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June is flying by!  

Around here...

The gardens are filled with colorful flowers.  Doesn't it seem like June just bursts into bloom?   I spot them everywhere I walk, in the alleys...

...and in the neighborhood yards. 

Our own yard is also filled with blooms.  We were excited to see that the clematis we planted last year made it through the winter and has some lovely flowers. 

And our peonies are bright and cheerful. 

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We have some sad news, which is that Sheba died after a slow decline caused by renal failure.   She was a rescue cat that our friend Scott took in many years ago.  She came to live with us in July 2019 after Scott's wife, Megan, died.   She was a scared little girl, as you might imagine, but gradually got used to us and made herself at home in our bedroom, either on the bed or in a little cozy box next to the bed, and making occasional excursions out to the balcony or down to the basement.  

Many cats have kidney problems as they age and there isn't much you can do about it.   This is the last photo of Sheba, and I'm glad it doesn't show how frail and skinny she was at the very end when she weighed just 3.5 pounds.  Her death was quiet and peaceful and we feel like we did the best we could for her.  

Now we just have Turbo.  It took him only two nights to figure out that our bed was now wide open for him to lounge around on.  Life moves on.  Rest in peace, little Miss Sheba.

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Ben went rock climbing for a week up at the City of Rocks in Idaho, stopping along the way to climb in Wyoming.   

To celebrate his safe return we had a special dinner at the Flagstaff House, aided by a generous gift card that my thoughtful sister, Jean, had sent for Christmas.  

Dessert was an amazing hazelnut tart with soft meringue flowers on the tops and sides.  Hmmm!

The view from the restaurants' patio is always a treat. 

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Speaking of treats, I've discovered cold brew coffee.  Last summer I made iced coffee, which was delicious.  But this summer I'm really hitting it out of the park with the help of the RJ3 cold brew maker by Ovalware,  which we also received as a Christmas gift.   If you like coffee, check it out.

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We were as shocked by the school shooting in Uvalde as everyone else.  In a little attempt to do something to encourage the passage of gun safety laws I attended a small but passionate march in nearby Longmont with my friend Sara.   I was pleased that the city of Boulder just passed several measures that could help, including a ban on assault weapons, and a new Colorado law requiring the safe storage of weapons kept in homes will go into effect in July.   

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And speaking of politics, I am completely mesmerized by the January 6th hearings.  

The remarks and testimony given by J. Michael Luttig, a highly regarded conservative judge who was at one point under consideration for the U.S. Supreme Court, impressed me so much that I took some trouble to find and read the written statement he issued in conjunction with his testimony.  In it he wrote: 

America’s democracy was almost stolen from us on January 6. 

Our democracy has never been tested like it was on that day and it will never be tested again as it was then if we learn the lessons of that fateful day. On the other hand, if we fail to learn the lessons that are there to be learned, or worse, deny even that there are lessons there to be learned, we will consign ourselves to another January 6 in the not-too-distant future, and another after that, and another after that. While for some, that is their wish, that cannot be our wish for America. 

You can read the full statement here.  And excellent analysis by the Washington Post of the statement can be found here.

When asked in the hearing to elaborate on his concerns about our democracy Luttig said:

"I have written that, as you said, Chairman Thompson, that today, almost two years after that fateful day in January 2021, that still Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy," Luttig said. "That's not because of what happened on January 6. It's because to this very day, the former president, his allies and supporters pledge that in the presidential election of 2024, if the former president or his anointed successor as the Republican Party presidential candidate were to lose that election, that they would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election but succeed in 2024 where they failed in 2020.  I don't speak those words lightly."   (full statement here)

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While the hearings give me much to consider, daily life still gives much joy. 

Today I awoke refreshed after a good night's sleep to find my handsome and clever husband already up and my fine dog Turbo snuggled up near my feet.  I'm now writing this from my peaceful patio with a good cup of cold brew and a homemade muffin at hand, and am looking forward to a trip this afternoon to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum to see its new exhibition and then to a fun and delicious dinner at our neighbor's house tonight.   And, of course, there's plenty of flowers blooming right now to enjoy.