Fantasia on Polish Airs

I hear this piece on the radio and I'm thinking -- if Chopin hadn't snatched that name (Fantasia on Polish Airs) for his lovely piano composition, I might have thought it to be a good title for a book. (For example, for my second Great Writing Project.) As it is, I have to come up with something else.

Not that I am deeply immersed in that project. Yet. I still haven't done much to "sell" my first book and, too, I have a summer of three F's -- family, flowers and friends. They take priority right now. Not unusual for summer months!

This week, I seem to be switching a bit to pay a little more attention to friends. I love my good friends to pieces. Truly, I can't imagine life without their presence. But so often they stay at the side as life plunges forward in torrents and rushing streams. So this week, I'm making more of an effort to see the people who mean the world to me. Insofar as I can do it. Too many live too far away!

Early morning breakfast at Paul's cafe, with my good Madison friend.

It's lovely! The weather is once again perfect and we sit out in part shade, part sun and the morning feels so leisurely. Like a vacation!

(At the farmhouse, I have a second breakfast with Ed. On the porch.)

And then, with only one short interruption for a Zoom call that is really more work than pleasure, I spend the entire rest of the day outside watering and weeding. The rain we were to have a few days back fizzled to nothing much at all and so I had to roll out the hose and soak some roots. There are too many new flowers and young plants that still need a sustained weekly dose of water. I can't possibly get to all in one day and so I work one field on one day and another later in the week. And always, always I weed.

(Unie knows how to scare the daylights out of the cats! She gets really close to them and they're sure she's going to attack!)

It seems to me that this year I am spending more time on flower maintenance than in past years. There's a reason for it. Last spring I planted probably several hundred new flowers. They typically start their robust growth the second year. Meaning now. I cannot let them wither and slump! It's their prime moment! So I make sure they are well weeded and that they get their weekly soak.

Yes, I know a more efficient watering job could be done with soaker hoses. It's true. But my fields are too big, too spread out all over farmette lands. And honestly, I do not mind hosing them (in a targeted way of course). I think lovely thoughts, I sing songs in my head, I revel in all that I see around me. It's the closest I get to meditating. 

With love.