If it's "going to be a hot one" today, then why am I wearing my hoodie this morning? I'll tell you why: waves of storms are coming our way -- not big ones that'll knock your house down, but storms and winds nonetheless. One batch passes, the air gets thick and humid, sweatshirt tossed aside, the next one comes an hour later and I give a small shudder. Out comes the hoodie once more.
Millie, I stayed up too late. A group Zoom call, followed by a period of decompression. Can we push wake up time just a little this morning?
("okay with me...")
We manage to fit in a breakfast on the porch, with fresh rose buds to cheer us on.
... and a yellow jacket to annoy us...
But within minutes, the stormy clouds arrive once again and I retreat to the reading corner with the rest of my coffee and with Millie, ready for a cuddle.
My pup needs a good rest after her very active pup play time yesterday and so I postpone taking her to doggie daycare. While she naps, I search the internet (let's face it -- mostly Amazon) for a cheap but sturdy fence. I am minutely scrutinizing the yard for planting options. September is a fine time to add stuff to your garden if you have the stamina for it. I have never been interested in planting in the fall. Typically I am so done with the whole gardening project by then! But this year I keep finding ways to improve what's out there. And sometimes, I have to find new ways to plant because I will have watched a rose bargaining session on line (every Thursday!) and will have walked away with a real deal on a plant that may be stunningly beautiful, even as I have no idea what I can do with it.
At this moment, I have three roses coming that do not have an obvious home. I dont want to crowd things (roses hate being crowded!), so I'm looking for expansion possibilities. One obvious place would be by the western side of the house, where all the mechanicals are unattractively positioned (think: ugly AC unit). But I need to visually block off the machinery. So I look for a sturdy fence -- under $100. I'll put the roses in front of that. (Less grass to cut!) Next task then: dig up the turf there and find a place to dispose of it. That's tomorrow's project.
In the early afternoon, I take the pup to doggie daycare and one by one, I pick up the kids.
I had this idea that I would take them all to Door Creek Orchard this afternoon. It's an heirloom apple orchard just to the east of Madison and I thought they might enjoy learning more about growing apples. Or, I might enjoy learning more and they'll enjoy picking the fruit. In many ways, u-picks with kids are not for the fussy food types like me, who examines every berry before she snips it off and puts it in a basket. Kids are nicely indiscriminate in their pickings (even though they do then fuss if the fruit isn't as they would like it to be. Still, picking apples is up there with swimming and learning to cross the street with care. It's an activity "of value" in my book.
I cant say that every one of them shares my enthusiasm for the outing. Snowdrop is on board, but Sparrow had a rough day at school and his idea of a decent afternoon would be to lose himself in his tablet. And Sandpiper? Well, I guess I talked too much about today's storms. There are clouds hovering to the west. He's willing to come along, but less willing to get out of the car once there. Storms! -- he explains.
But in the end they all join in on the project of collecting apples in four separate bags. Who knew that they were all McIntosh fans!
Three t-shirts and many, many pounds of apples later and we head back home. And I pick up Millie. From Julie --"She was clingy and tired today. She perked up eventually, but it was a slow start..." I suppose that matches our afternoon as well. One grumpy boy, one scared one going there, three happy kids coming back. On the car ride, Sandpiper, who has very rarely gone on outings with me in my car, asks for music. The big two quickly tell him -- gaga doesn't have playlists. She just sometimes puts on the radio at Christmas time. I dont disavow this. For one thing, I like having conversations with them in the car and for another -- I've heard there are strong feelings expressed when music is payed in their car. I want to avoid that on our rare trips together. The reference to Chirstmas has them thinking about seasona music and they challenge themselves to think of all the Christmas songs they know that haven't Biblical references in them. By the time we pulled up to their home, they are laughing hysterically about a song where the kid wants a hippopotamus for Christmas.
And I was laughing with them.
with so much love...
