 |
| Mabel loves cherries. |
I truly love having my children and grandchildren around me. I love it when Hannah and Josiah are home from school. I love having Miriam here. Ever since the Thayns moved into the state, we’ve been together much more frequently and I love it. They come up to our house, we go down to their house. It’s just a four hour drive. The next closest child is Sarah. She and Tosh have been in the Detroit area for years, which is eight hours away, but soon they will be moving to the Toledo, Ohio, area which puts them an hour closer to us, which means more frequent visits, I hope. The other children – Geoffrey and Joni and their children, and Daniel and Raven – all live far way in the west. We don’t see them very often except electronically, which is nice, but in person is nicer.
Last week we were down state with the Thayns and the Fosters on our rafting adventure. This week, from Wednesday to Saturday, Rachel and her girls were here. We had a great time together. We always do. I took Hazel and June on a morning walk up through the hollow and over the hill. We went to look at a sunflower field. We played outdoors when it wasn’t raining and indoors when it was. The girls helped me do the chores every day. We went swimming. The house was full of noise and fun. It was great.
 |
| On a morning walk with June and Hazel. |
 |
| Sunflowers! |
 |
| Swimming and ice cream - thanks Grandma! |
This week school starts, which means visits with the Thayns will be less frequent for a while. Hazel will be in first grade, which means she will be in school all day. And Miriam and I will be on call as substitutes, which means less freedom to do things away or on the spur of the moment. And so the season shifts and summer wanes.
But there is something out on the horizon to look forward to. In November at Thanksgiving, our granddaughter Ellie turns eight and she is going to be baptized out in Utah. She is the first of our grandchildren to be baptized and we are making it a Major Family Event. All of my children and their families are going to be there! We are staying at a big airbnb together. We are having Thanksgiving together. And we are kicking off the Christmas season early with a big family party. It’s going to be wonderful.
Meanwhile, here in our little hamlet of Gold, the season is changing – fast. I can feel the difference in the air. I can see the difference all around me. The world is still mostly green, but it’s starting to look a little old and ragged in places. The tall grasses have turned golden. The goldenrod is blooming – more gold. The asters have started to bloom too. I’ve even seen a few maples taking on some color, but I’m pretending not to notice them yet.
My flower garden still looks good. That’s mostly because I’ve removed anything that doesn’t look good. I get a little brutal and impatient this time of year. I’d rather have an empty spot in the flowerbed than have some half dead plant there. I’ve gathered all the poppy seeds I need for next year and pulled up the last of the poppies. I’ve begun rearranging summer bulbs that have finished for this year, putting them where I want them to grow and bloom next year.
 |
| In the garden. |
My vegetable garden didn’t fare so well this year. Between the weather, the deer, the blight, the Japanese beetles, and the general condition of my soil, it was a disappointment. I did get some good garlic. And there will be a few more zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. We pulled up the onions last week and set them to cure. They were mostly small and not mature, but they were afflicted with something and were shriveling up, so I decided to harvest what we could. Onions are usually one of my most successful crops. Disappointment is often as big a part of gardening as elation. But I see gardening as being as much about the future as it is the present. Planting is an investment in the future. It is an act of hope and faith that something good will result in the future from an action taken now. That’s one of the things I love most about gardening – there’s always next year and another chance to learn from past mistakes, pray for better weather and a bounteous deer hunting season, and try again.
 |
| Pulling up onions. |
 |
| Onions curing on the back porch. |
My head is already full of plans for next year’s gardens even before this year’s is done. And I do get a bit impatient sometimes to get things started for next year. I want to go out and pull everything out of my vegetable garden already and start preparing the soil for 2020. My vegetable garden is covered with a thick layer of straw that I laid down last fall. I thought it would suppress weeds, and it did to some extent. But I realize now that it also insulated the soil and kept it cool for too long. And now the weeds are pushing up through it anyway. So I’m going to rake it away from the raised beds and burn it one day soon when it’s dry enough. I think the nutrients in my soil are seriously depleted. I plan to order a truckload of mushroom soil early in the fall and have it dumped in the garden. I will spread it over the whole garden. Oh the plans! Next year will be better, I can feel it!
On Friday Rachel and I dug up some volunteer potatoes that were growing in various places in the garden. I haven’t planted potatoes on purpose for several years now, but they still come up in the places where I’ve grown them in the past. We also picked a zucchini, a couple of eggplants, and we pulled some carrots. One of the things I love most about summer is eating right from the garden.
 |
| Things from the garden. |
Saturday we went on a little adventure. We’d heard how nice Sinnemahoning State Park is, down in the far southern part of Potter County and into Cameron County, so we decided to drive down and take a look. We packed a little picnic lunch. It is just a forty-five minute drive from here. It is a beautiful park with woodlands, streams, a lake, and a very nice Nature Center. We drove around a bit, and stopped at the lake and ate our picnic lunch. When it was time to leave, Rachel and her girls drove on to their home and we came back home here. We’ve decided we will go camping at that park sometime this fall. There are so many beautiful state parks in Pennsylvania and we’ve hardly been to any of them.
 |
| The lake at Sinnemahoning State Park. |
 |
| Our picnic lunch. |
 |
| Turkey vultures riding a thermal. |
Today started out warm and sunny, but it didn’t last long. The rain came shortly after sunrise. We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm right now. The air is warm and I love the humidity. I had a long day at church – six hours, seven if you count car time there and back. I’m glad to be home and relax and enjoy what remains of my Sabbath.
 |
| Phlox. |
