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| Morning on the First of July. |
The first of July! And right on cue the garden responded. When I took my morning stroll this morning, I found the first of the opium poppies (papaver somniferum) has opened. The Iceland poppies are almost done now, but the somniferums have just started. July is almost as wonderful a month as June. It’s usually a little wilder than June. It’s warmer (I hope – but more on that in a moment). In July the garden and the weeds kick into high gear. Things will quickly achieve jungle status if I don’t take care – the dill has already. The lettuce will bolt – it has already started. The vining vegetables, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and beans, will go crazy and swallow up everything around them. I love the riotous growth that comes in July.
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| The first somniferum poppy of summer. |
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| Larkspur. |
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| Dew drenched dill in the vegetable garden. |
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| The back porch stairs. |
We had a close call last week in the final days of June. On Monday night when I went down to close the barn it seemed pretty chilly. The sky was clear and the stars were starting to come out. I thought for one second that it seemed a bit too cold and maybe I should cover things in the garden. But then I thought, No, it’s the end of June. We won’t get frost. When I went out on Tuesday morning, it was 34°! Wondering if the temperature had dropped lower during the night, I ran to the garden to inspect for frost. Happily, there was none. Just two degrees lower and we would have had a garden disaster. I couldn’t have done anything to prevent frost damage anyway. The plants are all too big to cover now. A frost scare at the end of June is unacceptable! The weather warmed up after that. Please! no frost until October!
Last week while I was weeding flowerbeds, my glasses fell out of my shirt pocket and are lost. I looked everywhere for them – every place I’d been weeding, in the compost pile where I dumped bucketfuls of weeds. Miriam looked for them. Stacey looked for them. No one found them. I went online and ordered a new pair. I have an old pair of glasses that are missing an ear piece. That’s what I had to wear until the new glasses arrived. It was miserable. It made reading and working on the computer difficult because I had to tilt my head to the right and back to keep the glasses from falling off my face. The new glasses arrived on Saturday and I’m glad.
We took a quick trip down state this weekend to visit the Thayns. We left home on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and arrived at their home in Jeannette at 5:30. We had dinner and then took a walk around their yard. One of the main reasons for us going down was so I could help them identify some of the trees and plants on their property and to give Rachel some ideas about what to do with her yard. Then on Saturday morning we got to work. We (Tabor and Miriam mostly) removed a tree by the house. We (Rachel and Stacey mostly) worked at eradicating a lot of the poison ivy on the property. They have a lot of poison ivy, some of the vines were huge and have made their way high up into the trees. They will be fighting poison ivy for a long time. And Tabor is especially sensitive to it. After lunch, Rachel, Miriam, and I went over to the Frick Museum to see an exhibition of Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, and other Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. I love to see great art up close and in person. After we got back from the museum we ate an early dinner and headed home. We arrived home just at dark. It was a quick, but fun and productive trip. The Thayns will be coming up here to visit later this month.
Last week while I was weeding flowerbeds, my glasses fell out of my shirt pocket and are lost. I looked everywhere for them – every place I’d been weeding, in the compost pile where I dumped bucketfuls of weeds. Miriam looked for them. Stacey looked for them. No one found them. I went online and ordered a new pair. I have an old pair of glasses that are missing an ear piece. That’s what I had to wear until the new glasses arrived. It was miserable. It made reading and working on the computer difficult because I had to tilt my head to the right and back to keep the glasses from falling off my face. The new glasses arrived on Saturday and I’m glad.
We took a quick trip down state this weekend to visit the Thayns. We left home on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and arrived at their home in Jeannette at 5:30. We had dinner and then took a walk around their yard. One of the main reasons for us going down was so I could help them identify some of the trees and plants on their property and to give Rachel some ideas about what to do with her yard. Then on Saturday morning we got to work. We (Tabor and Miriam mostly) removed a tree by the house. We (Rachel and Stacey mostly) worked at eradicating a lot of the poison ivy on the property. They have a lot of poison ivy, some of the vines were huge and have made their way high up into the trees. They will be fighting poison ivy for a long time. And Tabor is especially sensitive to it. After lunch, Rachel, Miriam, and I went over to the Frick Museum to see an exhibition of Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, and other Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. I love to see great art up close and in person. After we got back from the museum we ate an early dinner and headed home. We arrived home just at dark. It was a quick, but fun and productive trip. The Thayns will be coming up here to visit later this month.
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| On the Thayn's front porch. |
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| The tree at porch corner before removal. |
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| Tabor taking down the tree. |
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| The tree gone. |
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| Hazel taking a break from the heat on the slip and slide. |
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| At the Frick Museum. |
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| Miriam and Henri Rousseau. |
The weather at the end of the week turned warm, even hot. Up here in the Allegany Highlands the temperature rose into the high 80's. Down state it was in the 90's. After the chilly weather earlier in the week, the heat felt good, although the down state heat was a bit too much. I’m not use to heat like that anymore. Thankfully, the Thayns have air conditioning. It doesn’t get hot enough often enough at our house to require air conditioning. An open window and a fan are enough.
As we drove home yesterday, winding our way across the state, I was impressed by the beauty of this country. We passed through farmland and towns and tiny villages. We saw their ball diamonds and parks, their yards with their mowed lawns and flower gardens. Everywhere we saw the Stars and Stripes flying and houses decorated with red, white, and blue bunting. We passed celebrations in progress with people gathered at picnic tables and around grills and campfires. And as we passed through it all I thought about my love for this country. We live in an age when many of the people have grown complacent about freedom. Their understanding of the Constitution is weak. They’ve forgotten the fundamentals, if they ever even knew them to begin with. We live in a time when much of our history is being erased and rewritten in an effort to change the people and the nation. We are told that the ideas of the Founders are outdated and the Founders themselves are immoral hypocrites. And so, many of our inalienable and God-given rights are being eroded away. Our society is collapsing in a quagmire of relativism where there are no absolute truths or even human rights, where there is no right or wrong and virtue is seen as an old and even oppressive concept. The Founders had much to say on this and what they said is as true now as it was two hundred and forty-two years ago.
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” – Benjamin Franklin
“No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and . . . . their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what is wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice . . . . These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” – John Adams
“Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government,”and “Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people.” – George Washington
“To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical [imaginary] idea.” – James Madison
I hope that there is still some measure of goodness and virtue in our nation. Driving through those towns and villages decorated with flags and decked in bunting, I found myself hoping fervently that it was not all just for hollow show, that many of the people out there still love liberty.
It is hot today and I love it. It feels the way July should. We’re home from church and we’ve eaten lunch. I’m headed down to the barn to do the chores and then I plan to take a short summer nap. Sultry Sunday afternoons were made for napping. Then in the evening when it starts to cool, we’re going next door to the Shillig’s house for a Sabbath Soiree.
I hope you all will have a festive Independence Day and celebrate our great and free Republic.
God bless America!
As we drove home yesterday, winding our way across the state, I was impressed by the beauty of this country. We passed through farmland and towns and tiny villages. We saw their ball diamonds and parks, their yards with their mowed lawns and flower gardens. Everywhere we saw the Stars and Stripes flying and houses decorated with red, white, and blue bunting. We passed celebrations in progress with people gathered at picnic tables and around grills and campfires. And as we passed through it all I thought about my love for this country. We live in an age when many of the people have grown complacent about freedom. Their understanding of the Constitution is weak. They’ve forgotten the fundamentals, if they ever even knew them to begin with. We live in a time when much of our history is being erased and rewritten in an effort to change the people and the nation. We are told that the ideas of the Founders are outdated and the Founders themselves are immoral hypocrites. And so, many of our inalienable and God-given rights are being eroded away. Our society is collapsing in a quagmire of relativism where there are no absolute truths or even human rights, where there is no right or wrong and virtue is seen as an old and even oppressive concept. The Founders had much to say on this and what they said is as true now as it was two hundred and forty-two years ago.
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” – Benjamin Franklin
“No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and . . . . their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what is wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice . . . . These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” – John Adams
“Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government,”and “Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people.” – George Washington
“To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical [imaginary] idea.” – James Madison
I hope that there is still some measure of goodness and virtue in our nation. Driving through those towns and villages decorated with flags and decked in bunting, I found myself hoping fervently that it was not all just for hollow show, that many of the people out there still love liberty.
It is hot today and I love it. It feels the way July should. We’re home from church and we’ve eaten lunch. I’m headed down to the barn to do the chores and then I plan to take a short summer nap. Sultry Sunday afternoons were made for napping. Then in the evening when it starts to cool, we’re going next door to the Shillig’s house for a Sabbath Soiree.
I hope you all will have a festive Independence Day and celebrate our great and free Republic.
God bless America!
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| Early morning on the First of July. |
