High Summer is Perfection

Sitting on the porch just now, at dusk. The "sun garden" (redundant, for a smarter gardener than me, I know) is growing nicely - tomatoes, peppers, two kinds of squash, cucumbers, mustards. Everything is potential right now, the hope of a bountiful harvest. Nothing to do but wait and watch.

The lawn is mowed, and growing more slowly, now that the weather is warmer and we're well into summer. I feel less anxious, less overwhelmed by the rigor of growth.

Caterpillar season, finally, is over. Meaning, we don't have piles of caterpillars everywhere, caterpillars eating the vege foliage, caterpillars in our hair and sometimes, yes, crawling in our pants (ick!).

All is quiet, all in balance. The hard work of spring paying off. The "shade garden" was mostly a failure--everything spindly and sun-starved--but I'm eating what I can. Next year we'll problem-solve, either move the whole thing or let it be. No point in working against nature, setting ourselves up for disappointment.

I see below a typo - "Easter medicine" instead of "Eastern medicine." What would "Easter medicine" be? Something hopeful, I think, something which infuses hope after darkness.

Silence and slowness are settling in. Welcome, welcome, peace of summer.

Back From Vacation, Discombobulated

Just back from the Pacific Northwest, a family trip. J.'s family, that is. Part of the time spent in the city, part of it on a small island. We all (the fam) fantasized about jointly buying island land and building a family "compound" - artist colony, healing retreat center (accupuncture, Easter medicine, etc), marijuana farm (I know, how groovy), organic gardens, the whole ridiculous healthy-hippie-yuppie shabang. There was a simple and wonderful wood-burning-stove-heated sauna and hot tub at the rustic resort where we stayed, which also got our wheels turning.

Straight from the airport to the kennel (well, just about) to pick up the pup, who didn't seem thrilled about his stay. You can just tell. More of a people dog than a dog dog, I guess. That's my doing, I know. They're looking for extra help, business is booming. Hmm... Krista says it's mostly clean-up work, dirty stuff.

The sun garden plants seem to be thriving, the shade garden plants are spindly and sad. The greens are edible, that's what's important I guess. G. and F. the pup (formerly Brownie) came out for a few days, was fun to share the beauty of the place with city friends; hopefully we can do more of that. F. seemed a little confused, like "Where are all the cars?"

On the drive back, a tiny little faun galloped in front of us in the middle of the highway. I breaked hard and prayed; miraculously, I didn't hit it and no one hit me. But then I braced myself to witness the little gal's violent end - this was a six-lane highway, people driving 65-70 mph. Again, miraculously, she weaved her way across, lightning fast and weightless, and galloped into the trees. I'll never forget seeing that.