Because of Obama, I feel somewhat patriotic for the first time in a long time, so I wore my patriot dress to market, and spun red wool. We sold a lot. It was a good market.

Word on the street is that Obama’s coming to the island with the whole first fam in August. I’ve met the man twice, shook his hand twice, but for some reason I really want to see him out here. He’s just so magical.

My new camera arrived in the mail on Friday – a Canon Powershot SD1200, for all the camera nuts out there. I started playing with it immediately, and I love it. It’s compatible with all the accessories from my old Powershot, but it’s way better, and takes sharp images. I took this shot of a fallen sparrow with Joshua when I went to pick up Chelsea for a potluck on Friday night. The mother flitted around the tree above our heads, calling loudly, and as Joshua built a little cradle of leaves around the nestling I told him to leave its beak free, so she could feed it. We stepped back and waited to see if she’d do it in front of us, but too shy, she declined.

Finally with a couple of days of sun under our belts, they’re all putting on their party dresses – zinnias, cosmos, dahlias, bachelor buttons. Just a handful here or there, enough to make a few bouquets. But I love how in the beginning, every one seems the sweetest thing.

I got particularly into stalking the arrival of the first dahlia. I’ve never grown them before, and hauling the heavy tubers out of the basement and burying them in cold trenches in the damp gray spring is not my fondest memory.

But I do think they’re spectacular. There’s nothing quite like a dahlia.