I had to look up “Dog Days” to be sure I was using the phrase correctly. I was. And although this next batch of patches is a bit “dark,” I feel it’s important to have this cloth reflect the reality that life has its ups and downs.

After everyone headed home, we spent a very quiet Fourth of July, noteworthy for spending quiet time reading Fair Play by new-to-me author Tove Jannson, who wrote …

empty spaces that must be respected —those often long periods when a person can’t see the pictures or find the words and needs to be left alone.”

and happily eating an abundance of homegrown tomatoes …

As I tried to appliqué a bit of rapidly fraying red linen to a scrap of black linen, I realized the back looked better than the front, so I went with that …

The next day Don tackled the lawn, which was thriving after an unusual amount of rain. Unfortunately, fire ants tend to show up after heavy rains, so no pictures but this is a graphic representation of one of Don’s ankles post-mowing …

Having liked Fair Play, the next day I moved on to Tove Jannson’s Summer Book, which is supposedly a novel, but which reads like memoir …

It felt very believable and took me back to a piece of my own writing, Shelter Island, 1969, that I’ve linked to before.

The following day included yet another book and a related doctor visit, about which the less said the better. The book, What Fresh Hell is This, was on my radar as a possible suggested read for my daughters, who are closer to 40 than 30. Although I am now well past menopause myself, in hindsight I wish I had been given more warning about what to expect in the lead up to it.

The title also dovetailed with the drumbeat of summer wildfires, our very real fresh hell …

Lastly (and I will say, the next batch of patches will be lighter, visually and metaphorically), there was yet another doctor visit. The previous week’s trip to the eye doctor had resulted in a referral to my retina doctor (trust me, you don’t want to ever need a retina doctor).

So Don drove me to Austin where, through the wonders of modern laser surgery, the small hole in my retina was welded shut …

Nuff said.