September 27, 2009

 

We go on without you…    

We remember the good times….

The wise and wonderful things you taught us…

But it isn’t the same. 

    We miss you swell, Dad.

Life in the Country…Monday

Life in the Country…Branding

Another lovely weekend in paradise. The rain held off until I’d painted the porches…

Some time after midnight it poured and I’m afraid there may be a price to pay. Little bubbles had formed beneath the new paint along the edges of the porch. Oh, well…live and learn. Painting’s good exercise for the brain. You can do a good bit of thinking while the brush moves back and forth, back and forth.

I’d just finished putting the rockers back in place when the Moonshiner showed up bearing a white plastic sack full of food from his granddaughter’s birthday party.

“There’s cake in there, too,” he said, nodding at the bag. “All she wanted was a John Deere tractor cake.” He beamed, ever the proud grandpa.

“Which birthday is this?” I asked.

“Second.”

Precocious child. Already knows her tractor brands.

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Slipping Seasons

  Maggie and I do like our morning walks. 

   She’ll let me have a cup of coffee, but then we’re off- striding across the fields, exploring.

This weekend it was evident Summer is on the wane.  The grass is crisp and crunches beneath our feet. The tops of the trees are already beginning to glow red and orange.

   The deer must’ve gotten the memo about Bow Season starting up Oct. 3rd, because they are nowhere to be found.  The Moonshiner says that’s on account of the big cat I caught on the trail cam back in May.  He says its got all the deer scared. 

Whatever. 

Change is coming, that’s for sure.

But the trellis and the Big Ugly aren’t about to give up the ghost…

 

More Unidentified Growing Objects…

 

  Okay, I know what these are. They’re growing beautifully in a pot alongside the cabin’s front door.

 

  But no one knows what the next two plants are. There aren’t any more in the holler.  The old folks took them into town and asked more folks and even the neighbor’s 95 year old woman couldn’t identify these.

 

 

  Or this vine clambering up over the old gate.  Glenn next door just scratched his head and allowed as how “It’s gotta be in the morning glory family cause of its leaves but I don’t know.” The seed pods look like milkweed pods but it’s a vine.

 

  Anybody out there know?

See How They Grow…and Grow…

  In one week the gourds doubled, maybe tripled in size.

They’re everywhere…popping up and out.

  I had to reinforce the trellis, just so the whole thing wouldn’t collapse under their weight.

   I couldn’t resist adding dragonfly twinkle lights.

  It’s been a good summer for gourds and zinnias.

 

    It gets harder and harder to leave this place…

They’re Everywhere!

 

At a distance, she appears like a goddess in a long, green prom gown, about to step out, arms outstretched, sleepwalking away from summer’s waning days.

But oh, to see her up close!

  Dropping down from the top rails, huge green leaves waving overhead like fans carried to shelter the sultan’s mid-day walk.  Little gourds dropping in along the sides of the trellis like little green alien children playing on monkey bars.

  They hide, the bigger boys, behind clumps of leaves, hunkered down and growing fat.

  

Happy, happy gourds, finally warm enough to spread their wings and fly across the trellis…

 

I had to add extra tree limbs to support the heavy growing vines as they tossed tendrils across the top span and began working their way toward the west-facing side of the structure. 

It was a full moon the night the little gourds began sprouting and I envisioned them stretching out their flappy tendrils, waving at the big giant gourd overhead, saying “Hey, look down here! Look at us! We’re just like you!”

I bet those gourds think they’re going to one day grow so large and round, they’ll just float off to join the moon.

No wonder they’re so happy in the Big Ugly!

Way Up Yonder…Life in the Country

 

Up Yonder

 

Up here, when the neighbors come calling, it looks like this…

   Margie and Patrick caught me sitting in the middle of the field, staring at a plant I could’ve sworn was Angel Trumpet, which it was…but it’s more commonly known as Jimson Weed and is deadly poisonous.

 

 

  If I hadn’t found it on a Google search, I know my friend, Beth, could’ve told me all about it.  She’s good that way…and her pictures are a lot better, too.

 

  I stood up behind the old home place this morning, looking down toward the Lil Sister Cabin and beyond that, my cabin, thinking I could feel Fall nibbling around the edges of late Summer.  The grass is drying up. Some leaves are falling, their tips brown and crisp from days on end of heat. 

 

 

The burn pile’s waiting on the late September rains that always come, bringing with them the cooler weather that heralds another Autumn.

Twiggy Trellis

 

  Remember this- my Spring trellis experiment?

                        I was so proud…carefully planted young moonflower and morning glory sprouts, just sure the trellis would be the highlight of The Big Ugly.

                                                 I waited.  And waited.  Finally a few sprigs twined their way around the bottom of the corner posts.

       Weeks went by.  Months later, a large leafed vine wound it’s way up one side, but there were no flowers, still.  The first week of August and nothing.

   

I left for a week-long vacation at the beach and returned to find this….

 

    But the sweet white, evening blooming flowers weren’t large enough or fragrant like moonflowers.  This week I finally figured it out…the gourds I’d given up on and tossed carelessly into the yard had found a new home.

 

     There are gourds everywhere.  Hanging from the top of the trellis, sneaking up along the sides. Gourds deciding better late than never, climb like kids gone wild at recess, reaching for the sky before fall’s inevitable frost.

Rainy Days and Mondays…

 

  I like rainy days.  The washed-clean colors, sweet-smell of  grass clinging close to the ground.

 

  Raindrops denting the pond, watering the fish…

  

    Long walks with Maggie.

   This morning’s rainy stroll a perfect way to say goodbye to the weekend and turn back to the workaday world that makes my home possible…

 

Truth Will Out

 

Sometimes the truth can be well, over-rated.  Take this weekend for example…

Last night both boys spent the night with a friend- an all-night video fest.  So this leaves me home alone.  Not a problem- I’m alone here all the time.  Of course, with three yappy dogs, I’m never truly alone.

But two of the dogs are small and other one is ancient and just about deaf.  So, at 12:42 a.m, when back door glass shatters- the deaf dog snores on and the two little ones dive behind me, trembling. 

It’s only me. 

The phone is down the hallway in another room and  I hear footsteps crossing the terrazzo tile floor.  In about five seconds, whoever it is will be standing in the bedroom doorway.

  Now- isn’t that interesting?

Of course it is. It’s much more interesting than me telling you the truth.  The truth is- I spent the weekend trying to organize my IPod and staring at a blank computer screen. 

When the writing doesn’t come easy- I can always find a chore that needs my urgent attention- like cleaning out the IPod.  Before I “fixed” it, I had enough music to last a week on a deserted island.  But I had four of each song and chapters from audio books popped up in random playlists. So about the third time Patty Griffin sang “Rain,” Bill Bryson would interrupt her and tell me how the Universe was created.  

I had to do something about the situation or else spend the upcoming week driving long distances on busy highways with Led Zeppelin one moment and the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the next. 

That’s how come no fiction got written this weekend. I had chores to do.  Honest.

It’s All A Blur…

It’s all over too quickly. Babies to boys to men.

  But this new phase, this Man phase…it’s pretty cool. 

Life in the Country- Here Kitty, Kitty…

  Look who wandered in front of the deer camera this past week.  He/She’s not very clear.  When I play around with it in my photo-editing programs, I think its coat is more bobcat-ish.

  In the meantime, the land is green, the cabins a beautiful white and the roses are blooming.  Even the Big Ugly is beginning to show signs of life.