The Sun was Lord of the Marigold

[sovay]

In celebration of my country's independence from the British Empire, I played badminton and got stung by a nettle. My patriotism may need some work.



I left the house as a Teddy Boy.



spatch borrowed my niece's Klutz cubes in order to demonstrate how to drop them and presently incorporated me into the act.



Although a child-pack accumulated over the course of the afternoon—we were visited by two sets of local twins—so far as I know there are no pictures of me playing badminton with any of them, although the net was in near-constant use and at one point choco_frosh and I were pitted against my niece and P. (The dogwood and the evergreen which bounded the unofficial court won a lot.) A dear friend who is not on DW captured my match with Rob, which was played under conditions of being actively stalked by children (out of shot). They had a jar of bubble solution and the wind on their side.



Then we passed out.

The strawberry ice cream was more like strawberry milkshake this year because the churn actually broke, causing everyone to rail against modern technology because it was just five years ago that we replaced the hand-cranked churn of my childhood which might actually have been older than me when it went to its rust, but we poured the stuff into cones and ate the cones afterward and the terms of the ritual were satisfied. It did not rain. Children screamed ultrasonically at one another. (Formally; it was a competition. They were sitting on my brother's truck at the time.) I blew the conch. We have determined it is the first social occasion my family has hosted since the late winter of last year and it was outside. It is strange, but good, to see people.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

where did you find a nettle? I want to go there and pick some to cook.

[sovay]

where did you find a nettle? I want to go there and pick some to cook.

Technically in my parents' yard, but there may not be any more—it was in a brown paper lawn bag of recently pulled weeds, which split and threatened to spill out of the wheelbarrow, which is how I ended up getting stung by the nettle, trying to scoop them back in!

[minoanmiss]

Well that was very rude of the bag. It had ONE JOB.

[selkie]

But nature.

*hugs*

I mean, I trotted around my very own version of Toys R Us and made everyone come with me because it is half again up the mountains from where they all wanted to go and if we were going halfway we might as well come down with baguette flour. But it wasn’t outdoors or anything dangerous like that.

[sovay]

But nature.

Which includes ocean!

*hugs*

(How did the baguettes come out?)

[selkie]

Haven’t made them yet; unrelenting rain is unkind to lean dough.

Yes yes I suppose it includes the ocean fiiiiine.
There are no mosquitoes in the ocean.

[a_reasonable_man]

It was a lovely event. I particularly like the hair flying in the wind badminton picture!

[sovay]

It was a lovely event. I particularly like the hair flying in the wind badminton picture!

Thank you! I am very glad you were able to make it.

[kathmandu]

Good for you for finding a way to complete the ritual. It makes such a difference when you can do that.

[sovay]

Good for you for finding a way to complete the ritual. It makes such a difference when you can do that.

Thank you. These things do matter.

[nineweaving]

Arcadian!

Nine

[sovay]

Arcadian!

Note even the idyllic unicorn in the background of the juggling picture.

[nodrog]

when it went to its rust

That was a jewel in the grass. Thank you.

[asakiyume]

I love your hair flying out behind you just like a comet's tail.

The strawberries and cream ice slurry sounds delicious, even if the ice cream churn failed to do its job.

[sovay]

I love your hair flying out behind you just like a comet's tail.

Thank you!

The strawberries and cream ice slurry sounds delicious, even if the ice cream churn failed to do its job.

It was a decent representative of the strawberry milkshake!