A photo from Caroline Woodward and Jeff George, lighthouse keepers on Lennard, a rare sunny day and a great photo of Woody up on the catwalk of the light tower. She e-mails they have had the gloomiest and drowningest summer on record. I wish I could lift off this ironclad high that is pinning us down here in Texas and send it wholesale to Vancouver Island but alas.

Antihistamines, antibiotics, so boring to be down with sinus and creeping around, head somerwhat like the old 19th century diver’s helmet. At any rate I get in 3 hours a day writing no matter what…neighbors just got their American citizenship and I was at least able to go down and help decorate their house with flags, bunting, red-white-and-blue bouquet, for when they came home from the swearing-in ceremony in San Antonio. I insist on being well. BTW this illustration by Sergio Membrillo, from blog Nautilus.

So many trees are dying — flat-out falling over. Driving to uvalde to do my shopping I pass a small deserted ranch/farm house with three very tall pecan trees, one of which is dead and the others getting that way. Somebody owns that land, couldn’t they just water those wonderful tall trees once in a while? It’s infuriating.

But —- in the photo of my blue cattle-tank swimming pool you can see beyond it the trunk of one of my Spanish oaks that fell over. Actually it split in half. This was while the leaves were all green. I had watered it enough, or so I thought. Who knows.

Working on the sequel to Lighthouse Island and loving it. Haven’t ridden for a month almost except just here around the house, none of the girls are riding, too hot,maybe in a couple of weeks.

This is The Slot, the narrow channel between Lennard Island and its tiny apprendage island. I was going to use this more in Lighthouse Island, an early draft had somebody falling into it, but then decided that didn’t work. But it’s interesting; the tide charges through twice a day at full rip, one way and then the other way.

Working on the sequel to LI, have been looking up train-hopping videos on YouTube. There is quite a little society of train-hoppers.

Drought still very bad, today it will hit 102, the Indigo was on my back porch this morning. Chased him away. Don’t want to go out and step on a five-foot black snake with a cup of coffee in my hand.

Once a day I turn on the spray for the birds, even though we are supposed to be conserving water. The birds absolutely love it. They fly through it, stand in it and fluff their feathers, sing; sparrows, painted buntings, redbirds, the oriole, the bright blue scrub jays. I turn it on about 4, when it’s hottest.