It was a quiet week. The days were mostly rainy, so I spent a lot of time indoors. Too much time. I wanted so much to be outdoors working. When the rain let up I went out to find the garden in a state of great neglect. In my absence the weeds had won the battle and taken over large areas of garden, the grass had grown long enough to clog up my grass catcher which meant that I’d need to resort to raking up the clippings, the squash vines had become so heavy they toppled their trellis and were sprawling in all directions, and the tomato cages had fallen over. I was dismayed. I like to keep some semblance of order in my garden. Finally on Thursday the sky was clear and I went out to try and reclaim some territory.
First I attacked the tomatoes. They were almost dead anyway. I picked all the fruit I could, whether it was red or even a tiny bit pink. The red fruit I turned into a gallon of tomato sauce. The unripe fruit went onto the back porch to ripen. The vines I pulled up and consigned to the compost. I pulled up their mulch, took down their trellises, and left no trace of their existence. It’s early in the season to have lost the tomatoes already.
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| Where the tomatoes used to be. |
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| Tomatoes set to ripen on the back porch. |
From the tomatoes, I moved next to the weeds. My attack was two pronged. In the wide open spaces, I brought out the heavy artillery – the weed whacker – and cut them to the ground. In the places where they had invaded among desirable plants, I used a fork or my fingers. I’ve always found weeding to be therapeutic. Tearing out unwanted weeds, deciding which plants will die and which will live, makes me feel like I actually have power to control what goes on in this patch of earth I claim. It’s just an illusion, I know, but I enjoy it.
My giant pumpkins are growing gigantic. A couple of them must weigh well over a hundred pounds now – and they’re still growing. I’m also growing my usual small pumpkins, the ones we actually eat, and they are coming along nicely too. I planted a type of butternut squash that’s supposed to be “baby” sized, but they’re pretty big for babies.
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| One of my hundred pound pumpkins. |
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| One of the small eating pumpkins. |
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| Big "baby" butternut squash. |
Out in the flower garden, despite the bare patches, there are some nice flowers. I always pick a favorite of each kind each week – my favorite marigold, my favorite sunflower, my favorite dahlia. My Rose-of-Sharon bush is blooming now and I love its blue flowers. I have a large patch of garlic chives out under the grape arbor that is in flower now. I planted it to use in cooking, but I love their white flower clusters – and so do the bees.
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| My favorite marigold this week. |
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| My favorite sunflower. |
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| My favorite dahlia. |
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| My blue Rose-of-Sharon. |
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| My garlic chives. |
Thursday afternoon I had a reprieve from waging war against nature. We took a little trip up north. Miriam bought a car and we drove up to East Bloomfield, New York, to buy it. So now we have another champagne colored Subaru parked in the driveway. From there we drove over to Palmyra and went to the temple. The drive through New York State was lovely. Western New York is so beautiful, especially at the height of summer when everything is green. And the temple was peaceful and uplifting.
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| Miriam's new car. |
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| The temple in the evening. |
A cricket has taken up residence in our house. It moves around from room to room. Sometimes it’s under the refrigerator in the kitchen. Sometimes it’s under the bookcase in the living room. Once it even spent the night under the dresser in our bedroom. I don’t mind it. In fact, I like it. I know some people don’t, though. My neighbor down the road can’t abide a cricket in her house and she hunts them down and dispatches them. I can understand that. They are noisy. And persistent. I like their noise. In Charles Dickens’ Christmas story A Cricket On The Hearth, the cricket is like a little guardian angel that watches over the Peerybingle house. The chapters of the story are divided into Chirp the First, Chirp the Second, and so on. In China and Japan, a cricket in the house is supposed to bring good luck. In Japan they even keep pet crickets. I might have to catch this little cricket and put him outdoors soon, however. He’s chirping to attract a mate and all the other crickets are outside, so he’ll never find one unless I intervene.
Last week I wrote about finding a monarch butterfly chrysalis and two caterpillars. Well this week the caterpillars have multiplied. They seem to like the milkweed that grows along the path down to the barn. Hannah and I went hunting for them the other day and found nine of them in varying sizes. The chrysalis, meanwhile, is still hanging on the back porch.
Saturday was a beautiful day. I continued to work in the garden all day and got a lot done. Hannah spent most of the day power washing the house. She loves to do that. The house looks so clean now with all the dust and moss and algae washed off. It was nice to be outside in such perfect weather. The whole day was perfect. I went out to watch the moon rise and the night was perfect too.
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| Hannah power washing the house. |
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| Moonrise Saturday night. |
Today my Sunday School lesson was on the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, two of my favorite Bible books. I think of all the books in my Bible, they are the two most underlined. I love the wisdom of the Proverbs. And Ecclesiastes is so beautifully written. As part of my lesson, I played Pete Seeger’s song Turn, Turn, Turn performed by the Byrds. That might be the first time that song was ever played in a Sunday School lesson in our branch, but it’s a good song and the words come right from Ecclesiastes chapter three.
Now we’re home. It’s a quiet afternoon. There isn’t much going on besides lunch and a nap to follow. I love summer Sabbath afternoons. There is a sort of timeless tranquility in them. They feel Millennial to me. Good Sabbath to you.
