Thursday afternoon

Holy cow, it's been almost two weeks since I posted here! How are you all? How's your summer going?

It's hot here. Really, really hot. And humid.

My new job is still going well. I was off campus today for a meeting/training session with all the district bookkeepers and people from the finance department. We finished earlier than expected, so I got to come home and take a break for a couple of hours. Tonight is our school's open house/orientation event for parents and students, and I'll be going up there for a while to help out. The kiddos come back to school on Monday. 

What have you been up to lately?

July already

Welcome to July!

 Yesterday was a quiet 4th for us. Gregg had to work until 4pm (although he said the store was dead slow) and I spent the day at home hiding inside from the heat. The last few days have been blazing hot with dangerous heat indexes, and it's just not a good time of year to be outdoors. I made chili cheese dogs for our supper (the chili was from scratch; I've grown to hate all canned hot dog chili) with potato chips on the side and ice cream for dessert. That seemed festive enough for us! The dogs looked a bit sloppy, and had to be eaten with a fork, but they were delicious if I do say so myself.

Also yesterday I finally picked the first few tomatoes from my garden along with a couple of cucumbers. We have loads of green tomatoes and I hope they'll start to ripen before the stink bugs get to them. I've been checking the plants every day and picking off the annoying little buggers. They're lucky I don't like to use pesticides because they make me furious! I picked these three tomatoes while they're still a bit green to save them. Finishing ripening on the counter won't hurt anything.

Just a little while ago it started to thunder and then to pour rain. We certainly need it! Keeping the garden alive in heat indexes of 107 degrees requires a lot of watering. Of course, nothing is setting fruit in that kind of heat, but as I said, there are lots of tomatoes (peppers, too) that only need a little more time to ripen. 

My vacation is rapidly winding down. Monday morning will be here in a flash! I'm excited, and a little nervous, too. For the first couple of weeks the office staff will be on a summer schedule, which means 9am-3pm, Monday through Thursday. That should be a gentle re-entry into work! The teachers won't return until two weeks after me, and the students, three weeks. There should be ample time to get settled in before the "real" school year starts. 

After the children return, I'll be on my regular schedule of 7am-2:30pm, Monday through Friday. I'll be waking up super early, but it's going to be nice to be off so early in the afternoon. On days when I'll have to stop by the bank on my way home with a deposit (which will be most days during the school year) I'll be allowed to leave at 2:00pm. You can't ask for any better than that! 

Yesterday I ordered some new clothes for work. Two dresses and a pair of slacks. I'm going to need some more things once the weather cools down, too. I've been on a diet (off and on) since the beginning of the year, and I've lost 25 pounds. I'm hoping to drop another 10 by the time September rolls around, and most of my pants are already loose as it is. I'll never complain about having to shop when weight loss is the cause! :) Of course, I'm losing very, very, slowly, but I'm pleased because for once in my life, I'm sticking with new habits. Slow progress is still progress, right?

Flying by

I can hardly believe it's already the first of July. The summer is flying by, which makes me a little bit sad. It will be over and done before we know it.

One of our neighbors put out this Pride flag at the beginning of June. It makes us smile every time we walk past their house with George. We don't know the people that live there, but we'd probably be friends. 

I'm supposed to go back to work on the 26th, and guess what? I got a summons for jury duty on that day! I've never had jury duty despite being registered to vote since I was 18 years old. From what I understand, I'll appear in court that day and the attorneys will decide whether or not they want me to serve. So I might or might not end up missing more than the first day of school. 

If I end up missing the first week, that's fine by me. The students don't come back until August 2nd, so most of that first week in the office will be spent helping with all the last minute registrations and answering hundreds of phone calls. Not a fun time. And for the first time I'm apprehensive about going back to work this year; some serious problems had developed that didn't get resolved before we left for the summer. I need to have a meeting with the principal early on so we can work some things out. The stress was starting to get to me at the end of last year. I didn't even realize how stressed out I was until I had a couple of weeks off and saw what a difference it's made. 

But enough about that! I still have three and a half weeks off before I have to worry about going back to work. I'm really enjoying my summer and trying make the most of it. Speaking of which, here's the master of finding a moment of zen on a summer's day:

Porch naps in the sunshine! What could be better?

Summer 2020

Marla and Martina came over for a masked visit Monday night. Masked, because it's far too hot to even think of sitting outside on the porch to maintain distance. Have you heard of "maskne"? Getting acne on your face underneath where a mask goes? That's happening to me. Even sitting inside in the air conditioned house, I'll sweat under a mask and yesterday morning I woke up with a painful zit on my chin. A small price to pay to get to safely socialize for a couple of hours.

It was great to see them both, but I couldn't entirely shake the despondency that I've been feeling for the last while. At times like these I'm glad that I'm taking a low maintenance dose of an antidepressant. I can feel the darkness of anxiety and depression lurking around the edges of my consciousness. A whole variety of stressors are contributing to it, I think, many of which everyone reading is likely experiencing to some degree these days. 

I made a couple of pizzas (which didn't turn out well at all....the pepperoni tasted funny and I burned the crusts a little bit) and also some cupcakes from a box mix that had been sitting in the back of the pantry since the lockdown began in March. Martina had just had a birthday, hence the cupcakes. Marla brought over a case of hard ciders to share.  It's weird sitting with friends and everyone wearing a mask. I sometimes wonder if life will ever get back to normal. 

Oh, and Marla's parents and grandma sent us a huge bag of homegrown tomatoes from their garden! I made BLTs with some of them last night, and they're the most delicious tomatoes we've had this year.

I've done some reading lately, but most of it's been re-reading favorites. The exception was a $1.99 e-book I downloaded of Shirley Jackson short stories. I really liked The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and all the stories have the same kind of creepy/unsettling vibe. Fun summer reading.

We've also been watching the HBO documentary I'll Be Gone in the Dark, about the crime blogger and writer Michelle McNamara's search for the Golden State Killer. The GSK was a notorious serial killer and rapist who terrorized parts of California in the '70s and early '80s and the case had long gone cold. Thanks to the attention her work reignited, they actually caught the guy a couple of years ago. The FBI was able to track him down by searching ancestry databanks from companies like 23 and Me for distant relatives of his who shared some of his DNA. After all these decades, the monster is finally in prison where he belongs, and the story of the search for him has been fascinating. The documentary is also about McNamara, who unfortunately passed away suddenly the year before and didn't get to see the killer get caught. That's a shame. I'm not normally a person who enjoys true crime type shows or podcasts, but I've been enjoying this one and can highly recommend it.

Besides reading and watching tv, I haven't been doing anything much worth mentioning. The heat and humidity have been terrible. Going outside just isn't fun. I'm tired of being so homebound. Except for the grocery store, I rarely go anywhere unless I have to make a trip to the drugstore or to put gas in the car. When I run one of these errands I usually drive around town a little while I'm out, just to get a break from being at home. When I think of how badly I've needed and wanted time off in the past when I was working a lot and life was normal, I feel guilty about not enjoying all this free time. Still, it's just been too much. If I could do more normal things like visit friends, go to book club (it looks like we won't be resuming that at all this year), go to the library or the thrift stores to browse, then things would be different. In this city and this state, coronavirus is running rampant and doing any of those things would be risky. It's bad enough worrying about going back to school in another month. Just yesterday our local news reported that a neighboring school district (Darlington) had 6 cafeteria workers test positive for the virus. They were working at the schools' summer feeding programs for the community. Now all the school cafeterias are closed down for disinfecting and the workers are in quarantine. And that's just when they're making summer lunches for some of the kids! Who knows how bad things will get once we reopen. As much as I want to go back to work, I'm dreading what the fallout may be. Gregg wears a mask all day long at the pet store or when he's servicing aquariums, sometimes for up to 10 hours a day, and still he's worried because our numbers are so bad and so many people continue to refuse to honor the mask requirement. He's wishing now he had gone to work at first when the virus numbers were still low, and could take some time off now that things are so much riskier. If things continue to go downhill he might have to anyway. 

All in all, it hasn't exactly been a stellar summer, has it?

Catching up as summer slips away

I've really not done much blogging this summer, at least not as much as I'd planned. All this time off has been filled with housekeeping projects, cooking, reading, watching tv, and spending time with the dogs. It's been really nice, actually. I'm not ready to go back to work yet; it feels like the summer just got started, and yet it's already almost over. I have two weeks left. I've worked hard to finish up the list of tasks I had set for myself this summer. Among them are things like:

• Cleaning the porch. The wooden beams were dirty and cobweb-y, and the tile floor was really dirty. I spent a whole afternoon washing down the painted wood and mopping. 
•  Rearranging the kitchen cabinets, and unpacking and storing the china my grandmother gave me before she died. I have some really fancy large collections of two patterns complete with teapots and serving pieces. I guess I'll have to have a tea party one day! Ha.
• Cleaning and oiling all of our wooden furniture. We have a beautiful teak dining table and credenza that were badly in need of it, and several other pieces (end tables, nightstands) that I took care of too on the same day.
•  Organizing and decluttering the laundry room. 
•  Giving all of the floors in the house a good cleaning. We have pretty original hardwood floors in most of the rooms, with the exception of the den which has laminate floors (which are also very pretty). 
• Washing all linens in the house, which included a trip to the laundromat for machines big enough for bedspreads and comforters. I just did that yesterday.
• Plenty of yard work. Gregg has done all of the mowing and most of the weed-eating, but I've trimmed hedges and taken truckloads of yard waste to the dump. I've also pulled weeds and regularly scooped up dog poop from the back yard.
• Cleaning out closets, although I didn't get as far with this one as I'd hoped.

Almost every day, I've given myself tasks to do over and above ordinary maintenance cleaning. Which is all I plan to do for the next two weeks before I go back to work--maintenance. I want to enjoy these last few days of freedom as much as possible. 

I got a new phone yesterday! I finally dropped mine one too many times, and it was toast. We had had our phones for years, and they weren't the latest thing when we first bought them. So now we have the latest Samsung Galaxy--the S10. It will take some time to get used to it, but already I'm loving the extra space, the much improved camera, and the longer lasting charge. Speaking of the camera, here is a video I took of a hummingbird visiting our back porch feeder with it yesterday: 

And here are a couple of pictures of our Crepe Myrtle trees, which are covered in blooms:

We have a line of five of these trees along the southeast side of our house. I just love them.

I'm reading a new book: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. It's set in Old Testament days and is the story of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob by his wife Leah. If anyone asks if I've done any traveling this summer I can tell them "Yes!"....time travelling, that is! Between the Philippa Gregory books about the Plantagenets and Tudors, and now this, I've been living halfway in the past these past couple of months!

I've also gotten hooked on True Blood and try to watch two or three episodes a night. It's dark and funny and outlandish--vampires and shapeshifters, maenads and werewolves, anyone?--but it's so much fun! It's bloody and sexy and soapy...a perfect summer tv series, in my opinion. And the music is good, too. I've been having a good time watching it.

Weather wise, the past week has been wonderful. Cooler and less humid, with blue skies and pleasant breezes. Of course, it would cool down as soon as our a/c was repaired. :)  It's funny how around here 90 degrees F for a high and 68 for the low feels almost like the onset of fall! All of a sudden it's nice to sit out on the porch in the late afternoon, again. We've been enjoying it out there each evening, sitting with the dogs. They're going to be so unhappy when I go back to work. They're more spoiled than they've ever been right now!

Well, that's about all I've been up to. What about you?

Late Summer Daybook

I've decided to borrow an idea I've seen around the Internet and occasionally write a "Daybook" post here on my blog, using prompts to get my ideas flowing and to capture a snapshot of my daily life at the moment. I hope you enjoy it! 

Outside my window...

it's a typical July, hot and humid, and we could use some rain. Early in the week, when we went out to walk the dogs just after sunset, we were treated to the sight of a gorgeous, golden crescent moon in the western sky with Venus shining like a jewel beside it. How I wished I had a camera capable of taking a good picture of it! Maybe someday...


I am thankful...

that I was able to find an appliance repair service that was able to send someone out immediately when our dryer died earlier this week. I was also grateful that it could be repaired and we were spared the expense of having to buy a new one on top of paying for the service call. The total cost was $300...not great, but much less than I feared. And we only had to do without a dryer for one day.

*Yes, I know that hanging out clothes is a no-cost, environmentally friendly solution to the problem, but clothes that are hung out to dry in our backyard end up smelling funny, possibly because our neighborhood is right in the middle of the city. 

From the kitchen...

It's the height of farmer's market season here, so fresh vegetables and fruit are cheap and delicious. I've been doing very minimal cooking on these hot days and keeping meals light and simple. For dinner last night I had peaches with vanilla yogurt. Delicious.

Farm stand goodies!

I am reading...

the newest book by Naomi Novak, Spinning Silver, or at least I will be as soon as I can swing by the library and/or the bookstore. Hopefully the library, because again, I'm trying to save money! But Marla and Martina and I are planning to read this book for our next book club meeting and I need to start it soon. We loved Novak's last book, Uprooted, and had a really fun discussion party with themed foods and drinks that we had created (click here to read about it), so we're looking forward to a new Novak book! I hope it's as good as the last one!

I am hoping...

to finally finish a knitting project that I started......4 years ago! It's a large cowl knit on size 8 (US) circular needles, with 220 cast on stitches. The pattern is relatively simple, but I keep messing up and either adding or dropping a stitch and having to recount, then correct the mistake if I find it, and altogether it's been a real pain to knit! I think that's why I put it away for so long, and the guilt of the unfinished project kept me from picking it back up or else starting anything else. The yarn is beautiful (and was expensive) and I really want to own the finished cowl, so last week I decided to pull it out and start again. I'm finally making some progress on it and if I push myself, I think I can finish it before I go back to work. It's going to be a relief to finally be done with the damn thing!

I am thinking...

about the upcoming school year (I go back to work in 3 weeks) and some things I'd like to accomplish now that I feel settled and my job is no longer "new". We also have a new principal; regular readers will remember that the old one got in some legal trouble last May and lost her job. The 8th grade assistant principal, Mr. O, got promoted to take her place, and everyone (including me!) is so pleased! He's friendly and fair and great with the kids, and has the respect of the whole school. I'm so glad he got the promotion! 

Around the house...

cleaning, organizing, and purging continues. We're asking around for recommendations for a realtor, and are hoping to buy a house and get moved in before the end of this year. Better to go through our stuff now than to have to do it all once we're in the process of moving.

I am working...

on cultivating patience on my weight loss journey. I've lost 22 pounds so far, but it's taken almost three months to do so and I have a lot left to go. I had hoped to lose a little faster than this, but I'm working with my doctor and following her good advice. She says I have a much better chance of maintaining the loss if I proceed slowly and focus on changing my habits. I know this is true and good advice, but I want big results....yesterday!

I do realize that 22 pounds is a great start, and it's also a significant percentage of the how much I hope to lose in total. I'm eating in a way that will be sustainable once I get to my goal weight. And even better than the pounds I've taken off so far, my blood pressure (top number) dropped over 20 points and went from the "pre hypertension" to the "ideal" range! So that's a win right there!

I am listening...

to the sound of George gently snoring at my feet as I type this.

Celebrating the season...

"I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease... observing a spear of summer grass."
-  Walt Whitman

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."
-  John Lubbock

Summer is in full swing here, and although I haven't made it to the beach yet (I'm hoping that might be possible one afternoon before I go back to work) I have had the opportunity to go swimming two or three times at my friend Marian's house with a couple of other friends. Nothing feels better than a pool on a hot July afternoon! I love floating on my back, watching the clouds drifting across the sky and the occasional hawk soaring high, high up. Swimming at Marian's is a double treat because her husband, Bruce, will serve as our bartender and waiter, bringing pitchers of margaritas and platters of snacks out to us to enjoy poolside.

The end of July contains two birthdays to celebrate: my friend Martina's is today, July 21, and my dad's is July 30. Next Saturday night Martina and Marla are coming over to have cake and wine to celebrate Martina, and then the following Monday my mom is hosting a small family cook out for dad's big day. Gregg and I will be bringing the birthday cake, as there's no good bakery in the small town where my parents live. I might even attempt to bake dad's cake myself, but I haven't told anyone that just in case I lose my nerve (or it turns out badly). In any event, I'll have to be extra strict with my diet this week, to make room for birthday cake twice next weekend!

We're in the middle of the annual Perseid meteor shower! The Perseids are one of the brighter showers of the year and are visible between July 17th and August 24. This year the peak is supposed to be the night of August 12-13 when it will be possible to see up to 150 meteors per hour! I go back to work on August 13th, but I plan to try to stay up late to catch a little of the show if the weather is good. I can't resist the chance to have dozens of shooting starts to wish upon! I hope we have clear skies that weekend.


"The sun is a huntress young,
The sun is a red, red joy,
The sun is an Indian girl,
Of the tribe of the Illinois.
The sun is a smouldering fire,
That creeps through the high gray plain,
And leaves not a bush of cloud
To blossom with flowers of rain.
The sun is a wounded deer,
That treads pale grass in the skies,
Shaking his golden horns,
Flashing his baleful eyes.
The sun is an eagle old,
There in the windless west.
Atop of the spirit-cliffs
He builds him a crimson nest."
-  Vachel Lindsay, An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie


The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. ~Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

Honey-sweet July

It's been a while since I shared an essay by my favorite American naturalist writer, Hal Borland.
Here's an ode to early July that spoke to me this morning. I hope you enjoy it!

July 2nd and 3rd

Honey-Sweet July

"You can smell the season now, a special sweetness that marks the mists of dawn and the cool of dusk and is even there in the heat of a July afternoon. If it has a reminder of honey, that is no illusion, for it is the fragrance of clover and milkweed in bloom; and the essence of both is being stowed in the waxen comb. You smell it now on the summer air. You will taste it next winter on the breakfast plate.

...

The clovers are both wild and tame and range from the small white clover of suburban lawns to the big red clover of the hayfield and the tall sweet clover, both with and yellow, of the rural roadside. All are sweet of blossom. But clover fragrance makes no demands. It is a presence in the air, a gentle sweetness faintly spiced.
Milkweed, however, cannot be ignored. Its fragrance is like the essence of honeysuckle added to the heavy scent of the tuberose. It is almost too sweet, too insistent. Come on a patch of milkweed in full flower and you first wonder what careless performer had been at work. The warm summer air becomes almost heavy with milkweed aroma. Few other blossoms, wild or tame, are so full of such fragrance, and few flowers bloom more generously in July.
So you walk the roads and fields. The bees hum. The hot air shimmers. Grass heads ripen. Summer possesses the land. And you can smell July, honey-sweet, on every breath of air.


Hal Borland
"Twelve Moons of the Year"
July 1966

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Bright spots

In a week filled with rainy days, work angst, and onerous household/personal obligations, there were a few bright spots for me this first week of July.

A newly fledged house sparrow flew in to our garage yesterday, and couldn't figure out how to get back out. He kept fluttering up against a window pane instead of just flying back out through the open door. I walked up to him very slowly, and gently cupped my hands around him, and carried him outside.  He didn't protest at all. Although I've rescued and released a lot of orphaned wild baby birds, there's still nothing like holding a tiny little scrap of trusting, warm fluff in your hands. This happened before I left for work yesterday, and brightened my morning.

Speaking of work, readers that I connect with that shop at my bookstore are rare. When they do show up, it's always wonderful to trade recommendations with them. The other day I met a woman about my age with excellent taste in books (well, my taste, anyway!). We had a great conversation, and she is British, so she had the most wonderful accent! When she was leaving, she pointed to the stack of books she was about to purchase and said, "This is brilliant! Thank you so much!"  Meeting her (and her "this is brilliant" line) made my day!

Third bright spot: homemade blueberry pies! I've discovered a great easy pie recipe to use the berries we're currently picking in our backyard. I've made two so far, and will post the recipe later in the week.

What sorts of things are brightening up your week, dear readers?

Sultry, sweltering

It's too darn hot.

Today the temperature has reached 106F for the third day in a row. The heat index is up around 115F, and it's downright dangerous to do anything outdoors without taking proper precautions. Keeping hydrated, wearing loose breathable clothing, and taking cool showers are almost necessary when the heat and humidity go this high.

My car thermometer registered 118F after sitting in a sunny parking lot for an hour. Need I even say how hellish it is to get into your car on a day like this?

  It has turned cloudy and thunder is rumbling in the distance. We might get a big booming thunderstorm to finish off the afternoon--I sure hope so! Maybe this heat will break, and I do love a strong summer storm. With temps this high, if a storm comes, it's sure to be a good one!

Welcome to July in South Carolina.

July

Summer is definitely at it's peak here in my neck of the woods. It's hot and dry this year, with only about an inch of rain in the past 2 months. Watering my little garden is a daily task right now. We don't water grass--not because our community has water restictions (yet)--but because it seems so wasteful. Most of our neighbors are keeping sprinklers going night and day, and they just have little boring patches of grass! Only herbs, vegetables, and favorite perennials get water at our house when it's dry. I wish it would rain. We need it so badly this year.




Marigolds like the hot sunny days.



I have been harvesting a few things, mostly herbs and a handful of Roma tomatoes. The Brandywines and Cherokee Purples are not setting fruit in this heat-the poor flowers are dropping right off. And blueberries, of course! Mostly I've been buying fresh produce from the farmer's market. It's a real luxury to cook with fresh foods. We have had corn, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, scallions, crookneck squash, peppers, fresh boiled peanuts (a summertime treat down south!), peaches, and watermelon. I've also bought wonderful eggs and milk lately from local farmers.




Roma tomatoes, rosemary, basil, and spearmint from my garden.



I've started making herb and pepper vinegars for the winter, and jars of pickled jalapenos. I also plan to make blueberry preserves, since we have so many blueberries. Our backyard bushes are full. There are plenty of berries for us and the birds and squirrels too. This makes me happy, because we can sit outside and watch all the feathered and furred visitors without feeling cheated of fruit! It's nice to have enough and to spare.

Blue abundance