Just a catching-up post

Last Friday was our 20th wedding anniversary! I had the day off thanks to my awesome summer schedule at work (short days and Fridays off). Gregg and I spent the long weekend at home, hiding out from the heat. It was a record-setting weekend temperature-wise and going outside for much of anything was downright miserable. We tried to think of a couple of day trips to take, but nothing appealed to me enough to venture out when the temperatures were around 100 degrees with high humidity! It was a nice (if somewhat boring) few days at home. We've found a cottage we'd like to rent in Kitty Hawk, NC this fall, and if so then that will be our belated celebration.  And we're still happy and proud of our milestone anniversary!

Besides estivating at home, not much is going on at the moment. I love my summer schedule, what with going in later, getting off early, and long weekends. It's awfully boring up there, though. Most days it's just me and the custodians, as the principal is on a leave for the month of June. What little work I have to do I've been stretching out to fill the time over the next few weeks, and I spend lots of time reading a book or listening to podcasts. I'm in no hurry for the slow-paced summer work hours to end, though. It's restful. 

In garden news, this year's garden SUCKS. Several of my tomatoes have developed some sort of weird wilt that I can only assume is a virus, and the remaining ones are struggling to flower or set fruit. I'm guessing it's the wild temperature swings we've had combined with very, very little rain. We water daily during the worst of the heat, but hose water and rain water are very different things. Gardens just don't seem to thrive without rain. The cucumbers are pretty sad, too. We've gotten a few so far, but the numbers I'd hoped for to make pickles with just aren't happening. The peppers are doing okay but they're never my main focus. I do have to say that Mary's Rattlesnake beans are great, though, just like always! We're already getting more green beans that we know what to do with. Maybe I'll try her recipe for dilly beans, since I love pickles and it would keep them from going to waste. 

Overall, the garden is turning out to be a big disappointment. I've started to think about planting a fall garden in September to make up for it. With food prices what they are I'd really like to supplement our diet with some fresh vegetables. 

The one part of the garden that hasn't sucked: the roses! I'm so pleased with them.

What else is going on this summer? Not much. We're trying to figure out what to do with extra furniture that's left after getting the new bedroom stuff. The house is cluttered with it and needs a good cleaning to boot. Gregg and I agreed to work on all that this weekend. I have a few errands to run this morning: the farm stand (I'm still buying tomatoes and other veggies, sigh), the drugstore, the eye doctor (my glasses broke and I had to order new frames for the lenses), the bank, etc. etc. Errands and housework! Fun times! :)

So off to finish my coffee and begin. Have a good weekend, everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

Four small surprises

I can't remember if I shared this picture on the blog already. This is a stray cat that's been hanging around our house for close to a year now.

During the coldest parts of winter, we put out food now and again for the handful of strays that live around here. This one showed up the most often and would sometimes meow at us when we were bringing out the food. Now that summer's here, we've started making sure there's always fresh water available, too. The cat isn't around every day, but does come through regularly to get a bite or a sip.

A couple of weeks ago, the cat came around one afternoon and brought a surprise.

She's a mama! These are three of her four kittens (the one not pictured is a tuxedo).  We think they're living under the porch of the empty house that's for sale behind ours. The four kittens are wild and will run when they see us coming, but the mama just goes still and watches us. She obviously trusts us but is wary of the dogs, as she should be.

And speaking of the dogs!! The other day Poppy saw them and ran up to the fence, barking and jumping around and acting fierce. The kittens ran away, but the mama...get this....ran straight up to the fence and got right up in Poppy's face, nose to nose between the chain links, and stared her down! Poppy was so taken aback she immediately stopped barking. Ha! The cat continued to stare until Poppy turned and went back in the house. Can you believe that? 

Anyway, as soon as Poppy was safely inside, Gregg took out a fresh cup of cat food. Mama cat watched him calmly from her spot beside the fence, meowed at him, and then went and gathered her kittens and brought them back for their evening meal. Even though she's half wild herself, I think she'd like to be adopted. 

Gregg and I have to keep reminding ourselves that we don't need (and can't afford) another pet. Also, our dogs would never accept it. Also, I'm allergic to cats. Etc. Etc. 

But we sure do like her.

Happy boy

My sweet old man, George, is the happiest dog I know. I haven't shared a picture of him recently, so here's one I took today. Isn't he the handsomest good boy? 

I love him so much! ❤️

House and garden news

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the garden center of Home Depot and decided I ought to buy some fertilizer for the vegetable garden. I've heard great things about growing tomatoes with fish emulsion, but had never tried it, so this is what I came home with.

Sunday afternoon I finally got around to trying it out, and oh. My. God. The smell. 

Just unscrewing the cap flooded the back porch with a stench the likes of which I've never experienced. It was like some awful sea creature voided its bowels and then died. It was so godawful I even Googled whether or not it was possible for fish emulsion to "go bad"! (Nope, it's supposed to be smell like that). 

Holy shit, y'all. I had no idea! Even after diluting it down and pouring it on the tomatoes, the smell lingered in the back yard. It seemed like it was all over me, too, even after I took a shower. It's like the stench got stuck in my nose or something and I couldn't escape it!

Even if this stuff grows prize winning tomatoes, I'm not sure I'll ever use it again. That's how bad it smells.

In more pleasant garden news, here are some hydrangea blooms I picked for the house. 

They were a gift from my workmates in April of last year. I potted them up in a large container  and forgot about them over the winter. They came back this spring better than ever and the flowers last a long time in a vase.

And in other excellent news, our new bed arrived last week! We're thrilled with it. We picked out the furniture from an online catalog (the mattress was chosen in the store) and it's so much nicer and heavier than we expected. Here it is right after it was set up. We only had the sheets on, but we've since gotten our new duvets for the top. It feels downright luxurious!

And guess who had to try it out first thing!

Small Wonders

This is a zoomed in photo of the flowers of a common garden herb. Can you guess what it is? * I've grown it for years but never noticed how pretty the flowers and seedheads are until now.

This is a Luna moth (Actius luna), also known as the American moon moth. One morning last week it was perched above the front entrance of our school. I mentioned it to the principal and a couple of teachers, but no one else seemed too impressed. That's okay, because when my little crew of four friends made their morning stop by the office to say hi, I took them out to see it and they were. 

A couple of extra kids tagged along, about six in all, and they ooh'ed and ahh'ed over its beauty. Then I dropped a fun fact about Luna moths: the adult moth doesn't have a mouth or a digestive system! It lives its adult life entirely on the energy it stored as a caterpillar. Of course, its adult life is only about a week, but still. The kids all loved it. When I sent them on to class, most of them hugged me, and sweet Emogene said, "Thank you for teaching us something cool!" That made my day.

*Flat Leaf Parsley

Sunday this & that

As I get older, I find myself becoming less and less tolerant of heat. Today was 90 degrees (32C) and miserably humid. And it's only mid-May. I have a feeling this summer is going to be awful, and I was hoping for a little more time before the worst of it started. Sigh. This morning I went out around 9am to water the garden and half an hour later I could have wrung sweat out of my clothes. I came in and showered and stayed inside after that. I just can't stand it!

Which is unfortunate, because today was Carsen's 8th birthday party, and it was taking place at a local park. I bought her some books and a craft kit as a gift from me and Gregg and dropped it off at Marla's house prior to the party. Marla was disappointed that today had turned out to be so hot and humid. This time of year is always iffy as far as outdoor comfort level goes, but kids don't mind and I'm sure they had fun.

I ran down to Barnes and Noble to get Carsen's birthday gifts. Yes, I'm a last-minute auntie this year! The pet treat cutters/molds/recipes kit is a nod to the fact that Carsen has two new puppies this year, Boston Terriers the family dog gave birth to back at Christmastime. She loves her three dogs and will enjoy making homemade biscuits for them. I hope she likes the books, too. 

After dropping off the birthday gift, I came home and took a nap in the a/c. I felt guilty about this, because Gregg's been working on painting the outside trim on the house all day long. I would love to help him, but again, can't take the heat. I'm cooking him a nice supper to make up for it!

Speaking of a nice supper, the oven part of our gas range isn't heating. I'm sure it's a faulty igniter or something, but neither of us is handy with that kind of thing so I guess I'm going to have to find a repair person next week. I really can't be without an oven for too long! Because I knew it would be an issue this week, yesterday we fired up the grill and cooked a bunch of marinated chicken breasts and sirloin tips, which I'll make into dinners and lunches for the next several days. I also cooked corn on the cob and sweet onions wrapped in foil on the grill. I picked up the corn along with fresh tomatoes and a small watermelon from the farm stand, and tonight I'm making a pasta salad to go with grilled chicken. Tomorrow night will be teriyaki beef and stir-fried veggies with rice. Leftovers from both nights will make good work lunches, too, along with fresh salads. I can't wait until we're harvesting tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and squash from our own garden, but the farm stand will do in the meantime.

A good Sunday night to everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

Matilda, Mattress, and a Monarch

This past Friday night I went downtown to our community theater to see my friend Marla's little girl perform in the kids' version of the musical Matilda. I still wasn't feeling my best, but I hated to miss it when I'd accepted the invitation weeks ago. Carsen (who looked like the smallest child on stage) was part of the "little kids" ensemble. Even though she didn't have a lead part, she was really nervous, and during the first half every time she was on stage she sort of stood behind a bigger kid. :)  I thought it was brave of her to participate, and her mom says she had fun with rehearsals and being part of the cast. I was proud of her and told her so afterwards. 

As a general rule, I dislike going to this theatre. The seats are tiny and uncomfortable, and worse, they're so close together that your arms and shoulders are inevitably pressed against the people seated to your left and right. Getting to your seat (if you're in the middle) involves squeezing past tight spaces, too. This is why, when a bad coughing fit threatened to overcome me just as the first child was singing a solo, I nearly lost my breath altogether trying to suppress it. I decided I'd rather quietly choke to death than risk causing a disturbance and squeezing past people to exit! After a couple of minutes of struggling, a big round of applause broke out and I was finally able to cough and catch my breath. I had to use my inhaler, too, but after that I was okay. Well, okay enough despite feeling like a sardine in a can in those awful seats! I won't be going back anytime soon, but I'm glad I was there to support my little friend.

Saturday Gregg and I went out furniture shopping. We'd decided that for our twentieth wedding anniversary next month we wanted a new bed and bedroom furniture. We've needed a new mattress for years anyway, and we decided to really treat ourselves with a larger (king as opposed to queen), more luxurious bed. We checked over half a dozen places, came home, looked over the website of one of the stores, and finally found something we liked. On Sunday we went back to the first store we'd shopped in to have them order the bed and furniture we'd found and to pick out a mattress. After an hour of lying on one after another, we agreed that we liked what turned out to be (surprise!) one of the most expensive ones they carry. We were a bit shocked at the price!

By the time they totaled up the bed, foundation, mattress, nightstands, etc., we found ourselves spending way over what we'd planned. But what the hell, right? You only get one 20th wedding anniversary, and a bed seems like both a practical and romantic idea. As we paid for everything, I said to Gregg (only half-jokingly), "Well, we can forget the trip we were talking about taking this fall! We'll have to stay home and pretend we're in a nice hotel!" * Even if that turns out to be true, we're making our home so much nicer with the new furniture and repairs/upgrades that we've been focused on that I don't really mind. We're pretty close to having our house exactly like we want it, and there will be time to travel afterwards, I hope. We're trying to spend money wisely while we can afford to do so.

In other news, the garden is really coming along. My cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers have flowers. The lettuce has been a disappointment (bitter tasting for some reason), but the carrots should be ready any day now and the beans are merrily climbing the trellis. We've also planted yellow squash that seem to be taking off. Everything looks good.

I'll leave you with a picture of Marco I enhanced with Chat GPT the other day. I hope it makes you smile. It really captures his personality! 

*The expected delivery for our new bed is in 6 to 8 weeks. SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS! Our anniversary will be over by then if that's true. Sigh.

A poem for Mother's Day

Maybe your mother was the perfect mother

Maybe she carried you

bled for you

sang to you

smiled at you

nurtured you and marveled in you

Maybe she understood your essence

and was patient and let you unfold 

in your own time and in your own way 

honoring the heart of you all the while

Maybe your mother cared for you 

Maybe she was there for you

long past childhood days 

Maybe your mother worked for you

cooked for you, sewed for you

Maybe your mother listened to you 

Maybe she held space for you

Maybe your mother laughed with you

played with you

stayed with you through all your years

Maybe your mother protected you

But

Maybe she neglected you

rejected you

Maybe she abandoned you

hard-handed you

betrayed you

flayed you

Maybe your mother couldn’t mother

Maybe your mother forgot you

lost interest 

grew cold 

Maybe she never really loved you

Maybe you were just her duty 

for a little while 

Maybe your mother did the best she could 

with what she had

Maybe she was sick or sad

Maybe her mother was bitter or bad

and hurt her in her deepest parts

Now

Maybe you are a mother 

Maybe you are a perfect mother 

Maybe you pour abundant love into 

your daughters, your sons

Maybe you delight in them

Maybe you struggle 

Maybe you feel exhausted 

resentful

lost and unseen

Maybe you feel nothing

Maybe you are just surviving

Maybe you are not a mother

but long to be a mother

Maybe you mother others 

Maybe you don’t want to be a mother; 

will never be a mother

Yet

We all need a mother 

Yes, we do

And maybe there is a perfect mother 

just for you

She is the mother of your mother 

and your mother’s mother

and back as far as the eye can see 

or mind can know 

or soul can feel

to the first mother 

Lie on the grass and feel Her heart

You were formed of Her earth 

You come from Her waters 

Her winds kiss your cheek eternally

Her rains cry with you when you cry 

and wash your wounds 

She will heal you

nourish you

wait for you

She will give you beauty

give you joy 

give you new life 

again and again 

She will always be there 

to enfold you in Her embrace 

when at last you return —

Maybe you have the perfect mother . . . 

~ Rebekah Myers, A Perfect Mother 

copyright © 5/9/2021 Rebekah Myers

post shared from Sacred Sisters Full Moon Circle