With a Brief Peek of Sun, Learning Something New, Home

1. Day after day of mist and drizzle, but I don't mind it one bit. The grass is thick and long. I make a point to remember it this way for the hot, dry months ahead when it will turn brittle and brown.
2. Of the five on our committee, only one knows how to use Skype and he's the "younger" guy. We joke and kid one another about our technologically challenged capabilities. Eventually we get my daughter and her husband on the screen and it's very exciting and why haven't I done this sooner?!
3. In a moment of sentimentality, I grab my CD of Italian music for the drive. My hands and eyes are maneuvering the car, but my mind is far away in memories of my mother, young and tanned and strong, cooking in the kitchen. It was summer, the doors and windows were open, and she always sang in the kitchen. She didn't just hum or sing softly, she sang a performance for herself. We happened to be the lucky beneficiaries.





Louis Prima was one of my Dad's favorites. It's hard to sit still for this one. Tess has danced it with my mom...in the kitchen. : )

Rock Climbing, Gray Skies, Comfort Food

1. I'm thrilled when I check my daughters' blogs and see they've posted new entries. Because we are far apart, our blogs help us keep up with day to day activities. Today I opened this one. My daughter caught Marian doing this in search of candy:

 2. The rain came as promised, watering in all the new plants I put in yesterday. It felt like a true day of rest with the dim light and hushed sounds of rain.
3. An old-fashioned meal of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, etc. New recipes are fun, but the tried and true meals from our childhood are pure comfort.

Planting Ajuga, The Field is Ready, Anything Made With Pizza Dough is Good

Ajuga from Hanover Farms in Richmond. They specialize in ground covers. I bought five flats which were enough to plant under four trees.

Nice, moist cow compost on my knees!

Spacing for Ajuga is 6-9". I went with 9" since I know they spread heartily.

Baby Ajugas set out and ready to plant.

1. My gardening motto this year is "Simplify". To facilitate easier mowing, I'm planting ground cover under all the trees. Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow' will form a beautiful carpet where it's planted. I'll return to these photos at the end of summer to see how they're filling in.
1.a. I think of gardening as play. I can crawl around on the ground, get dirty, lie on the grass and gaze at the sky, and not care what I look like (unless someone is snapping my photo).
1.b. Gardening is also work. But Steve helps me and it's an opportunity to work on something together. He hauled the topsoil and manure home and helped me dig out more sod.
1.c. Gardening is a creative outlet. It's about dreaming up ideas and turning them into reality. It never becomes dull because a garden is ever changing.
2. Audrey works in the horse pasture, tightening the fence, scrubbing out the water troughs and generally getting things ready for horses to return next week. The elderly Cahoon brothers stop their truck and chat with her for a minute. Other neighbors wave and beep as they drive by.
3. A satisfying dinner of Stromboli. Click here for recipe.

Where Were You around 6 a.m.?, First Harvests, A Quick Visit

1. Reading Lynn's blog, I discover she and I were both outside listening to the birds sing to the setting full moon at the same time this morning!
2. I love the satisfaction of harvesting something fresh from the garden, then carrying it only a few steps into the kitchen for our meal. Tonight the garden yielded fresh asparagus for our dinner and rhubarb for our dessert of strawberry rhubarb pie. (The tiny ingredient that transforms this pie from wonderful to spectacular is a little bit of orange zest in the filling.)
3. Walking across the field to the neighbors' carrying a warm pie wrapped in a dish towel. I baked two pies, one to keep and one to share. Eating one made me very happy and giving one, the same. : )

I Love My Morning Commute

I enjoy seeing this old truck tucked in the shed each time I go by. I also like how the farmer plows right up to the edges and all around the shed.

This beautiful property is at the stop sign where I turn.

An old structure from a bygone era. I want to open the door, hear a bell jingle, pull a green glass bottle of 7-up out of a chest freezer and use a bottle opener to snap off the cap. I'm glad they keep the building in such good repair.

Dealing With It, Clearing the Air, Altering the Course

1. A table full of third grade girls screams in high-pitched squeals because a tiny spider is hanging down near them. I'm charging past on a different mission and can't stop to properly deal with it, so I clap the spider in my hands as I breeze by. (I surprise myself because I would never do this at home- kill a spider with my bare hands. Adrenaline will do crazy stuff.) The stunned silence that follows is comical. The girls stare at me with wide eyes and open mouths like I am some kind of monster. Suddenly, new squeals break out. Squeals of grossed out, third grade girls. I can't win.
2. After dinner, just as we are leaving the house, a heavy rain storm begins. The purple and gray clouds are low and menacing. Several miles down the road, the sky lightens and an vivid rainbow arches to my left.
3. We're supposed to be doing a book study, but we end up chatting instead. We're good at that sort of thing, bending and altering to meet our current needs...or whims.

Save or Delete?, A New Look, Click, Click, Click, Ding!

1. It's emotionally exhausting for me to delete my text messages. Some are too sentimental to delete, so I go through them one by one and delete only those that are dispensable. Consequently, I see the sender's name, who are mainly my loved ones, and the opening line. Some are funny, some are serious, all are important. I am too obsessively compulsive to ever just delete the whole kit-and-caboodle. By the end of the ordeal I've read a creative combination of opening lines:

 "It's packed real No hurry That's up top you Hi Lee OK I was with 3 I'm stuck in the Channel 13 ??? What do you Not yet I start We can see the On our way I love you a lot..."

2. She cut Marian's hair and gave her some little bangs. She looks like a different little girl now, still and always adorable.
3. From behind a closed door in another room comes the sound of typing... on a typewriter! It's a pleasant, old-fashioned sound.