Perhaps you’ll think it strange that a post on the yellow moon is fronted by the day’s eye, but summer is for stranger things. This song, another selection from ‘The Mighty Quinn’ soundtrack that formed my bedrock of summer memories 35 years ago, is a mellow, late-night mood-fest of vibes designed to see us dreamers through a muggy summer night.

Summer spreads its mysteries wide and far, even beneath the shadowless flight of the sun.

Yellow moon, yellow moon,
why you keep peeping in my window?
Do you know something I don’t know?

The lovely tribe that I wrote about in this post descends upon our happy home this weekend, cramming everyone into our little space like we did way back in our college years. It’s a celebration of us turning or about to turn 50, as well as the 30th year of my friendship with them. It also marks a rare summer gathering for us – we usually get together around the holidays in Boston – but summer is always lighter and more carefree.

They’ll be part of our Island Summer, escaping to our lovely little landlocked isle and all of its perfectly and quirkily contradictory aspects for a weekend. It’s a badly-needed moment of reconnection for my favorite people in the world, especially in the darkened and dim world we have going on right now.

Happy Friday – enjoy the weekend, and your chosen family.

Mercury is in retrograde motion until August 11, and I’m already completely fucking over it. I think Mars is still in Virgo, so fuck around at your own risk. I’m not entertaining nonsense.

I am trying to go with the flow and let the fuckery happen without letting it get to me. The fun bottle featured here was a gift from Lorie, who knows just how ruffled my feathers can get whenever Mercury goes retro. Embrace the attitude, succumb to the drama, and stand back Buenos Aires – you oughta know what you’re gonna get in me – just a little touch of star quality!

And by star quality I mean back the fuck up and leave me be until mid-August.

Blessings.

Social media is mostly awful these days, and I’m on it for posting these blog links and that’s about it. Hit it and quit it. So it was a happy surprise when I saw the number of followers I have on BlueSky tick up to the 10,000 realm. That’s almost twice my Instagram and FaceBook follower counts, and feels like more of a testament to the sanity and reason of the people on that site than any special draw I’m exhibiting. Would that it were the latter, but my youthful days were spent long ago. This is more validation that others share my views, which are for love and equality, which had earned the ‘woke’ moniker. I’m good with being awake rather than asleep or hateful. Wish more felt that way…

Is there a more enjoyable experience than eating cold, ripe watermelon on a hot summer day?

Cue the music man.

#TinyThreads

Our backyard is no stranger to magic mushrooms, and this muggy summer makes for more fungus hospitality. These beauties appears practically overnight – I thought some escaped bit of rubbish blew into the yard before I went out for a closer look and discovered them.

The decaying stump of an old Japanese maple, and a bit of rain, formed the happy home environs for this mushroom clump. There is something magical about how quickly and fleetingly such a thing happens. It will likely shrink and wither beneath the direct rays of sunlight – should they happen to strike.

After some perfunctory research online, it looks like these may be a variety of oyster mushroom, but I’m not someone who will take his life into his hands by trying that theory out. Nor would I serve this to a dinner party for shits and giggles (no matter how tempting that might be).

The garden has its dangers, just like summer does.

Am I the only one not hate-watching ‘And Just Like That‘ right now? I still haven’t seen any of the new season yet. My admiration is on ‘The Gilded Age‘ – it’s the guilty pleasure of our household and I’m not sorry about it in the least.

#TinyThreads

Mid-July and summer turns to high…

The fun snack bowl trio and their palm tree holder seen here was a gift from Lorie, in honor of our Island Summer. It fits in perfectly, and formed the festive arrival set-up for dinner with some dear friends. Our weekly blog recap commences now, as another week begins, with the wind-up for a weekend of hospitality with other old friends…

A Tom Daley Speedo appreciation post.

Son of a Virgo.

Summer dinner guesting.

Mars is still in Virgo. Fuck around at your own peril.

The beauty of a bundt cake.

The secret to a bouquet.

Whispering walls.

A summer higher love.

A message for the children.

La Habanera.

The lone Dazzler of the Day was Justinian Huang.

Ice cream summer, just a taste.

Tres deseos.

Don’t buck with me fellas – this ain’t my first time at the rodeo!

Jocks and frocks.

Locker room scene.

Putting the masc on.

Subtle yet stunning.

The trick to putting bread pudding over.