Outside Captured

Summer is still here. (Words that soothe my soul.) That means we spend every minute outside that we can, because soon... too soon... winter will be here. And winter is when my soul hibernates and I hate to am loathe to die a little each time I go outside.

So we're outside as much as possible.

Outside, where the buffalo roam.

Even if the buffalo are not wild, but live in a safe cozy field and are tattoed and tagged and given the best food to eat.

Outside, where I'm trying to not kill my last plant.

The hardy rosemary... it's not looking so good now, not even with lots of sun and water. I don't know why... other than I can't grow anything to save my life. Seriously. I'm amazed the cat and the kid haven't kicked it from my ministrations.

Outside...

...wait. Outside, where the smoke from the hundreds of forest fires from hundreds of kilometres away drifted to lay like a blanket over our idyllic neighbourhood? Outside, where I thought an unnatural mist or fog had moved in, perhaps even dementors?

Oh no! But oh, yes! See how dense and thick it is? Cars relied on their lights, people didn't go out... much. And no, it's really not overcast. Notice the sun in the last photo? Yes, it would have been a brilliantly sunny day otherwise. As it was, the smoke choked our throats and aggravated our sinuses, and made the day cold and grey. Cold as in nuclear winter. The sun couldn't penetrate it.

It lasted several days and has been gone several days, but we're still sniffling from it.

But then...

We went outside after it cleared. And it was sunny... and warm again. Outside, where Evan could practice his "bike tricks". At the skatepark. With all the big boys.

He's been riding without his training wheels for at least a month now (and he really didn't need them much before that because I noticed they didn't touch the ground at all, except when he came to a stop). He's moved from preschooler learning a new skill to young man honing that skill in a rigorous (for him) environment. It's precious, and scary, but precious.

It's still sunny and warm outside, so get on out there and soak up as much as you can before wretched Old Man Winter stifles all our fun.

**************************

Beth is featuring outside today at I Should Be Folding Laundry.