nick had left. Emily spotted it, so I hurried the jar outside to where Ann and Casey worked in their front yard sorting out the recycling from the noon barbecue. I turned out the butterfly on my rose bush, and it ended up hanging upside down, gently moving the soft, floppy wings with their beautiful pattern of yellow, white, black. I took pictures. I went back inside before it flew--I don't know why. I asked Ann about it later. She couldn't resist trying to feed it, so when she bumped the branch, it took off flying, she said, sailing over Dennis's house across the street. Her butterfly came out the next day.
I finally gave up on the brussels sprouts and pulled them a few days ago. The cute little sprouts on the stem had hardly changed over the weeks, and they were crowding the pepper plants. So, it was an interesting experiment.
The anaheims are bearing many smallish peppers, some of which are turning red. I had one big tomato on one of the plants in A, which one day I found lying on the ground, half-eaten. I've had a couple of meals from the late collard. I get a few small tomatoes now and then.
It's rained hard several times over the last couple of weeks. I've spent more effort on landscaping of late, planting star jasmine on one side of the yard, and turk's caps and asiatic jasmine on the other. In front, I planted new english ivy where we had some once that died out. On the other side of the porch, I planted divisions from the potted fern I've had for years. And it looks great.