Summer Means High Color ~ The Blessing of Gabby Douglas

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.”
― Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

The Meyer Lemon is ever-bearing this year. Despite what the original label promised, dwarf it is not.
Oh, how I wish I had saved the tag for this hibiscus. It would be nice to order more.
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She was shipped home from the Garden Writers Association Symposium the summer it was in Portland. Every year,  as the sun reaches higher in the summer sky, she races to climb just a bit higher than the last year. Then when winter comes- she retreats into the earth's bosom. At her peak, she's tall and charming as a hollyhock- without any of the messiness of rust or the like. At least not so far. Can't wait to see what treasures await this year's GWA event in Tucson! Maybe someone will remember my beauty's name.

Past the unruly roses, you can spy the umbrella put over the barrel of cymbidium. 

I heard these orchids bloom better when they get more sun. However, the one week of a real summer weather I remember- perhaps this spot is too exposed this time of year in my inland garden. Too heavy to move the barrel on my own, Cost Plus sold me their last 5' umbrella to push into the compost enriched bark.  It should keep them safe enough while that area is under construction. More on that project later. 

For now, I'm going back to watching the Olympics. They gave me a new role model. The Olympian, Gabby Douglas. Only 14 years old- and so wise. 

   

When the training was tough, she meditated on the scriptures. 

She went into the gymnastics competition with a smile. 

When she won, she kept perspective "The glory goes up to Him, and the blessings fall down on me.”

Aren't we all just a little less cynical for the blessing of her presence? 

The photo of Gabby was found at CNS News.