How is it possible that a month goes by and nothing seems to happen? I don't know but it happened to us. May just slithered by without any earth-shaking events. Other than that the spring is gone and summer is here in almost all of its hot and humid strength. But I suspect it still has some extra power hidden away and will unleash it on us over the next few months.

Alice finished school and is apparently working three jobs. She made the sensible decision to stay in the cooler air of Calgary this summer. Monica went to a band competition in Orlando, Florida. They placed very well and at the last concert of the school year had a number of trophies on exhibit. Monica plays the first flute, she is in the front chair on the right. (Click on the images to see a larger version).

Most of my vegetable garden has successfully survived assorted insect and mollusk attacks and is presently growing at a rate faster than it can be eaten by all of our combined efforts (that includes the insects). This year we will have a good harvest of tomatoes and we already have plentiful string beans and Japanese cucumbers. We have two kinds of eggplant this year, oriental and western, both are in bloom and so in a couple of weeks our suppers are going to become monotonous. Okra, the miracle performer of last year, is so far small, waiting for higher temperatures and the demise of tomatoes, whose place it is going to occupy. Blueberries finally turned blue and we generally get to them before the birds.

The neighborhood pool opened, schools are closed and there is a general feel of summer vacations in the air. It is tough to go to work. I discovered that I can walk to La Madeleine bakery in about 20 minutes and so on Saturdays I go for a little walk and eat breakfast like a civilized person.

Last night our neighbor's house got rolled. The idea is to come out at night and throw rolls of toilet paper up in the trees, thus creating a perverse decoration and a lot of work for the inhabitants the next day. I do not know if this is a US or a southern custom, I never saw it in Canada. I certainly never saw it when I was growing up in Czechoslovakia, where toilet paper, thanks to Communist management, was a so called narrow-profile-item and throwing it in abundance around somebody's house would have been a truly great compliment.