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June 21, 2022: Solstice

Today is it. The best and worst day of the year. After today, it we’ll be on the flip side of the dark/light continuum. I keep thinking that time should stop. The dandelions have blossomed, and the wild geraniums have peaked. The fireweed is just starting to bloom.

The forage is lush, the horses can’t get enough of it on trail rides.

It continues to be warm here, but not unbearably so. Five to ten degrees hotter and we’d all be complaining


Cow Parsnip by BBQ


And it’s cooler here than it is in town.

Tonight we went for our annual solstice ride. We didn’t go anywhere special, just rode our trails. We went out after dinner – quite a feat because both Pete and I were really tired. I will always remember this summer as the summer in which the mosquitoes were out in force. Some mosquitoes just swarm. This year they are biting hard. Some mosquitoes are fast. This year they’re slow.

Also, in the horse pen, itty bitty gnats. They cluster around wet spots, where the urine is. I have been doing a great job cleaning up after the horses ,so they aren’t affected to the degree they might be.

Okay, okay, my friend Fran in Fairbanks said that the mosquitoes are really bad this year. I remember doing a bicycle trip and stopping at her place for an evening. The bugs were as bad there as they were here now. I’ll be they are far worse there now.

City mice and country mice – in town there are no mosquitoes. There are also no woods. All there is houses built, close together, and small expanses of lawn. The dogs in town actually seem acutely miserable.

So today I went into the senior center, and while at the Palmer Senior Center Mario’s wife asked me, “what happened to your eye?” I looked at her askance since the absence of pain indicated to me that it was okay. “It’s black and blue,” she said. I didn’t immediately go into the bathroom and check it out.

Instead, I listened as a half-dozen people asked me if I had been hit by my husband. They were, I think, half-joking.

I had no idea as to what happened. I figured it might be a bug bite, or perhaps my dental issue had caused the problem. Pete was the one who figured it out, or at least figured out to our satisfaction. This was that yesterday I picked up some cow parsnip that Pete had cut and set outside when he was gardening. I think I put it on the compost heap. But it does make sense – the stuff is caustic.

Oddly enough, I didn’t want anyone to see my face.

I continued on my way in the Palmer Senior Center. Everyone seemed a bit on edge, I think because of the January 6th hearings that are going on. Tough times, for sure.

But we got books cleaned and ready to send out. I feel a sense of accomplishment about this.

I am so tired that I’m falling asleep at the computer.

Next: 169. 6/22/22: Waiting

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