Total Solar Eclipse Coming

I finished putting all the labels on the thank you cards last night. Today I went to the post office to get stamps for the cards, 111 of them. While I was there I also picked up a sheet of the Total Solar Eclipse stamps; they're amazing! Under cooler conditions the moon is obscured in totality, as the paper warms up the moon becomes visible again. In order to see this today I had to start by putting the sheet of stamps in the refrigerator since it was 89 degrees F in the house. The series of photos below were taken about a second apart.







The solar eclipse will be on August 21st and will be seen across the continental US; there will be a band of totality starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina. In Hawaii we'll be able to see a partial eclipse; here it will begin around 5:45 a.m. and end about 7:30 a.m; maybe I'll see it during my morning walk.

Speaking of my morning walk, after my walk yesterday I noticed that the sprinkler in the backyard was no longer oscillating. I fiddled with it for about 15 minutes then gave up, deciding it was time to invest in another drip irrigation system for the garden. As I headed in the door I noticed that it was oscillating again; I'm still going to design a drip system for the garden.

At least the sprinkler was stuck in a good position to water the plants.

Here's a close up of that white box by the lettuce planters. It's the mountain apple seeds!


Here's the volunteer papaya in the front yard. Monday was its 2 month planting anniversary; it's doing well. I no longer think the viney thing is bitter melon, the leaves have not gotten any larger and its vines are very skinny. But it does have a flower so I will be watching it closely to see what develops.


Today was the 2nd of 3 days of king tides in June and the highest for the year, so far. Today's high level was a combination of the king tide, sea level rise caused by climate change, and south swells. There were king tides last month when I was in Washington. There will be another set of king tides in July.

King tides in Waikiki, no lying in the sun on the beach this afternoon. (screen shot from KGMB)

Curtis & Lori are in Washington right now. They just checked in to the Tulalip Resort. They're on their way to Alaska on a cruise. Here's a photo Lori sent of their hotel room.

Photo by Lori.

Happy Birthday to Sam, Jim, Jeannie, & Kyle!