Slow Children, a Red Carpet, & a Magic Treehouse

Dog Walk Discoveries (August 2016)
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Whenever I see signs like these, I think of Susan Patron's 
​The Higher Power of Lucky (2007 Newbery winner).
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"Lucky," Lincoln explained, "people see that sign and they think, 'Huh. Slow children. Kids around here aren't too smart.' Or else they think, 'Gosh, these Hard Pan kids don't move too fast. Must be 'cause of the heat.'"

...Lincoln put his string in his pocket and rubbed away the dust beside the word SLOW with the hem of his T-shirt. Lucky was afraid he was going to try to fit DOWN next to it, but she knew he couldn't, and it would look bad. The sharp upside-down V of the top of the diamond came too close to SLOW.

But instead Lincoln did something brilliant. Next to SLOW, he drew two neat perfect-size dots, one like a period and the other a little above it. Lucky knew it was a colon and it made the sign mean, "You must drive slow: There are children at play." 

"Wow," she said. "That is . . . presidential."

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Clearly, the children who made this  l-o-o-o-n-g  path were NOT slow.
​They had a mission!

This photo and the one above it were taken 20 days apart, and I can't recall if it was the same street. All I know is that I very much wanted to go up that red carpet!

Maybe kids who make l-o-n-g paths and red carpets
grow up to draw dragonflies that dance in the streets.

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A particularly majestic cat...
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...and a somewhat disgruntled penguin.

Mary and Joseph peaking
​through the leaves.

Holy infant, mother and child...

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​And now for some general floral loveliness. How I adore summer.
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For the longest time, I remembered this gleaming
carousel horse as a unicorn. Understandable, right?
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Bee cheerful. :)
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This little dinosaur practically looked ​alive. ​
​The one in the bottom right corner—​not so much.
(Did the bunny have anything to do with it?)
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A flip-flop planter and a pipe-smoking sea captain. Fun!

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I noticed this tree because it was
wrapped in white lights. 

​But it was only when I walked by in the opposite direction that I saw the splendid treehouse behind it.

​(If that isn't a metaphor for life!)

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Sometimes it's merely the angle of the sun that gives us
new images to ponder. Like this ordinary stucco wall...
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...this lacy leaf shadow...
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...and this busy bit of sand. How many stories are contained in these tracks?

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Finally, a Little Free Library with some wise words from Dr. Seuss's Lorax:​
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not.