Recession - what recession!

It appears that recessions don't bother fireworks displays!

Last night, the entire shore line of the Hood Canal was lit up with displays. And not just piddly little single rockets, but huge mega mondo multi-effect pirotecnics.

Susie and Rick across the street decided to have a 4th of July party - with a live band! So around 7 I wandered over with a big salad (lettuce I picked from her garden - why not mine? More on that later). The band had set up earlier and I had heard them practicing during the afternoon. Susie had ribs and chicken and corn and all the stuff you are supposed to have on the 4th - but no hot dogs.

It stays light until late these days, so we enjoyed the music out on the waterfront. The band is three women and a guy drummer and they played country and blues. The lead singer is a local vet and boy, can she play the harmonica! As the sun went down, the temperature also went down significantly and an almost full moon rose over the opposite peninsula. We could hear sporadic bangs and see a few rockets going off - kids too anxious to wait til dark. But as it got darker and darker, all along the opposite shore about a mile across the water I think, big light displays started erupting. On our side of the water, big bangs and fantasic rockets all around. (I had shut the kitties in the house a lot earlier.) I don't know how much money went up in smoke last night, but there sure wasn't any indication that people had held back because of the recession. In fact it seemed like there were more fireworks this year than last! And it went on and on and on until the noise really started getting to me and I went home only to discover it was lounder at home with the noises echoing off the hillside!

But more on the lettuce. It was a sad day today - I pulled out my poor veges that did not recover from their neglect while I was gone. I did salvage my garlic and some onions but now I will have to scrounge from others gardens. The raised bed frames will be gone tomorrow and I will spread the soil as a top dressing over the grass. Hope the guy gets here early tomorrow to take them as it is going to rain (spoiling our run of gorgeous weather) and I want to spread it while it is dry.