rain and sun, bless the Lord

 Oh, the rain we've been having. And yesterday it was so cool and damp I actually shut all the windows and turned the heat back up. But I didn't hear it come on, so I used the oven twice, ironed, and made a thick soup for my supper, all the help to warm up the place

Later, the sun came out!

The trees are well past blooming, but now the azalea 

and the bridal wreath, are having their turns.

My bed is waiting cool and fresh, with linen smooth and fair,
And I must off to sleepsin-by, and not forget my prayer.

But slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn,
And hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn.

RLS

The American Robin is of the thrush family, but we don't have lilacs in our lawn.

getting outside in between the raindrops

 It's pouring out now, and is supposed to continue tomorrow. But it was beautiful out earlier and I took advantage of it - I pulled up weeds in the two raised beds I'm going to use and dumped a bag or topsoil in one of them. This bed has been the repository of all kinds of raw kitchen scraps and sticks for the past year, and I usually have not bothered to chop up very much of it. So, you'll never guess what I found out there - 

This was growing out of a turnip.

Amazing. And I guess the seeds are in here 

I have never entertained the idea of growing turnips, but I should look at these and see if there are seeds in there. Don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth!

I plopped it in the hobnail "basket" on the table, and you-know-who was unable to contain her curiosity.

It was very mucky outside, around the raised beds; my brother rototilled the pathway around the beds but inside the fencing, but if the weather doesn't get drier, I don't know how he'll manage. His approach to gardening is different from mine. I spend the money to enrich the soil - yes, it's an expense and that's why I am focusing on them, one at a time. His philosophy is that a summer garden should save money, and so you want to spend as little as possible. He knows what he's doing and has gardened many more years than I have, but I want to improve the soil, not just grow things. We will also have to try to keep our rabbit friends out, but that will be trial and error. 

There is a particular rabbit who I often see out my bedroom window, eating his grass or just resting amongst the forsythia hedge. It seems that every year there is one I can watch out there, but it can't be the same each time, since I don't think wild rabbits have a long life, being a prey animal. But there's always one who enjoys this patch and I'm happy to see him out there.

I like this photo.

He has seen the starry hours
And the springing of the flowers;
And the fairy things that pass
In the forests of the grass.

- Robert Louis Stevenson, from The Dumb Soldier

I've happened upon Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, with illustrations by Tasha Tudor. 

Delightful beyond anything, a match made in heaven. 

October the perfect

I think I must say this every October, but - today was perfect, and I think a day like this, here where I live, only appears in October. Deep blue sky, strong breeze, dry air, beautiful colors in the trees.  Absolutely perfect, and delightful. In the seventies. It was heavenly, and also, the song of the mockingbird in the distance several times throughout the day and out my window in the early morning! It couldn't have been better.

I was asking myself if we don't have perfect days like this in May, maybe? But no. May is a nice month here, when things are getting warmer. But there is a big difference (in my view) in a month where you're getting warm after a cold few months, and a month where you're already nice and warm, coming into a cooler season. A big difference. Not to mention that I prefer the colors of the bright leaves to the flowering trees - sorry, but yes! There can be mud in May, but October is - totally beautiful. 

Unless you're in North Carolina. May God have mercy on them, because the government certainly isn't. 

June projects

 We're in a drier spell right now, except for when there's a thunderstorm, and in hot, humid weather, thunderstorms will occur. What I'm getting at is water in the basement. We have had a couple of instances of it, and it's not from a crack in the foundation but is seeping up from a saturated soil around the house. It wasn't much, but my brother decided to dig a hole outside, let it dry out and then paint it with tar. 

When the tar dries, he can fill up the hole and things should be all right. Here he has plywood over the hole, in anticipation of some rain. Last night there was a storm we didn't expect, and while it was thundering and pouring, he realized the hole was uncovered. The other day he scooped out eighteen gallons of water - it's ongoing. 

So, the ground is saturated, but the brook is sluggish - figure that out! It's been very hot, but considering the wet weather we've had in past months, is it possible the brook can dry up so easily? It has dried up in late summer many times, in a drought, but not in rainy seasons. 

So I put away my green linen dress and am working on a blue lawn skirt. It's a pretty blue - what would I call it? - I don't know, a cool medium/dark shade. I'm usually drawn to prints, and it's strange working with a solid - almost boring, but that's ridiculous.

"When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn't teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn't interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem one day, ' I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

                                       -  To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

spring things

 I hemmed my skirt today,

and ironed it after I took these pictures. The dark brown and turquoise speak to me of spring. This is about the only thing I have which goes with the skirt, and tomorrow is about the only day I can wear it, because then it gets warmer - too warm for sweaters! 

We had a lot of rain the other day, and a wind advisory yesterday. But today there was snow! I went outside.

The backyard forsythia looks pretty good. I like the wild branches coming out the top. I was glad I wore the wellies instead of my snow boots; there is water everywhere, around the footprints.

Slush.

The hydrangea in water.

There's a bit of water in the basement, too.

I started reading The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis. The author feels that Lewis' deep knowledge of the Middle Ages so informed his entire life and way of thinking, that a book needed to be written about it. So far, so good. I also have Esther de Waal's Seeking God: the Way of St. Benedict. Benedictine monks take a vow of stability, which binds them to the place, the monastery, but really, to those who live within it. 

"The man or woman who voluntarily limits himself or herself to one building and a few acres of ground for the rest of life is saying that contentment and fulfillment do not consist in constant change, that true happiness cannot necessarily be found anywhere other than in this place and this time."

"The good order and stability of the community is the means: the end is that the individual may have space and time to enter into his or her personal dialogue with God."

                                                   -  Esther de Waal

staying dry

 We had rain all day again; so much that I ordered the groceries for delivery. 

Puddles everywhere.

But we were cozy in the house, and I made broccoli soup. Which is so easy, so little effort, and while it's cooking, there's the onion, garlic and chicken broth aromas, which are very salutary when you've recovering from a headache. That, and tuna sandwiches were a perfectly fine supper.

I made the casing for the skirt today, and I've got to thread the elastic through it to see if I like the fullness. If it's too much, I'll have to re-do one of the side seams to make it narrower. Which is a relative term, since it's going to be as gathered as will look well. It's a very drapey and thin-ish rayon fabric, so it shouldn't be bulky even with a lot of gathers. We'll see how it looks.

I make small granola batches on the stovetop, which are very fast to do. The other day I was about to put away the rolled oats, when the container dropped and oats went all over the floor - I probably spilled two cups or more! Without a second thought, I scooped them off the floor and put them back in the box. Please don't imagine my floor is clean; I just could not bear to lose those oats, so I put the idea of any grossness right out of my mind instantly. But I also told myself that maybe I should make a batch every day for a while, basically to keep my eye on any unwanted somethings in the container, rather than be wondering if any crawlies are in the box. To use it up sooner than later seemed a good idea. So I made another batch today; it takes fifteen minutes or less from start to finish. And I didn't find anything unusual in the oats, so far. 

Well, Holy Week is upon us. There is a little piece in Magnificat today about Elizabeth Jennings, the poet. She struggled with mental illness, but her poetry and her faith kept her going.

Teach me how you love and have to die
 And I will try                                         
  Somehow to forget myself and give        
   Life and joy so dead things start to life   
    Let me show now an untrammeled joy     
     Gold without alloy.                                    

Something to remember for this week, I think.                           

"to use this day well"

 We were out much of the day - there was a wind advisory. Well, it's March, isn't it? Oh, the wind. But when the strong winds come after a load of rain, surely it must help to dry things out. And it must be blowing in the warm air that's coming tomorrow: fifty eight, it's supposed to be! 

Along the road we noticed how high the river was - we were going to the shore to visit cousins - and next door to their place, the neighbor had what looked like a lake in the back yard.

I guess they are that much lower than my cousin's, but we saw several properties with ponds in their yards; that's how much rain we've had around here. 

I knew we might be out for a while, so I mixed up some pastry dough yesterday, and this morning was able to bake a pie crust. This made it easy to whip up a quiche when we got home. One doesn't always feel like doing these things ahead, but it would have been another half hour if I'd left it for later.

The cats, meanwhile, had to forgo lunch and I wonder what they thought about that. I suppose they just waited till we came, maybe knowing it was a longer while than usual, and just accepting it. But cats live in the present, don't they? So I may be concerned for nothing.

"...Better to live one day at a time. This is a hard task, often, for we tend to keep going to the past and trying to live it over again or looking ahead and uselessly trying to forecast tomorrow and next week and next year. But somebody has said all the time we really have is the NOW. We have today.

To use this day well, that is about the sum of it."

                                              -  Gladys Taber

wild mornings

 We had a lively thunderstorm yesterday morning while getting ready for work, the kind that makes you nervous about washing up but you know you've got to do it anyway. It was a typical summer storm but after the rainy July we had, the water was sitting in puddles around the back yard. My brother went out to look at the brook, and he said the water went over his shoes. The water in the lawn, that is, not the water in the brook.

And on the subject of water, I have to take the spray bottle to bed with me against the early mornings when Daisy goes after my feet. 

She's starting to get it.

a garden saga

 The very rainy weather pattern we were in seems over, and it's actually been September-like at times, in the high seventies and how eighties. Amazing! And very welcome. But all my plans for the backyard garden were foiled and now I just have to learn from this and forge ahead. 

Do you see the long grasses in there? Just one week ago I went in to pull up some weeds after the weather had changed. There was standing water in there along the edges, and the weeds I pulled up were not only in muddy soil, which I expected, but sopping, dripping mud. There was really no point in continuing. I realized that raised beds are what I need to think about. I don't know if today, one week later, it was much drier, but today we're having a very rainy day, rain on and off all day, so there is really no point. The rain today is normal for summer, falling straight down, cooler breezes coming in the windows - it's nice. But that area down there doesn't need any more water, unless I want to grow rice. 

My brother had told me in the spring that he wanted to focus on the side garden - he works long hours and doesn't have so much time - so I said I'd work in the back garden. 

His MO for the garden was always to rototill, and then plant everything close together, so the plants could help prop each other up to a certain degree. He would incorporate some compost with each plant he put in, and then use MiracleGro for fertilizer. He told me that the point of growing your own veg is to spend as little money as possible, to make it worthwhile. And, to be fair to him, he had to make good use of what little time he had to spend on it. But I have different ideas (and probably less realistic than his).

I told him not to till, that I didn't want to weed seeds to be turned up by the tiller. I was just going to try and keep up with them as time went on. When I began in mid-May, it was kind of muddy in there, but I bought a few savoy cabbage plants and onion sets and put them in, along with some mushroom compost from the garden store down the road. I had no idea of filling up the space, as it is a good size and I didn't want to overwhelm myself; I thought I'd buy plants a little at a time, and compost as needed, clearing weeds as I went along. I developed a vague memory of a weeding implement, dug around in the basement and found my cape cod weeder - a fantastic tool for weeding! When the ground is dry, there's nothing like it for cutting those weeds out entirely; when the ground is moist, you can usually just pull them up by hand. 

So, time went on and I bought the rosemary plant, a garlic chive, and some oregano, just whatever caught my fancy when I was at the garden place, and I got some chicken manure fertilizer, the dried sort. I took care of my plantings, the cabbage was growing nicely and I also got an heirloom tomato called Black Russian - I do love the heirloom tomatoes. My plan was to see how things went, and maybe cover parts of the garden with cardboard if I thought I wasn't going to plant there, to keep down the weeds. I was going out in the cool mornings, watering and spreading grass clippings around the plants.  I had a plan. Then it started to rain. 

At first, I just waited, but it would shower every day, it seemed, and more like a downpour. And at times when I couldn't go out. Then, it was all so wet, there wasn't much point, and I thought it would pass. But it lasted three or four weeks, along with steady excessive humidity, the whole time. The cabbages were ruined. The tomato was, too. I didn't think to put them in pots - I didn't know it would last so long. 

I read somewhere once that Leonardo had many failures; he kept going. There isn't much point in my being mopey - I just want to learn from this episode. I was telling my brother at dinner that I'm going to get raised beds. He can't see putting out any expense for them, considering how they need to be filled, etc. But there are a lot of helpful gardening channels on youtube - like Huw Richards, an amazing young man who's had a channel since he was a child, really, and he has frugal and sensible ideas for gardening. I don't mind the expense in order to establish things.

We'll see how it goes.

soggy plants, so much rain, and insects

 The cover on my new copy of Gentian Hill. It's certainly better than the other copy. But it doesn't illustrate (no pun intended) what the story's about, in my view. If I were an artist I'd paint a view of the town, the bay, the ships. The beautiful English scenery, which seems to be a character in her books, much of the time. 

We had a most beautiful weekend, with less humidity and lovely sunshine; we'd been waiting for it all summer. Now the humid air is back, and so the air conditioning. We had a thunderstorm today, too. More rain. The garden is a washout and I think I should get the wood for some raised beds. A long story, to be told later. Rosemary isn't looking too good.

My brother's kitchen garden is better, since the soil isn't as heavy, but the tomato plants aren't getting as tall as they should and the tomatoes are resting on the ground. We have to pick them before they're ripe or they'll rot. This is most unusual. 

My dress is barely coming along, but today I finished the understitching. I think I may have to topstitch around the neck edge to make it lay flat. I really don't like doing it. Do people who can whip up a dress in a day or two just ignore the housework? Or maybe they have a cook, or a housekeeper. 

A couple of nights ago I saw a few fireflies, so they're still around, but dwindling. 

There's always a chance, when you read a science book about a subject, that the romance of it will wane for you - the magic is "explained". This book is very interesting, and the author loves her subject. So, I'll try not to let it spoil my enchantment with fireflies. I know she means well. Books written by naturalists, on the other hand, seem to find a nice balance between the two: science fact and poetry.

"Summer belongs to the insects, and in the drowsy heat of July and August, when I walk southward over the brown road from Morgan Creek to Lone Field, I am never out of hearing of the buzzing of meadow grasshoppers, the whirring wasps. the droning of bees at the old field flowers. Birds sing early. The awakening whistle of quail comes at dawn from the hedges, and in the cool, green woods, the redstarts, summer tanagers, and red-eyed vireos sing long before the heat waves shimmer over the road and the sun has burned away the morning mists. But it is the insects that proclaim high summer, and at noon of days when the temperature rises to more than 100 degrees they are fiercely active."

                                             -  John K. Terres, From Laurel Hill to Siler's Bog

new things to plant

 A year ago we took down two trees, and lost a lot of shade in the back yard. We researched different tree types but then the nursery didn't have those. It was hard to decide what to do - we never bought any replacements last fall. 

Well, my brother picked up a white crabapple tree today, and a couple of variegated hollies. The arbor vitaes that are along the side fence are all yellowed, and I think it's from the two overflows we had last summer - here's a film of one. We were told that crabapple trees can take some wet conditions. The little dogwood is totally dead, too! And it did so well last year. It has to be from all the water. 

So the hollies will replace the arbor vitaes and I think the crab will also be on the side somewhere, but we want to get two more trees and more shrubs. 

a hurricane cometh

Well, I don't mean to joke about it;  it's heading right for us. Technically, there's a hurricane warning at the coast - we inlanders have a tropical storm warning, but still. A lot of rain, a lot of wind. In these situations I like to cook as much stuff as possible, to have some food in a state of readiness, so to speak. I grated a huge zucchini our neighbor gave us and made a chocolate zucchini cake. I also put handfuls of it into our mac and cheese and there are still eight cups left; it filled a whole mixing bowl.

I've got some bread in the oven and there's a chicken that's defrosted - I'd like to cook it ahead of time. Maybe in the early morning. It might be nice to have some flavored popcorn. All the laundry is done, except for some towels I've been using this evening. 

 Two days ago we had a spell of torrential rain, and I got my camera. What looked like a small river was rushing along the side yard, to the street.

 Then I stood on the back step, and could see the water flowing right up under the bridge.

So, here we go again - I just hope it doesn't flood our property.