the shoe and castle are maya's photos

it was a very hot weekend. trying to keep cool with fruit ice, fans, a trip to the pool. today we spent 5 hours in the shade at the potrero rec center celebrating a friend's 7th bday. there was a big sound system with dance hits blasting all day over potrero hill, down towards the green bay below, while kids played basketball, petted dogs, ate cake and took some clothes off. maya took these lovely photos of her shoe in the dusty grass and a castle on the sidewalk.

today, obsessively gardening, i showed miles the sneaky powdery mildew that has coated much of the chard and messed up the leaves. he suggested that there might be some sort of potion that would kill the mildew. when i explained that this was organic gardening and we didn't want to use the potion to kill the bugs and mildew because the potions were bad for people too there was a glimmer of "aha" in his eyes. even though this backyard vegetable garden has turned out to be mostly my hobby, and the kids do not spend hours digging and examining plants, smiling in the sun (they mostly make overly loud noises in the back yard, throw things, and maya cuts all the flowers down in their prime) i liked how he learned this with me, at the time when he was ready for it, and not through a lecture in a grocery store produce aisle.