July 14th

Who plants vegetables from seed in the middle of July? Insanity. Futile venture. Unnecessary work. And yet, here I am, building a cedar wood planter quickly, so that I can put in some seeds today or tomorrow.

You know of course my obsession with perennial flowers. But where do I stand on planting fruits and veggies? I have mixed feelings here. On the one hand, I loved having cherry trees at the farmette, but oftentimes the birds would get to the cherries before we did. The peaches fared better. One pear tree I liked, one I did not. Apples? None were as good as the market ones. Ed's tomatoes have been useful for freezing. I tried carrots. Not good. Radishes? Too dense and too far down the property line. Easily forgotten. Lettuce? Ed's giving it a go, but not a very serious go. He scattered seeds on the old soil in the metal tins. The soil bakes in those and weeds compete with lettuce leaves.

So, mixed feelings.

But in Steffi's Garden I'm giving it a different approach: I planted a few tomatoes in pots (they're tall, abundant, fabulous, though none of the kids have been enthusiastic about picking them fresh off the vine. I planted fraises de bois also in a pot. Small pickings there. And on the porch, I have one of those bushy raspberry plants meant for a large pot. It's growing well, but the berries are... sparse. 

So what's with the cedar planter now? Well, on Independence Day, many businesses lured suckers like me into buying something after slashing prices by 50-70%. And so the cedar planter was pretty inexpensive. Still, really? Whatever for? 

It's because I love the look of sweet peas growing up a trellis. I also do like the taste of them, especially raw in a salad. And here's the thing -- now is the time to sow peas for a second (in my case first) harvest. In addition, I have some basil seeds which, of course, are always welcome.

You could speculate that if my veggie harvest doesn't work out, I can always put flowers into the planter, but I would protest that fiercely. In my mind's eye, cedar planters are for veggies. And I have room for it in the driveway!

Which brings me to the topic of "back yards." Steffi's House is not your typical suburban house. It's a cottage (the developer calls it a Mulberry Cottage"), on a very small parcel of land. (90% of the properties in this development are built in this way.) This suits me just fine as I am running away from lots of land management and especially lawn management. But I also believe in using every piece of that land productively. In the back of the house, I have a driveway and then strips of green grass on both sides of it. I converted one side to be part of Millie's fenced play area, with a planting of rose bushes around the fencing and a perennial patch at the end. The other side of the driveway is long and I've put in perennial beds in different portions of it. Here's where I also planted climbing roses, hoping for a good show of flowers in a year or two. 

I've spent just as much time on these backyard plantings as I have out front. In total, I counted today that I have (thus far) planted about 205 flowering plants in this past month. It's been fabulous to watch this nothing-lawned up piece of land develop into something more than that.

(one of the roses in the "backyard")

I must say, Millie was a very agreeable pooch when I worked on the cedar planter. My neighbor across the alley hired a team of some half dozen men who came with their machinery to do some landscapng work in her "backyard." Much of it is to be covered with pebbles and if you have never heard a truck dump loads of pebbles, let me warn youthat ear plugs are not a ridiculous idea. I suppose the construction noises at Sally's House taught Millie not to mind too much. Still, I was glad to be done with the cedar planter and to go in and close the door to the noise. 

Did I not mention that we had had a lovely early morning breakfast on the porch? 

There will come a time when major projects here, at Steffi's House and Garden will be a thing of the past. That time is rapidly approaching. But then, so is the next season!  

 

My big project for the afternoon is to start leaving Millie alone again. And it seems so easy. If I say, Millie, you want to go for a car ride? -- she runs and hides, usually in her crate. You're asking for it, my girl!  I close her crate door, tell her I'll be back soon and head out, listening for her barks and yelps. Nothing. Silence. This is good!

I take an hour to run errands. To the farmette, more soil needed. To the dump -- cardboard to recycle. Oh! I should stop at K&A on my way -- they having a rose sale!  I come back and cross my fingers, but here I run out of luck. She must have heard me open the garage door because I hear her barking plaintively now. Sweet, sweet pup!

 

 

 

Things are getting tight again: I have grandchild pickup today and tomorrow and I have no less than two social engagements tomorrow. And on Thursday, Millie is scheduled for surgery (spaying). That means she will be housebound for at least ten days. Let's hope she is  more amenable to being left for short periods of time or else I will not be able to breath fresh air for a week!

 

Ed comes over just as I start in on putting in two more roses (that damn K&A sale!). It is toasty hot! The backyard -- Millie's playground  -- is ablaze with sunshine (in most places) -- making it an ideal place for roses, but impossibly hot to work in today. We are hitting 100F/38C this afternoon, and that's a shade reading. And yet Ed offers to help dig. Roses are a big digging project as they need holes substantially larger than their pot. Actually, roses are a big deal project period. You need to watch for pests (beetles!) disease (black spot, yellow leaf drop), for canes running in weird directions. You need to prune, direct, feed (stinky fish emulsion works well, tough Millie loves to lick the stones that get doused with it), and at least initially -- water, just the right amount. Why take on something that requires so much effort? Well, because I can (all that sunshine!) and because roses are one of the rare plants that wont kill your pet. Most everything that I grow in the flower beds is toxic to dogs, and though Millie doesn't devour random plants, she has been known to nibble on stuff out of boredom or to test my patience with her!

Between the two of us, Ed and I get the roses in! And again I drink a gallon of sparkling water and Millie, exhausted from watching us work, slides under the couch and goes to sleep.

 

Very late in the afternoon I pick Snowdrop up from her Shakespeare program. (Twelfth Night in the mornings, R&J in the afternoon.) 

 

 

  

(Sandpiper picks up Snowdrop; he always comes up for a "car treat" - not to be shared with Millie!)

 

It seems so decadent to sit on the couch in a cool (but not cold!) living room and read together. Young kids, those who cant yet get a summer job yet, do not appreciate how great a summer vacation can be. Once work kicks in, that freedom to pick your pleasure disappears. Until retirement (at least in this country of very few vacation days handed to you during your working life). I still feel a guilty pleasure when I sit down in the middle of the day and allow myself an hour with a book. That hasn't happened in recent weeks, but I know that the reading corner is there, waiting for me once I slow down with garden work. A solid rain would help!

with so much love.... 

 

in the heat of the day

I feel like the person who goes to her cardiologist, gets a good reading on some heart performance test, and returns home to a steak and french fries. With mayo. And ice cream for dessert.

My calendar tells me I have an early morning appointment with my skin doc. These days I wouldn't have made it for that hour, on the other side of town no less, but it was booked at another time, when I lived at another address, with another dog, who possibly could have been left at home. Well, no matter. Millie never protests an early wake up. 

Despite the dictates of my schedule, we have a leisurely time on the porch, over breakfast. I feel the heat. She feels the heat. We linger anyway.

And soon after, I drop her off at doggie daycare. My doc is into gardening, so we talk plants while she examines every spot on my body under a magnifying glass. She's exuberant about finding nothing of note, possibly because on my last appointment I had had something of note. But she is a skin person so I feel the need to apologize for my deeply brown arms -- the result of spending so much time outdoors. She suggests more protective clothing. I suggest a good source for buying bubs on line for fall planting. We part friends. 

And then I zip through my list of errands (UPS, Walgreens, boring...) so that I can return to my "steak and fries." Meaning -- I spend the day in the blazing hot sun gardening. 

I move out the incredibly short lived and very non-cottagy lilies put in by the person who lifted out my sod back in May. I move in a lovely combo of yellow and blue -- a double cone flower next to a pincushion. Perennial growers are very particular about what flowers should grace their gardens. I take out some more sod to plant another rose later in the week. I put in some daisies. I mulch bare spots. And I water. Everything.

Inside again, I drink a gallon of water. It's hot out there! 

 

(a million day lilies are in full bloom at the farmette right now; here -- I take what I can get this year!)

 

 

And then I'm back at it, all the way until it's time to get Millie. A very tired Millie. Eat and slide under the couch. Millie, I know exactly how you feel! 

with so much love... 

Sunday dinner

Somehow July is moving along too rapidly. June sped by demonically fast. Intense months have a way of whizzing by and leaving you stunned at the end. What? That was June? I'm still panting! But there's nothing especially intense about my July. I moved, okay, there was that. But everything was in place by the 5th, so how do I explain the feeling of breathlessness now? As you can tell from my posts, it's not as if I am hurrying from one thing to the next. And yet -- it's the 12th already. Ridiculously far into the summer season.

I have to blame my gardening for this. We're moving through the height of summer blooms even as I'm still planting -- something I usually finish up in May. But this year, it all had to square with the fact that I wasn't living in Steffi's place in spring. The gardening bit began late and is not really done yet because I can see pockets of needed adjustment. Too, it's a new garden. This is important. I wouldn't have to water the farmette perennials more than once a week, and then only through a dry spell. Established plants are tough! Here, everything is new and fragile and two days of neglect can cost me! And of course, Millie slows things down significantly. For example, today I watered some and I planted one flower. All within her field of vision. And then we ate breakfast together.

Normally, I'd be digging until everything was in its place. Not so with my sweet pup who insists on being never more than 10 feet away from my side. 

 

So, some garden work today, but only in a few spots. Where is my focus then? Indoors, on cooking and baking. I'm back to making Sunday family dinners and since my daughter is adding a friend tonight, I decided to expand on the usual and bake something summery. My younger girl had made a strawberry slab pie that looked good in the photo, so I picked up several packs of strawberries and set to work. 

 

Millie finished her morning nap and I put aside food preparations to head over to the farmette. For more soil, and to pick up Ed for a Tati's lunch. 

Maybe you're curious about the farmette flower fields? After all, this is their best month -- the time of the maximal lily blooms. How might I describe it now...  Yes, it's overgrown. It's beautiful, but the weeds make it look even denser and some of the flowers are lost in the thicket of plant growth. And of course, I haven't been snipping the spent flowers, so the feeling of a garden going wild is intense.  Here are a few photos:

Oh, and a photo of the two new chickens for good measure:

 

 

 

I dont like to stay long there because the urge to clean it up is so powerful that it hurts. It never was totally neat and tidy, but right now, the plants are huge, the flowers come in waves, then fade, the grasses and prairie blooms fill in the gaps. I tell Ed that he should get a garden person to come in one day and clean it up. His response? I can't tell what's a weed. As long as it's pretty, what's the difference?

At Tati's Millie gets her pup cup, 

 

 

 

Ed and I talk about chicken issues and, too, about the week ahead. Maybe blueberry picking, maybe biking over to McFarland. But of course, it has to be squeezed in on days Millie is at doggie daycare. The girl has to let go of her anxieties soon -- which, I suppose is like telling a snowman not to melt in sunshine. Not his fault, not her fault!

In the evening, the gang is here -- family, friend, dog and all. Steffi's House isn't large, but there's plenty of room for everyone. 

Millie is all over the place. The little kids chase her, Goose chases her, doors open and close -- we are not a subdued household tonight!

 

 

 

But at the end of the day, I have to smile. It was great to fill Steffi's House with people I love.

(pre-dinner)

 

 

(dinner)

 

 

(post-dinner)

 

Such a beautiful evening!

I like quiet, interrupted by periods of intense exuberance. I had both today. 

with so much love... 

far away

A unique feature of this country is that its inhabitants haven't suffered in modern times the horrors of living in a war zone, where every night brings with it the fear of not waking up the next morning, or at the very least losing all that you've built in life -- family, home, work. Beautiful things too. Art. Gardens. As I write here about my intoxicating venture into gardening at Steffi's House, I am well aware that the luxury I enjoy today is something that a person cannot even imagine as being theirs in places like the Ukraine.

When I was putting up art work in my new home, I was very much aware of the source and story behind each piece. And it all fit, and the walls look good to me -- not too overwhelmed (like an over-planted garden!), but not too bare either. But I was missing something over the mantle. Or at least I felt that it would be fabulous if someday I would find a supplement to the one piece that is already there. A still life. 

In my spare moments (usually late into the night), I looked around on the internet to see if something pops out at me. And it did pop out -- paintings bythe Ukrainian  Miroslava Kuchura. I purchased one, wondering how the heck you mail a painting out of Kiev these days!

I texted with Mira today. I sent her a note of what I hope sounded like sympathy and encouragement. She wrote back -- I am currently painting in the mountains... We go on living, often sleepless, heading down to the shelters, never getting enough rest. 

If you cannot imagine conflict of that magnitude in your own life, then dive into the world of those who have to deal with bombs falling on their family homes every day -- it really does make your life, my life seem like one from another planet.

 

And here we are, in the thick of beautiful summer days. I suppose some would call it too hot. I dont see many people out and about in the neighborhood. Every building here has a front porch. Millie and I are always on ours, coming and going, and checking on plants and weather and birds and whatever else catches our interest. People have porch chairs, but they must be for decoration only. Maybe they're uncomfortable. No one ever sits in them. Sidewalks too tend to be empty on a hot day. The ones who do walk are people with dogs and parents with babies in strollers. Millie is learning to accept this as a fact of her new life: people and dogs will pass. They aren't coming to stuff her in a sack and send her down the river.  

(early morning walk: the sun  always throws lovely warm tones on my gardens then...) 

 

 

 

 

(breakfast) 

Before it really does get hot, or hotter, I take Millie to our local dog park. She is cautious once again, but at least she's accepting of the people there. The dogs? She's not sure she wants to run up to a perfectly strange large canine and strike up a conversation. She prefers to stay near me.

I'm mindful of the fact that she does get hot easily so we do one full loop... 

 

 

 

... then return home.

And she naps, and I water the plants out front, all the time scheming on how to get out to plant this evening. 

Well, maybe tomorrow.

A quiet night. A July night. A month of flowers and of peace, for the lucky few.

with so much love... 

It's still about Millie

If Millie were a school girl, I think she'd very much resemble me as a school kid. I was inspired! Sometimes. And I was bored -- other times. And you don't want to know how I dealt with that! I was lively and very much attuned to those around me. I kept my eye on them all -- perhaps even more than on what I should have been studying. Sounds like my pup! Millie gets inspired and then you think she is one whip-smart little pup. Sometimes. She gets bored and then she looks for trouble -- a common little ploy now is for her to go straight to the chair by the window and find something or someone to bark at. A raucous follows. She is indeed lively. Today's zoomies were epic! 

 

 

And yes, her eyes never leave me. Never. I will think she is sleeping and tiptoe to the bathroom and look up to see her standing in the doorway. And of course, if anyone comes here, or near here, she stares them down with an intense eye, until they're gone or out of sight.

But Millie does suffer now once more from separation anxiety and in this way, we are different. I suffered no separation anxiety. I never got homesick at camp, or sleepovers, or spending summers at my grandma's and I liked it when my parents went out and I could hit the TV (which was in their bedroom), not necessarily observing the limits imposed by them on watching sitcoms. But Millie -- she's back in panic mode if I put her in her crate and go out. For any amount of time. That means that today, while she is at doggie daycare, I want to fit in everything that needs to be done that I simply cannot do with her at home.

It's a loaded day.

Millie wanted to start the day super early. I did not. Once she bounced off the bed (at 4:45 a.m.! really Millie??), I put her in her crate by my bed and told her to keep quiet for another hour. And she did.

We ate breakfast, it was lovely, she barked hardly at all. 

(it's peach and berry season!)

And just after 9, I take her to Happy Dogz. And now comes my whirlwind: I go grocery shopping -- it's the first time I set foot in the store since coming home from the June trip. I do some returns at UPS. I give back the internet modem to the management of Sally's House. That's a lot of driving and Millie is not a huge fan of car rides. 

At home, I get out the lawn mower. I cant get it started. I call Ed. He come over. I show him the problem and miraculously, the problem has disappeared. He shrugs and goes home. I mow, thinking -- I ripped out so much sod and still, there's a heck of a lot of mowing to do here! I trim the edges. And then I take care of the plants to the west side of the house. I can put Millie in the yard and work to the east. I can put her on the porch and work out front to the south. But I cannot do anything at the west side because I am out of her field of vision there. This afternoon, I dump some wood chips, I pull some weeds, I put up a very beautiful trellis for a rose bush that wont need it for at least two years. I check all roses for beetles. I water. I mean, the list is long and I do not get through it until late in the afternoon. Lunch at 4. And then I drive to dump more cardboard at the city dump, and swing around to pick up my girl. Sweet sweet Millie. Someday her anxieties will be history! In the meantime, I adjust.

 

Ed comes over in the evening, we order pizza, I make a salad, we watch a show. I have to say, after a day out in the yard, it feels so grand to sit back and think about something other than plants. But tomorrow? Millie and I will be at it again. It's July! The flowering season. Beautiful, even in the small bursts of new plantings that I have  all around Steffi's House..

with so much love... 

housebound

Fridge water error light is on, doggie blanket outside, rain comes, doggie blanket is sopping, pup separation anxiety back and running, rose needs planting but pup anxiety is back and running, beetles are here -- roses are their nirvana, dog across the alley stares at my dog across her invisible fence causing great distress, workers are putting in porch rail next door -- a hair's length away from the window where Millie patrols the world and barks at real or imagined dangers, heatwave coming with ten straight days of intense sunshine...

... what else could go wrong??

A trickle of small insignificant irritating issues. The kind that remind you that it's all good and well  to talk patience and calm, but to practice it when your pinky keeps hitting the shift key AND EVERYTHING STARTS LOOKING LIKE THIS, and all the gritty details of daily living hit you in the face like a cloud of midges -- that's a whole other level of serenity to which only a select few can aspire.

But, the start of the day? Beautiful.

And the beetles have not yet destroyed the roses. Not for want of trying.

 

 

Only I'm still getting up too early and I am decidedly sleepy. Normally, working away outside would shake me into awakeness, even more than a cup of milky coffee would, but I try leaving Millie to her morning nap in her crate, so that I can step out, and it just doesn't work. Same crate, same stuffie, same music, but where once calm prevailed, now I'm getting howling and yapping as only Millie can do. I should check the neighborhood FaceBook page to see if anyone is complaining yet (once someone posted. that a dog on her block sounded like it was in total agony and despair and should she do anything about it... I wanted to suggest -- go help your neighbor by offering to take the dog for a walk, or take over a cherry pie or something!), but thankfully Millie's voice doesn't carry far. It stops with my ears, though honestly, she shatters my hearing well and good with her high pitched cries.

When my pup settles for a nap (me -- inside), I take care of paperwork (more change of addresses -- did you know you can get a new drivers license with your new address without once lifting your butt off the couch?) and then settle down to read in my reading corner and promptly doze off. The one cup of coffee in the morning never really woke me up. I force myself to get up and make a second cup. In another hour I make a third.

A repair person is to come over to look at my fridge. I dont think it's broken and yet I cannot get the water dispenser to work. Ed, too, comes up short from his online search of troubleshooting. I am thinking that they deliberately make water dispensers complicated so that people would come up short on how to adjust them and call a trusted GE repair person to do a house call. 

Does Millie like having a strange man come to the house? She does not, but close to my chest calms her down, so that only a low grumble can be heard. 

The repair person (from a company mysteriously called "Ghost") doesn't even have to pretend to carry in tools. All he needs is that special know-how on what to do when no water comes out of the dispenser on what is almost a brand new fridge. I'm fascinated which buttons he will be pressing. It's all about buttons and screens these days. And indeed -- he presses his smart phone buttons, looking up the secret fridge buttons that give him passageway to steps he has to take. Future repairs I'm sure will be done by some mastermind sitting like the Wizard, directing twenty or even a hundred customers at a time from a comfortable chair elsewhere. Perhaps in Taiwan.

Speaking of foreign places, my tech person was from Russia. I could tell by his accent and the last name. And he knew I was "from a Slavic country." How? well, he has sharp eyes that take in everything. In a nook by the door stands a bookshelf. On it -- family photos. Including this one:

"The woman's head scarf..." -- he tells me. "Slavic." My grandmother's dress-up scarf.  She was so young then! Or at least younger than me (my grandfather, also in the photo, died when she was 70).

 

It's hot outside. Every plant that is in a pot has to be watered every day in weather like this. I try to sneak this in on the porch, I did attend to the tomatoes earlier, but of course, I should also make sure the heat isn't destroying any of the new plantings in the garden. That comprehensive flower care goes on the list for tomorrow, when Millie is in doggie daycare. Everything goes on the list for tomorrow when Millie is in doggie daycare. 

It will be a very full day. 

with so much love... 

 

finding that space for contentment

Suddenly, I have many of them. Spaces where I can think -- wow, it doesn't get much better than this. A chair with a cushion on the porch, amid flowers, with a coffee  and a good book. And a resting pup.

Or, sitting on a bench and watching my dog frolic with joy.

Or, closing a window that actually closes easily, because it hasn't yet been warped by time and the elements of a harsh winter or summer, and looking out through it at birds coming to your yard to feed.  

Or, hearing music you love  gently setting the tone for a calm moment, again with a book, possibly with that milky coffee or fruity tea, by a window so that the outside world seems pretty darn near, within reach. Add to it a piece of a cinnamon roll on a pretty plate -- bliss. 

Millie, too, is finding them: she is more into spirited joy than peaceful contentment, though this morning she finds both.

Oh, I could get used to this!

 

My puppy has a scheduled doggie daycare today. Just a half day, so she can play with her favorite pups. It's a drive, but it's worth it. So much change for her this month, but that playtime, with humans she loves and dogs she trusts has stayed the same. It adds that reassurance that life actually isn't that crazy and chaotic.

While she is there, I'm back in my garden. More wood ships to distribute, and holes to dig for the last plants that will be going in within the week. Three more roses, because it turns out 2026 has become the year of the rose for me  -- floribundas, grandifloras and climbers. They weren't appropriate for the farmette beds which were so full of day lilies, but they sure are here, with all the fencing, the side-of-the-house planting space and importantly -- plenty of sunshine. So, plant, water, transplant, spread wood chips. The usual.

And in the afternoon I pick up Snowdrop, so that we can resume our reading, now in Steffi's House.

(everybody's favorite chair) 

What a beautiful day. So many moments of contentment! I know they can't all be like this, but when the stars align and you find that quiet time to just be, with few props, perhaps a book, perhaps flowers... Really, about as good as it gets.

with so much love... 

a Millie day

Yes, there are still tasks to take care of in the garden (think of this as a constant). And yes, there's always the paperwork that lags behind a move. But Millie has priority today. I want to work through some of the issues she has faced with the move. She's a gentle and sensitive pup and if I ever needed proof of that -- well, I have plenty of it that came with the move.

Her barking at any activity outside (here she is, in position!)...

... you might say is just a puppy thing, perhaps specific to this breed, this dog, this age. Except I don't fully buy that. Millie barks when she doesn't understand who that person (or dog or other living form) is and what their intentions are. At Sally's House, once she understood that construction workers are a fixture and that they will not attack her and pull her limbs out one by one, she ignored them. She dismissed angry dogs, delivery trucks, cars pulling out of driveways with her nose up, as if to say "I cant be bothered with the whole lot of you." I want to get her to that place now, because at the moment, everything that is strange and new can set her off and whereas I do not really mind her barks and songs, I'd rather she learn to hold it in sometime.

Morning walk, morning light...

 

 

We eat breakfast outside...

After a few cuddles, Millie relaxes and keeps an eye on the construction crew next door quietly.

 

 

But then comes the yard and a new set of noises and movements. Again, we cuddle, I let her loose, she is concerned about something, barks, I pick her up, snuggle, let loose. On repeat. But by noon she is visibly more relaxed. We walk over to Tati's coffee shop for lunch with Ed. Typically the cafe is pretty empty in the early afternoon. Not so today. And again she's unsure. All those new people! But, she gets her pup cup and a spot on the couch next to me. Life is good again.

In the late afternoon, I pick up Snowdrop from her summer program and bring her... home. To my home.

This place suits you, I like it  -- she tells me. Indeed it does! 

Sandpiper comes (with dad) to pick her up and he, too, is approving. But of course, kids are easy to please. The younger they are the fewer the judgments. Still, it's great to see everyone with all smiles. And Millie relaxes even more with the little ones here. I can see it in her eyes -- it's just like in my other life, same goofy kids, same belly rubs, same damn brush she uses on me! 

But once you're done with that chair, little guy, it's my turn. There are still some strange noises and movements out there that I need to bark at.

with so much love... 

 

the new delightful normal

 Millie is adjusting. The new routines are awfully much like the old ones. She is finding her place in them.

It's a beautiful day and our spirits are high. Our morning time over breakfast on the porch is grand. My girl is restraining her barks now. Not everyone gets a rousing greeting and in any case, her tail is wagging. She wants to make friends. Me, I'm enjoying a warm beginning to the day, looking over at all that I planted this year. July is a gardener's dream month. It's peak time for blooms. It's hard to take in the fact that we're already one week into the month. 

 

 

 

... Where the potted roses (to be transplanted later) are coming into full bloom.

I get a very welcome message from Ed: he'd been losing a lot chickens to predators. Oh, we've always lost an occasional one to hawks, possum, raccoons. But very rarely. And almost never during the day. But this spring -- three were snatched in broad daylight. Ed has been keeping them under lock to assess the situation and maybe redirect the racoon if indeed it is a raccoon. But yesterday, two things happened -- in the late afternoon, he found a coyote staring into the sheep shed window. And Dance had gone missing for going on 24 hours. He put two and tow together and came up with the obvious -- this animal had been taking chickens, and if non could be caught, she (likely a mom of young ones) could easily go after a cat. There was your answer as to why Dance had not shown up for three meal in a row.

It was a sad ending to the day last night. I'll admit it -- Dance was by far our favorite. The oldest one, named "Dance" by Snowdrop when she was just 3 years old, this cat knew us so well that she could actually have a conversation with us about her needs and desires, about our annoying habits. She loved me, she loved Ed and we loved her right back. In many ways, Dance was to Ed now as Millie is to me. The loss of her was devastating. Plans were hatched -- Ed felt he needed to hire a trapper to go after the coyote who was lurking to find his next feast. We have a half dozen cats at the farmette. Are they all at risk? Along with the chickens?

But in the middle of this night, Dance came back. Without a scratch. We can only guess as to why she was gone for over 24 hours. But hearing this morning about her return, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. You gave us a scare, Dance, you really did!

And Millie rested, and then I took the girl to doggie day care. 

(on the way there...)

 

My big task for today is to say good-bye to Sally's House. (Meaning I have to go over and clean it -- mostly of the mud and debris movers brought into it. Not their fault. There's construction mud everywhere on that block.)

I have positive enough feelings about the place, but at the same time, I always felt it to be transitional housing. Not something I would have ever chosen for a long term home, even ignoring the fact that it was just plain too big, rented to me at a (more or less) affordable rate only because no one in this town starts a lease in February. We're not that kind of a city! And then along comes this renter (me) who wants a short term lease, starting in February. The landlord felt lucky. I felt lucky! It was a good place. And since I managed to keep it spiffy for the time I was there, the clean up was straightforward. 

From there to Steffi's -- to plant the odd plants that have been drying up in pots because I had not the time to put them in. All the plants would benefit from a solid watering and I had the couple of hours to do it today. It's manageable -- setting up Steffi's garden was very challenging, but maintaining it should be just the perfect amount of work for me. 

I'd put up the bird feeder this afternoon and noted that it had had a few visitors already. Finches, sparrows, red tipped blackbirds. They've not used the bird baths yet, but of course, they have plenty of sprinkler water in the area. The house next to mine had turf rolled out around it this weekend and sprinklers are set to spray water at regular intervals. 

 

 

Ed comes over to deal with my mechanical frustrations: the thermostat needs adjustments and the online literature on the little gizmo is voluminous and totally incomprehensible to me. We work on that together and then I am back to planting. and watering. I like the way the garden is developing. I'm trying hard to create a cottage look, but without over-planting. Most of the the flower fields at the farmette are over-planted. It's not that the initial planting was excessive, though some would argue with me there I suppose, but the issue comes up over the years when I do maintenance work, prioritizing weeding and snipping lilies. I could not get to dividing and even discarding some of the lilies. Too much to  do elsewhere. When I drove over to pick up some more compost soil today, I took a moment to inspect the more prominent fields.

(the Big Bed)

 

They have the potential to still look great this year, but it really is too dense in there. Beautiful, but definitely overgrown. And a bit too weedy.

 

I bring Millie home in the late afternoon. There is so much that delights her here. The yard of course, The porch as well. The fact that I no longer gate off the upstairs and doors stay open to all rooms. (Before, she had access to the upstairs only at night and only to one room.) And of course, she loves watching the world go by. Not sure I share her passion for selectively yapping at dogs or people outside, but she cant possibly disturb anyone here, and if this brings her pleasure occasionally -- so be it. I'm sure I have foibles that possibly irritate her (brushing heads the list!) and yet she puts up with it. 

With each day, she is more tuned into the new routines (which do mimic the old routines after all). And so am I. And we are happy.

with so much love... 

  

new beginnings...

Understanding what you need or want out of your days is a process. When I was an adolescent, I thought that if I had the attention, the love of my boyfriend, I would need nothing more. Happiness would be mine. (And in the few weeks we were "together," my cup was indeed full, running over in fact.) And then you learn that it's all not that simple. You tweak things. Proceeding by trial and error mostly. There are things you think are important, yet they prove to be unattainable. You try something new. You indulge some fantasies. Reject others. Money is a problem. Health can be a problem. Sometimes you wish you hadn't gone there. Sometimes you know you shouldn't have gone there. But  sometimes the pieces actually fit!  

I think about all this because I really feel now like I did as a 16 year old who had her first encounter with reciprocal love. Or, what I thought was love. Giddy with delight. And now here I am at 73, again feeling so damn lucky to be where I am right now: with the kids, grandkids. Ed. Millie. Friends (life is never perfect -- I do wish they were physically closer). Retirement. A home that has everything I could possibly need -- at the top of the list? A quiet neighborhood (except for Millie's barking last night, but she had an excuse!), a cottage with an open floor plan with lots of windows. A small garden for me to manage and love. A wee fenced yard where Millie can let loose and have her zoomies. A neat, clean, pile-free interior with everything in its place. And a porch. This porch, where we have our first breakfast together. 

Now about last night: traumatized earlier by two angry dogs, Millie never quite recovered in the evening. The fireworks and firecrackers were constant. All evening long. Pops, booms, bangs. She is not phobic about fireworks (I know many dogs are), but it was just too much, and the new place was beyond her comprehension,  She sat on the chair by the window (who said it's my reading corner? It's our shared reading corner!) and alternated between barking and looking wildly at everything that fluttered or twinkled outside, until we went to bed upstairs, where she finally settled down.

She did sleep well and so did I. First time for a long time. And in the morning she was tentative, but certainly better than last night. Once I put up the gate by the porch stairs outside, she had the freedom to roam there and she loved that. No one was out so early in the morning and she just took at the world at her own pace.

Afterwards, we went inside and I put up artwork. Millie appropriated her best seat ever.

 

 

The downstairs is now finished! I thought she was due for a morning nap so I crated the girl and stepped out to do some yard work. Millie had gotten over her separation anxiety and I'd been able to leave her easily for even three hours without a wince or yelp. Not today. The minute I was out of eyesight, the howling began. I tried a return and a re-exit. Nope. Still howling. Obviously she needs to work up to it again. Not today though. Let's get her used to the new home first. 

I took her to the back yard and sat with her there. She loves the outdoors and she sniffed and played and finally settled under the bench. If I stepped outside the fence area, she'd yelp. If someone went by, she yapped. But slowly she yelped and yapped less. I'd come in and out of her fenced yard and it was okay. For short spells. I planted three plants and watered a corner of the yard and she was fine. An occasional woof, but easily settled. We are making progress!

 

At around noon, Ed came over to help me build a small daybed for the upstairs playroom. Millie had been calming down but the emergence of two huge boxes (with bed parts) unnerved her all over again. She had an accident, even though I'd just taken her out. I can see it in her alert eyes -- when will this drama end?? Soon, dear one. Soon.

 

Once the bed is built,  the three of us walk over to Tati's for lunch. Familiar stuff at last for the old girl!  

I have to wonder what she is thinking: how is it that we walk back, the same (for the most part)  two blocks, but at the end of the walk, we are not what I understood to be our home??

 

Ed leaves then and I go back to hanging up art. Most of it has hung on one wall or another through many moves. They're all favorites, from a lifetime of not having the money for it, but loving nonetheless the idea of joyful art on the wall. Three of my nephew's paintings now are in place. A piece from an Ocean friend. A poster from this year's trip to St Paul de Vance. A painting I picked up in the village of Giverny from the years I used to stay there overnight on repeat. A print of Chopin's house. A very bright painting from the artist who lived next door when I spent three weeks in Pierrerue in the south of France. A small painting from my apartment years in Warsaw. A print of a piece that accompanied my article for the NYTimes. And so on. 

Steffi's House is done. Sure, it's an ongoing project -- how you live in it, how you tend to the flowers and care for the birds that come and visit -- it doesn't stop with the last nail pounded into the wall. But it's all a new chapter for me. The pieces fit into one complex canvas and again I have this blissful feeling that at this moment, I'm in a very special place. 

 

 

 

with so much love...