The first monarch butterflies arrived this week. The orange beauties will keep passing through until late October on their way to Mexico for the winter. Some hummingbirds have already left, heading south of the border. We are still enjoying what everyone is calling The Green Summer when it rained on West Texas for three months. The native lantana are in full bloom along with purple sage. The wild yellow snapdragons on my place have bloomed three times instead of the usual once in May. The pastures and roadsides are unseasonably green and we are still getting showers and thunderstorms out of season. Days and nights have been unseasonably cool. It’s been sublime.

We are reaching that point in remodeling where we seriously question whether we will ever be done. After we finally found a plumber, we thought our worries were over, and progress began briskly.

Last Saturday, Abi Black (CHS Class of 2021) played trumpet for the Purdue All-American Band in the Boilermakers’ football season opener against Oregon State. Abi has already earned distinction as a freshman in the nearly 400-member band as the only female member of the elite, prestigious Section One trumpet players. In addition to marching with the All- American Band, Abi has also played trumpet for the volleyball team’s Boiler Box Band and pursued her interests in aerospace engineering with the Purdue Space Program. Abi is proud to continue representing the black and gold of both Canadian and Purdue. PHOTO PROVIDED

The Wildcat cross-country teams competed in Borger on Saturday, in their first meet of the season. The varsity boys placed fifth out of 12 as a team, led by freshmen Juan Vargas, who finished 15 out of 100 in 18:27; Jose Vargas, who crossed the line 32nd in 19:26; and by junior Jaxtyn Valenzuela, who cleared the course in 19:08 to finish 28th.