A Week By Days

Full moon rising over Gold.

I'm taking a slightly different approach to the Journal this week. I usually work on it during the week and then edit it, combine a lot of it, and summarize some of it before I send it out on Sunday. This week, instead of that, I decided to leave it in its day to day structure. So here is last week a day at a time.

Monday

This was a perfect spring morning. It started out a bit chilly, but after the sun rose it quickly warmed up. When I went out, the dawn chorus of the birds was tremendous. I couldn't help myself, I had to join in the singing. I sang a song I learned in Primary many, many years ago:

In the leafy treetops,
the birds sing "Good morning."
They're first to see the sun.
They must tell everyone.
In the leafy treetops,
the birds sing "Good morning."

In my pretty garden,
the flowers are nodding.
"How do you do?" they say.
"How do you do today?"
In my pretty garden,
the flowers are nodding.

The funny thing about that song is that when I first learned it, probably around the age of three or four, I thought the second verse said "In my pretty garden, the flowers are naughty." I didn't know just how flowers could be naughty, but I knew that a boy could be. Naughty is an interesting word. It comes from the same Old English root word that gives us "naught" meaning "nothing," but also has the connotation of being bad, disobedient, and mischievous, as well as sexually promiscuous. That's a pretty broad spectrum of meaning and, although I might have been sometimes disobedient and mischievous as a boy, none of the rest applied to me or to flowers as far as I knew.

That brings to mind another song, actually a hymn, that I misheard as a child. I thought for many years that the hymn How Firm a Foundation had us saying "yoohoo" unto Jesus. 

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!

What more can he say than to you he hath said,

You who unto Jesus, you who unto Jesus,

You who unto Jesus for refuge hath fled.

I imagined giving Him a friendly wave as I sang. I suppose others might have thought that too and that's why in the 1980 edition of the hymnal they changed the words.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!

What more can he say than to you he hath said,

Who unto the Savior, who unto the Savior,

Who unto the Savior for refuge hath fled.

I'm actually pretty good at mishearing the words to songs, especially pop and rock songs where the singer's diction is garbled to begin with. I was famous in high school for my misinterpretation of Elton John's song Bennie and the Jets. I won't go into details here.

My first task this morning was pricking out more plants. I had snapdragons, basil, and celery that were all too crowded in their trays. Pricking out is fiddly work. I had to be so careful lifting the fragile plants and teasing apart their roots and putting them in bigger pots. There were casualties, but I expect that and always plant more than I need.

I looked at the forecast and saw that the rest of the week was supposed to be rainy, so I spent the rest of the day in the garden. The forecast showed no sign of cold weather coming in the next seven days, so I felt emboldened. In a fit of perhaps foolhardy optimism that we might finally be done with frost, I planted my dahlia tubers. They are tender and easily damaged by frost. I was probably rash. We'll see. After that, I potted up summer bulbs – peacock glads, crocosmia, and cannas. Then I went out to the big garden and weeded the onion and raspberry beds. It's been a glorious day – warm, bright sun, soft breeze, the air scented with apple blossom. I wish it would go on for longer, but days like this always seem to end sooner than usual.

The newly planted dahlia row.

Sarah and Tosh left to go out of town this afternoon. They'll be back on Thursday. We are watching their dog, Maverick. That means Maverick and I are going to be the only ones here all day for the next few days. We've established a sort of schedule, an agreement that we follow. I take him out to do his business and run around several times during the day. He naps the rest of the time. That's the deal. He likes Stacey more than he does me. She feeds him before she leaves for work in the morning and again at dinnertime. She plays tug of war with him. At night, he sleeps in his bed on her side of the room. For me he mostly naps the day away and I like it that way.

Maverick napping.

Tuesday

It's raining this morning, but that's good, for the garden anyway. It's a gentle rain and the plants love it. Maverick does not. When we go out, he does his business and wants to come right back inside, no romping. That's fine because I don't want to be out in the rain either. The only thing I did outdoors, beside the morning chores at the barn, was to set out my seed trays and summer potted plants on the back porch stairs. It is so mild and wet, I'm sure they'll be safe. I need to get them hardened off for planting out at the end of the month. That done, I spent the rest of the morning idling around, trying to occupy myself. I went upstairs and watched my episode of Gardeners' World. Then I went to the woodshed thinking maybe I would attempt to tidy it up, but realized immediately that wouldn't work. When I clean the woodshed, I always empty its contents out into the front yard, sort through everything, throw away the junk, and then reassemble it all. I can't do that with the rain. So I came back in the house and contemplated what to do. I sat and did some family history, but didn't have any success at finding what I was looking for, so I gave up after an hour. I tried reading my book, but couldn't get into it. I tried listening to a podcast, but zoned out after just fifteen minutes. I went back upstairs and scanned through TV channels looking for something interesting. Miriam is still in Arizona. I miss her. She's good at finding things to watch. I'm not. I am bored.

The back porch stairs.

Bored, boring,  boredom – it's an interesting word. We use it to describe things that are tiresome or dull, but that's a pretty recent usage, only beginning about the 1770s. What word did they use before then? Maybe they didn't have time to be bored. A person who is boring is a bore. The state of being bored is boredom. The etymologists think it might come from the idea of boring as in "slowly drilling a hole," but that doesn't seem like an obvious association to me. The French use the word ennui, which we also use in English, especially when we want our boredom to seem sophisticated. In Japanese, boredom is taikutsu (退屈), tai meaning to withdraw and kutsu meaning to submit. Apparently to the Japanese, tedium is something you submit to. The Germans, with their penchant for compounding words, say that things that are boring are langweilig, from lange meaning long and weile meaning while. Things that take a long while are boring. Like rainy Tuesdays. That little language adventure just used up an hour of this interminable day.

The rain let up for a moment so I just took a quick walk around the compound. I walked through the orchard over to the big garden. The air was sweet with the smell of lilacs and apple blossoms. There was a pair of turkey vultures sitting atop a tree over by the farm house. They flew away as I approached. The rhododendron at the farmhouse is in full bloom. I walked back through the meadow. By then it was raining again and I hurried indoors.

Walking through the orchard.

Lilacs.

Vultures in the treetop.

Garlic and onions looking good.

The rest of the day was uneventful, just the usual stuff – dinner, some TV time, let the dog out, let the dog out again, and again. Bedtime.

Wednesday

It's a gray and drizzly morning. Stacey and Hannah have left for work. I've taken Maverick out twice and he's napping now. I've read through the news headlines. I listened to my daily piece of music from Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day. Today's selection was one I'd never heard before, a piece by Fanny Mendelssohn from her Six Melodies, op. 5, No. 3 in E flat major: Andante soave. It is a lovely piano piece. I've long loved the music of Felix Mendelssohn, but never paid much attention to his older sister Fanny (1805-1847). She was a gifted pianist and composer, but in keeping with the attitudes of her time, her family had reservations about her pursuing a musical career. Like her brother Felix, she was a prodigy. At the age of fourteen she could play all twenty-four preludes and fugues from Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier from memory. She married and had a child and died of a stroke at the age of forty-one. Some of her compositions were published under her brother's name. She wrote over four hundred and fifty pieces of music – mostly lieder (art songs) and piano works, but also a piano trio, piano quartet, and an orchestral overture. This being a rainy day, and me being bored, I set off on a musical excursion into the works of Fanny Mendelssohn. Thank goodness for YouTube. It was a delightful way to while away a gray morning.

Fanny Mendelssohn, drawn by her husband, artist Wilhelm Hensel.

In the afternoon, after I finished the chores, it was only drizzling lightly, so I took a quick walk around the garden. I call these short excursions "appreciation walks." As I walk, I remind myself that not long ago this was a dormant landscape, leafless trees, brown grass, no flowers, sometimes recently even covered in snow. And I remind myself that this present beauty is fleeting. Already the apple trees are shedding blossom petals. The slightest breeze sends them in flurries across the orchard. So many of the early spring flowers are gone. The late spring flowers are having their moment of glory. The early summer flowers, are growing, stretching, forming buds that will open before too long. It all moves so quickly. The prophet Isaiah's words come to my mind. I learned these words in a musical setting when I sang in a choir a long time ago:

All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (40:6-8)

This feeling of the impermanence, the transience of the world is very Japanese. They have a term for it, mono no aware 物の哀れ, that conjures a feeling of wistfulness at the ephemeral nature of life. That's why they love cherry blossoms and autumn leaves so much, they are things that are appreciated because their brevity makes them even more beautiful.

Lily-of-the-Valley in bloom in the woodland garden.

Thursday

Maverick was up early this morning. He woke me at 5:00 wanting to go out. It was already getting light. The birds were already singing. Walking around the front yard, I noticed a patch of feathers on the lawn where some small bird had met its fate, most likely the breakfast of the Cooper's Hawk I've seen stalking the bird feeders some mornings. Maverick finished and we went back inside, but I didn't go back to bed. I showered and dressed and embraced the day. After morning scripture and prayers, I went out again and picked a bouquet of lilacs. They are at their best right now. I love to bring their beauty and fragrance into the house.

The remains of a hawk's breakfast.

A bouquet of lilacs.

By the time I was ready to start working this morning, it was beginning to rain and I was in despair. I had things that had to be done, raining or not. On Saturday we are going to the Amish livestock auction in North Bingham, hoping to get some piglets. On the chance that we'll be successful, I needed to finish getting the pigpen ready. I knew the weather on Friday was going to be bad, so I needed to do it today. The fence has been up for several weeks, but I needed to put up the feed bin and the waterer and make a shelter. I should have done all that back during the warm dry days we had last week, but I was too busy working in the garden. I knew the feed bin and waterer wouldn't be too difficult, I had them, I just needed to set them up. I didn't know yet what materials I could cobble together for the shelter. I waited a bit, hoping the rain would stop, and around 9:30, it did. I went out to get to work. I checked the barn and found some sheet metal and a panel of corrugated plastic that I thought might work for the shelter. But I determined right away that all of it was a two man job and I didn't have a second man. So I moved on to other jobs until Stacey got home later in the afternoon.

The rain never returned and the day turned out to be better than I anticipated. It was warm and calm with a sky filled with fluffy cumulus clouds and bright sunshine. I worked on pulling weeds for an hour. By then, the grass was dry and I was able to mow the lawn. 

Bluebells along the woodland garden path.

We had a lot of family traveling. On Tuesday Kale and her children arrived next door. Hannah left this afternoon to fly to Arizona for the weekend. This Tuesday she and Miriam are flying home. Sarah and Tosh are driving back from Toledo. They will arrive sometime later this evening. Tomorrow Stacey's sister Roxann will be flying back from Hawaii to her home in Arizona where Miriam has been housesitting for her. Sarah and Tosh are leaving again for a few days. So many people on the road and in the air – I'm not going anywhere, and I'm glad.

When Stacey got home, she helped me with the pigpen. Using the odds and ends that we found in the barn and a bit of ingenuity, we managed to get a shelter almost finished. It was good enough for the time being. The Fosters arrived at 7:30 and took Maverick home. 

Working on the pigpen.

Friday

When I got up this morning, the sky was interesting. I could tell there was weather coming. I dressed and hurried out on my morning walk. I no sooner came back in when I heard thunder. In a matter of minutes a storm blew in – dark, dark sky, thunder, lighting, pouring rain. A very dramatic start to the day.

Friday morning walk: the lower beaver pond.

Friday morning walk: looking east over Gold.

Friday morning walk: the lilac bush at the farm house.

Friday morning walk: the big garden.

We only have one car since Hannah's car is parked at the Buffalo Airport right now and I had errands to do, so I drove Stacey to work. I came home again and had some time before I needed to leave, so I worked on this week's Sunday School lesson. Our third Sunday of the month Sunday School teacher isn't going to be able to teach this Sunday and I decided to sub for her. I spent several hours yesterday and this morning studying the lesson. I was the Gospel Doctrine teacher for eighteen years in the branch, from 2000 to 2018. I made it through the four year cycle of Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants four times during those years. It was my favorite calling ever. I was released when the "Come Follow Me" curriculum began. My teaching style is different from the "Come Follow Me" format, so I didn't mind. I'm focusing this lesson on the gifts of the Spirit as contained in Doctrine and Covenants 46, 1 Corinthians 12, and Moroni 10. It's a very interesting and important topic. I hope the lesson goes well.

At 9:30 I set out on my errands. The storm was over by then. No more thunder and lightning, just a little light rain. First I did a trash run. Then I went to Wellsville to Runnings to buy feed and other items. I dropped off books at the library. On my way back, I stopped by the Amish auction house in North Bingham to check on the time for tomorrow's auction.  It's at noon and there may or may not be piglets for sale. As long as I was in North Bingham, I drove up to the cemetery to visit my ancestors' graves. All of my maternal Howe people are buried there. It is a very pretty cemetery set on a hill right on the Pennsylvania/New York state line. Lastly, I went to the Amish bulk food store up on Fox Hill to do some shopping. The drive along the backroads was beautiful. By then the sun was shining. The dominant color along the roads, aside from green, is yellow. There are fields of dandelions in bloom. For some reason local farmers have started growing rape. Last year was the first time I ever saw it planted here. This year there is more and it is just starting to bloom with its electric yellow flowers. Then it was home again. All of that took me until noon.

The Howe end of the North Bingham Cemetery.

The old part of the North Bingham Cemetery.

Fields of rape in Ulysses Township.

The rest of the day turned out to be gorgeous. It was 80° with a nice breeze. I worked in the garden weeding most of the afternoon. At 3:00 FedEx dropped off a package, an order of 100 strawberry plants. My first order of 100 came at the beginning of April and it wasn't enough to fill the new bed. So I ordered 100 more  and it took them this long to get here. I planted them right away. I hope they grow quickly and give us berries this year.

Tomorrow is Stacey's birthday, but the celebration began today. Before she got home from work today, Sarah and Tosh arrived to install her big birthday present. Stacey is always going on about how she'd like a television in the kitchen. She and Miriam and Hannah spend a lot of time in there and she always thought a TV in there would be nice. For her birthday present, all the children pitched in and bought one and Sarah and Tosh mounted it on the wall at the end of kitchen. It can be stored flat against the wall around the corner and pulled out so it can be seen in the work area. When I went to pick Stacey up from work, they hadn't finished installing it, so I created a delay by taking her out to the Amish feed store to buy scratch. When we got home, she could hear music from Pride and Prejudice playing in the kitchen and Tosh standing there looking funny. She went to see what was going on and was flabbergasted when she turned and saw the TV. Sarah videoed her reaction.

The birthday celebration continued at Shillig's. We had our first dinner on the Shillig's back porch complete with birthday cake and presents.

Birthday dinner on the Shillig's back porch.

Happy birthday Stacey!

Saturday

Today was Stacey's real birthday. It was overcast this morning. It looked like rain was coming at any moment, but it held off.  We took it easy all morning. At 11:30 Sarah and Tosh arrived and we hooked up the trailer to our car and headed to the Amish auction. We'd only ever been to their big auctions and this wasn't one of those, so we didn't know what to expect. There were no piglets, in fact there were no animals at all. There was produce and plants. Stacey loves auctions. I'm too nervous to get into bidding, but she loves it. Sarah had never been to an auction before and it turns out she is like her mother. They both went crazy bidding on items. Tosh and I just sat back and watched. An hour and a half in, Tosh and I left to check out a lead on some piglets. We drove up on Collins Hill to the Amish farm where we got piglets last year. He told us that no one he knows of has any available right now, but he has two Duroc sows that will deliver in two weeks and the piglets will be for sale in six weeks. We reserved three of them. Next we drove over to Loucks Mills road to a farm there on the off chance they had piglets. They said no, and the only one they knew of with pregnant sows was the farm we'd just been to. So it looks like that's where our piglets will come from. We'll get a late start, but it's better than no start at all. By the time Tosh and I got back to the auction, it was winding down, but Stacey and Sarah were still bidding on things and had quite a pile of items they'd already bought. They had produce – a cabbage, lettuces, some pineapples, tomatoes, and peppers. They bought flats of plants – broccoli, marigolds, petunias, verbena, some hanging baskets, trays of herbs, coleus, and other things. We could hardly fit all of it and ourselves into the car. They were all nice things and the prices were good because Stacey, and it turns out Sarah, are savvy bidders. We went to Foster's and unloaded their things and then came home and unloaded ours. By then it was raining hard.

At the Amish auction.

Sarah the auction animal.

The car packed with plants and produce.

This evening we had nothing much to do, just getting ready for the Sabbath. When we finished, we just settled in for the evening like the two old codgers we are fast becoming.

Sunday

So we come to Sunday at last. It's a gloomy day. It's been sprinkling off and on all day. We are home from church now. Our meetings were good. My lesson went well. We had a good discussion. Stacey is making lunch. Our friend Nancy brought us some asparagus, so that's on the menu. I don't know what else. It's one of those Sabbaths where it seems the best thing to do with the day, after church, and after lunch, is to take a long nap. That's my plan. I took a look at the coming week. Miriam and Hannah will be home on Tuesday. I have a doctor's appointment and a haircut appointment on Thursday. The Thayns are coming up to spend Memorial Day weekend with us on Thursday or Friday. 

After mild weather all week last week, it looks like tomorrow we will have a setback. NOAA says the temperature tomorrow night will drop to near freezing and they've issued a frost warning. WeatherBug says it will dip to 39°. AccuWeather says 35°. I'm hoping and praying that NOAA is the one that's wrong. The warm, wet weather last week has advanced the growth in the garden and the orchard to its most vulnerable state. I'll be bringing all the seed trays and potted plants on the the back porch stairs back inside the porch. I'll be covering the lilies again. And I'll be praying my most fervent protection prayers for the apple blossoms and all the other plants. The rest of the week looks rainy. I think April postponed its showers to May which is making May's flowers a bit soggy – if they don't freeze first.

One of my amaryllises blooming right now.

Good Sabbath!