Midsummer Nightmare

Something about the summer solstice makes people crazy - too much light and not enough sleep. Despite being a weeknight, the party people must have been celebrating the shortest night of the year last night. Beer cans in my hedge and on my lawn - Ernesto's carefully tended stockade of grass had it's fence ripped out and strewn across the street - all signs of wild revelry. On my bike ride this morning I had to ride around more than the usual amount of broken bottles on the road. Any excuse for a bash. Hmmph - and I just went to bed!

The birds must have felt something in the air too. At Sam Smith Park this a.m., huge flocks of cormorants flew over as I sat by the Lake. They always do seem to fly west early in the morning, but today flock after flock passed over. They always look vaguely sinister - like something out of Tolkien's writings - flying from Mordor. All black and beaky. Off to the East - T.O. looked like a ghost city, half-shrouded in mist, but with the sun making it all pink and purple. Not too many people out either. Usually on a nice day, the park is quite busy, even early on. The wildflowers are incredible right now. Viper's Bugloss is aglow with it's flourescent blue tapers, the Crown Vetch is lush and all the many yellow flowers that I can never remember the names of make even a misty day like today look bright with sun.