Water

For some weeks, I was watering plants. The Illinois drought has gotten so severe that it seems wasteful and probably not efficient to deliver whatever a sprinkler can give. Those poor little roots either have found some way to live on, or are done for. If August is wet and stormy, everything may survive.

Lilies know the difference; they're shorter, their petals are thinner; but they bloom, bless their hearts. Daylilies too are in some cases shorter, but they're blooming. The cimicifuga was far shorter than usual when it bloomed, bloomed much smaller brushes than last year, and is probably hunching down to survive. I have some of last year's brushes on the mantelpiece and they were outstanding in height and fulness. Nothing like this year's.

Google is So Rude

This is the first time that Google has thoroughly embarrassed me. I wanted to invite a cousin to use gmail. Sent him an invitation and got the strangest result; sent another invitation, saying "Here's a shiny new chance to use email" and got this back from him

Thanks for the re-invitation to Gmail. No, I had never before received an
invitation. Unfortunately, this time it met with the same result: "The link
you followed to create a Gmail account has already been used to create an
account. Now, its account creating powers are all gone. To create another
Gmail account, you'll need a shiny new account creation link. We apologize
for the inconvenience." Soooo....let's drop it for the time being.

The link referred to is within the body of the Google-generated email that the cousin receives. Is this happening to more people out there?

White Silk

Whoever used to make white parachute silk has slid into a new and profitable line. At Brookfield Zoo, there are a lot of areas where permanent buildings might be contemplated (or not) and for now, they've put up gorgeous white silk tents.

When butterflies began to be a popular exhibit, they were housed in various filmy extravaganzas, white or netted white, in Seattle and then here in Brookfield. But these tents I was looking at this year are solid, shiny, -- people go outside in the morning and slide down solid insertions to reveal mesh screening for air. No Renaissance-type pennants flying, no domes or peaks -- the tents are so large, their roofs are more like gently domed?

Brookfield has got a lot of land; the tent solution is great.

Brookfield Zoo DIscovery Camp

All last week, Little One stayed here with me, and we really had a fine week. Her parents had enrolled her in the Brookfield Zoo camp, for the week; she ensured her own lunches, got her water bottle out of the icebox, settled her sunglasses firmly on her forehead, and got into the car happily every morning.

Amazing how well she can arrange her hair, it seems to stay orderly all day. She showed me, she often wears it "down" for dinner, and it flows beautifully. No wonder she got tired of having short hair.

The counselors are ready, morning and evening, with sign-in sheets for the person-reponsible to initial, in the lobby of the big Discovery building. Coming in to meet her at three thirty, I would pass streams of people all three feet high, with black stripes on their faces one day, bright blue shirts; younger groups are escorted almost to the front door. Little One's group had received beige shirts the first day; they were old enough to stay in their meeting room, all three groups (about eight each) cleaning up the room and kind of bouncing around, until they are signed out. Having the groups relatively small enabled happy days. Touring the animal houses, they noticed no air conditioning at all. Well, I noticed some. The sprinklers were running, and Little One popped right under one a couple of days, before we ever left the Zoo.

I remember the Zoo in past stages; well-kept, unkempt, severe, and at present, beautifully presented. Corporate names appear here and there; streets that lead to it are now named Rockefeller Drive and McCormick Street. One of the best zoos in the country, I think. And they have penguins again. There was a time when the penguins were gone, probably loaned out until some new building was done. The sloth bears now have a really handsome habitat, and Zorro, the stinking fox, is nowhere to be seen.