thinking cool

My brother just brought up the smaller air conditioner for the spare room. We used to bring it up in time for July 4th, but it's been 90 for two days, and will be up near a hundred for the next two - I'm living on ice tea. Meanwhile, parts of Wyoming are having twenty inches of snow.

daffodils all over

I cut out some quilting cotton for another sleeveless dress - of course, the heat wave will be gone by the time I complete it, but while this weather lasts, I can't think of anything but sleeveless. Meanwhile, because it's not August, the nights are cooler, at least. And the window fans come to the rescue.

I don't put them in "properly." I just stick the fan on the sill in front of the screen; it pulls the cooler air in just fine without all the fuss and fitting. 

blossoms everywhere

Perfect days like this make you forget the ones that went before - it was wonderful. Sunny, temperate, very breezy. I went out and wished I'd brought a camera because the pink cherry blossoms would flutter around in the wind, even into the back yard.

They are everywhere in the front, and all the way down the edges of the driveway - it looks like we've had a wedding here.

Meanwhile, the crabapple is fantastic - filled with white blossoms.

Once again, the birds never ate the fruit over the fall and winter, and I wasn't able to pick it with snow all around the tree, but that didn't get in the way of the blooming at all. I've always been partial to crabapple trees. When the cherry blooms, the leaves are there, too; the flowers are rosette-like - well, I've taken enough pictures of them over the years. But the crab blossoms take over the whole tree; there are leaves, but they're dwarfed by all the flowers. I also love the spreading habit of apple and crabapple trees. But don't tell the cherry - she's a brave one, and well-loved. 

the October storm of 2011 - she's never been the same since

tiny pleasures, obscure delights

 Well, it was almost fifty today with lots of rain; the snow almost disappeared. Then suddenly, at nine tonight, the winds picked up and the temperature started dropping. Then, a sort of squall, with snow now covering the ground. It will be slippery tomorrow.

Meanwhile, it was so gloomy all day that I even had the window candles plugged in - there were lights all over the place. I love these kind of days at this time of year. 

"...What makes Christmas exciting.... rests on an ancient and admitted paradox. It rests upon the paradox that the power and center of the whole universe may be found in some seemingly small matter, that the stars in their courses may move like a moving wheel around the neglected outhouse of an inn."

- G.K. Chesterton

"The spirit of Christmas is a paradox precisely because its largeness is made manifest in the smallest of ways: in little kindnesses, tiny pleasures, and obscure delights among ordinary people in the simplest of circumstances."

- George Grant and Gregory Wilbur, from Christmas Spirit

this morning

the colors of November

 

the last days of summer

The nasturtium bloomed. I was wondering if it would.

The other things on the front steps are in the pink family, so I'll have to figure something out. I have a yellow mum; it is the very end of summer; we'll see.

We had a couple of warmer days this week, with some humidity. By evening of that day, even the cats wouldn't eat until I put the air conditioners on. But today we were back to beautiful, and the sunlight had that golden quality. The light that shines between the leaves shimmered on the living room floor - even Daisy noticed. The days are closing in. 

Daisy sleeps in cute positions lately.

These were on different days. But she likes the back of that chair, where she can see outside if the front door is open.

I went out in the garden today and cut all the chives. Now they dry where Daisy can't reach.

It seems like a lot, but they're nice thrown in with scrambled eggs, and they won't last long.

There seems to be only one rabbit left around our property, after so many over the last few years. I have no idea if hawks or owls got some of them, or other predators. I often am running outside near the shrubs where I think some of them lived, chasing away a cat too close to the place. It's terrible. Dianne's fluffy yellow cats come by sometimes, and there's the gray cat who caught the baby bunny a year ago. But there's a third, a dark tabby with legs of a darker fur, and yesterday I caught him going into the bushes where I think they hide - the rabbit was a little way off and the cat didn't see him. I don't think a cat would attack a full-grown rabbit, but I went over there to try and flush him out, and I saw a mound of dried brush, with a hole in the middle of it. A cover for an animal, but I don't know who. I love cats, and I look at Annie and Daisy and know they would also kill for sport. But they're not going to, and these others are roaming around, terrorizing smaller creatures. And I have no idea if the rabbits have just moved on, or what. Why can't they just have peace?

"In God's hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mankind."

                                 -  Job 12:10

as winter fades

It snowed while I was at work today; not much. 

And that's why I hadn't put away my boots.

mercies

 I think I need to stop relying on Accuweather for my forecasts - they said we'd maybe have a dusting of snow yesterday morning, by eleven o'clock. There was nothing when I went to work, and it didn't look like snow. I brought my boots anyway. Mid-afternoon it began to snow and snowed all day. Although there was little accumulation. But it's cold out now, so it isn't going to melt yet, so it's pretty out for a while.

I awoke with a headache, and the Exedrin didn't do the job, so I had to take some more. I sipped my lavender tea, and it got better, but didn't go away. So I had to go grocery shopping with the headache in addition to only being able to see half as well as I usually do. Some Twinings tea caught my eye; it was on sale. There was something called Winter Spice which looked nice, and even though it was mainly chamomile, I bought it. I'm not keen on chamomile, but it was Christmas-y - can you buy Christmas? Because a lot of things which seem to have the proper aura do appeal to us, don't they? We buy them, thinking this it it.

Anyway. I got home, put away the food, fed the cats, started some laundry, and decided I would sit quietly for an hour, then get busy doing whatever. I made a cup of my new tea, sat down with some books, and promptly feeling tired, dozed off. It wasn't for long, and I awoke to find my tea lukewarm. I took a few sips, and realized the pain over my left eye and near my left ear was diminishing. I drank the rest. My headache was finally (almost) gone. I need to take another look at chamomile as a help for my headaches. I also have felt rather too relaxed for the rest of the day, but I've learned a new thing about herbs and I'm grateful!

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

frail flowers

 If Hope, by Christina Rossetti

 If hope grew on a bush,
And joy grew on a tree,
What a nosegay for the plucking
There would be!

But oh! in windy autumn,
When frail flowers wither,
What should we do for hope and joy,
Fading together?