still hot, still dry

If I keep on watering, maybe it will rain. Last time I lugged many cans of water to the meadow we had an unexpected shower. Perhaps if I do the same for the back beds (where the hose wont reach), maybe we'll get lucky with rain tonight. There is that tantalizing possibility! 

And so early on, before the heat sets in, I water and Ed plants potatoes. A funny thing about those potatoes: I had about a half dozen leftover from my autumnal CSA: in the end they'd started to sprout (I really do not use potatoes much in my cooking) and so I tossed them into the compost. Within a couple of months, we had beautiful potato plants growing. They needed a better home than our compost pile and so today Ed transferred them to our tomato patch. And by the way, let me give you an update on those tomatoes. Here they are:

A fabulous year for them thus far. Spraying them with habanero peppers seems to have kept the deer and groundhogs away. Might we finally have a bumper crop? It's been several years since we beat the pests, animals and weather demons.

So long as we're touting potential success stories, I noticed that our cherry tree is producing as well!

Peaches, too, are heavy on the peach tree limb. So it's not all bad out there in the hot gardens of the farmette!

 

 

 

But breakfast is definitely inside. Too hot and too loud on the porch. The trucks are leveling the land to the east of us, preparing it for community gardens (we think). We retreat to the quiet of our farmhouse.

(During my garden work, I always have the company of the animals.)

 

(Cherry, the youngest girl)

(Peach, the oldest girl)

 

I do take a pause with watering and weeding in the afternoon to go over to my daughter's house, just to check in with any child that is available for a quick hello and, too for a chat with their mom. It's too easy to stick with the minutia of daily life and forget about more leisurely exchanges.

(A few moments with the kids...)

(Mommy sings, Sandpiper sings...)

(Well, it was a good first effort...)

 

I leave them all in this new configuration...

In the evening I suggest to Ed that we do take-out for dinner. It's been many weeks since we had one. And so we are back to tossing around ideas as to what constitutes a take-out worth driving for. Oh, I remember those times from before the pandemic! Should we go out? Should we pick something up and bring it home? I haven't missed those ridiculously indulgent discussions. When you just stick with daily cooking, you plan your menu, buy your foods and you cook. No discussion, no dilemmas. Tonight, we toss around many unsatisfactory ideas and in the end, I make a frittata. Returning to normal habits is proving to be quite hard!