The ten day weather forecast on weather.com has changed dramatically in its predictions for next Saturday. I have watched it show sunshine, showers and now -- isolated thunderstorms. You have to wonder why the website even bothers putting anything up for a day that's many weather systems away. Does it ever remain the same for the entire ten day period?
At least this morning was as last night's forecast predicted for us: sunny and warm. Good chicken release weather. (With a spectacular sunrise.)
Good breakfast on the porch weather.
And with a gentle breeze, good outdoor work weather. I methodically work through small tasks (no more big ones -- those are all done for the season), enjoying the summer-like feeling of a garden's abundance.
In fact, I enjoy it so much, that time slips by too quickly and when I ask Ed to go to the downtown Farmer's Market with me, it's already past noon. We're nearing the last few minutes of vendor presence. Just enough time to buy oyster mushrooms, cheese, strawberries and two bunches of the cheapest of cheap flowers -- ones that have staying power: daisies and clover, sold here:
We're back on the porch for a p. b. and j. lunch. It is at once quiet (anyone who uses our country road to get to the lake has gone by already and no one is coming back yet) and noisy (the wind moving in between all our trees is never quiet), in the best of ways. Had I followed the Sorede (south of France) habit of having a glass of rosé for lunch, I would be dozing in the sling back chair by now. But, habits belong to locations and I would no more sip rosé here for lunch than I would eat a croissant for breakfast. Funny how that works.
In the evening I lay down my daffodils stalks. One of the toughest things about mingling daffodils with your perennials is that your perennials are up and running and the daffodils are long gone and yet you're not allowed to cut them back until they turn yellow. I can never hold out that long, but I try! This year they got four weeks of post bloom life. Over the next few days I'll be cutting them back completely. I am SO done with them!
Time to put away the shovel, the clippers, the hose. The buckets of soil, the cartloads of chips. Cheepers, go back to your coop!
They do go back. Eventually.
At least this morning was as last night's forecast predicted for us: sunny and warm. Good chicken release weather. (With a spectacular sunrise.)
Good breakfast on the porch weather.
And with a gentle breeze, good outdoor work weather. I methodically work through small tasks (no more big ones -- those are all done for the season), enjoying the summer-like feeling of a garden's abundance.
In fact, I enjoy it so much, that time slips by too quickly and when I ask Ed to go to the downtown Farmer's Market with me, it's already past noon. We're nearing the last few minutes of vendor presence. Just enough time to buy oyster mushrooms, cheese, strawberries and two bunches of the cheapest of cheap flowers -- ones that have staying power: daisies and clover, sold here:
We're back on the porch for a p. b. and j. lunch. It is at once quiet (anyone who uses our country road to get to the lake has gone by already and no one is coming back yet) and noisy (the wind moving in between all our trees is never quiet), in the best of ways. Had I followed the Sorede (south of France) habit of having a glass of rosé for lunch, I would be dozing in the sling back chair by now. But, habits belong to locations and I would no more sip rosé here for lunch than I would eat a croissant for breakfast. Funny how that works.
In the evening I lay down my daffodils stalks. One of the toughest things about mingling daffodils with your perennials is that your perennials are up and running and the daffodils are long gone and yet you're not allowed to cut them back until they turn yellow. I can never hold out that long, but I try! This year they got four weeks of post bloom life. Over the next few days I'll be cutting them back completely. I am SO done with them!
Time to put away the shovel, the clippers, the hose. The buckets of soil, the cartloads of chips. Cheepers, go back to your coop!
They do go back. Eventually.
