I’ll start off with a photo with the theme we ended on in the last post, with a new colleague in my kitchen office enjoying the swivel chair. Liam has moved in for a month to fill the gap between his old apartment lease ending and before the new lease starts in September. It’s been great having him around!
But backing up a week before our new flatmate moved in, we’ve been enjoying the yellow and purple flowers in Humboldt Park, and some very nice other plant arrangements seen out at a popup store run by Miles’s friend’s mom.
And more wild flowers in Humboldt Park 
Garden window display at Big Delicious Planet’s pop up store 
Dylan working at Flowers for Dreams 
Creamy sunflowers that we got from Flowers for Dreams’ sidewalk sale 
Air plants on a vintage birdcage hanging from a tree near Smith Park
Our end of July birthdays were a lot of fun this year. Happy Birthday to Debbie first on the 24th, then to Liam and Granny on the 26th. Here’s Liam and Granny blowing out candles on the same cake without exchanging a single suspect droplet!
Happy birthday! 
Birthday brunch outside. Check out my innovative table arranging so we could all feel seated together yet were quite distanced from one anothe!
In the home and transportations news section: we got our solar panels installed, and we got a new car. Miles is going to take the other car to Portland in September so he’ll have a car there and will open up his job options for the next couple of months. We had hoped to get an electric car but things being what they are, we are putting that off for a bit so we’ll be in a position to be able to charge it (without going into the office, can’t charge it there!)
West facing panels 
South facing panels in the middle of the roof 
South facing panels seen from the street 
This drawing shows how much of our roof line is covered with dormers / windows, especially since the south and west facing sides are the only usable ones for panels! 
Not our new car! But my friend ironically bought a car the same day from the same dealer (!) so I took a pic with the car she traded in which was parked outside the dealership when we went in. Had to include this because I look so glam haha.
In fact I don’t have a photo of our car and Liam has taken it over to Kat’s mom’s house, but it looks like the one here, but in black. It’s really comfortable and was very handy already for Liam’s move.
Back outside, here’s the nice and shallow beach at Rogers Park near the Groves.
And yesterday we met Debbie, Jeff and Maddie at the DuPage River in Naperville. It was great seeing them after a long quarantine time!
And speaking of Covid safety measures, I wanted to end on a very inspirational note. Check out a recent shipment of 60 masks that Mom sewed to donate to two organizations in Kansas City. Yay, Mom! That’s really amazing, on top of your previous donations and also the masks you made for us! Thank you!!!
Where to begin to comment? So many happenings lately! Solar panels and a new car! Also all the beautiful flowers and summer activities.
Well done on all the masks Mary!
Wow so much news! Solar panels and car look fab and great to have Liam back for a while I’m sure! Great table planning too by the way… there’s definitely a market for that!
Solar panels and environmentally friendly flowers/shrubs in Humboldt Park-the way to go.
Full marks too to Mary for all the beautiful face masks-what a great effort.
Best luck with new car..
Well done to your Mum on her fab face masks, wonderful donation😷best of luck with your new car, it looks great, lovely to have Liam home for awhile, oh I love the creamy sunflowers, very pretty🌻
I appreciate the nice comments about the masks! 🙂