More About Summer in Corvallis

The heat of summer and long hours of sunlight work their magic on Ben's garden of yellow squash, green beans, herbs, nasturtiums and spaghetti squash. Everything is growing faster and bigger than we could imagine. We, on the other hand, almost withered and died from over a week of temperatures in the 90's and up to 106 degrees.

During the heat wave my buddy Helen arrived from the cool fog of Carmel. We picked blueberries, ate gelato, walked along the riverfront downtown and had delicious dinners on the deck, but all in the heat. Over the weekend Helen and I went to Portland for a WILFP (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) conference of the West Coast chapters. Six women from the Monterey Chapter attended (including Helen) so it was like a mini-reunion for me. So much fun to see everyone and hear news from Monterey. We stayed in a dormitory with no air-conditioning and ate food from a dorm cafeteria. Small price to pay for all the benefits of the conference. I had especially wanted to meet WILPF women from Oregon for future organizing and friendships and, sure enough, I did.


While Helen and I were off in Portland, our friends Frank and Margaret from Pacific Grove stayed overnight at our house and Courtney gave them a tour of Corvallis. We're hoping to spirit them up here when they're tired of PG.


Meanwhile Maya has gone back to work and Courtney and I take care of Ben three days a week. As the photo below shows, it's very hard work!


Yesterday was Aaron's 11th birthday. Of course he seems older and wiser. Only two weeks until he returns to Monterey, just in time to start his 6th grade school year. Seems like just the other day he was arriving for two months of summer and now it's almost over. He'll be back in mid-October for two week break and then again in December. We will miss each other alot.

Thanks for reading our blog,

Valori