Wednesday

It’s a home day. A day to home “keep” and “make”. Without going into embarrassing details, let me just say that when I went out to mow the funny-looking, dry, straggly lawn, I ran into difficulty. The kind of frustrating glitches for which my husband got down off his machine in the woods and drove the half hour home to fix. Which thing, I might add, he never does.

Which TLC, I’m happy to say, turned my day around. Now, the lawn is mowed and the sprinkler is sprinkling. I had a visit with a friend who stopped by. I made muffins. Took a bike ride. Folded a huge stack of towels. Washed the sheets. Gathered burdock for bandaging and poppies for the kitchen windowsill.

Who knew that the backs of burdock leaves are beautiful? Burdock is an ugly plant growing in back lots. The seeds are interesting to grandchildren because they’re fun like Velcro to play with. But annoying to mothers who don’t enjoy combing them out of said grandchildren’s hair. Or out of the dog’s coat.

We’ve been using BLs and B&W on Elvs burned foot. We, who had no idea that there was a practical use for the ugly stuff. We, who are not crunchy or weird about doctors and their potions … still aren’t. Yet, here I am, smearing souped- up honey on back-yard leaves for the bedtime bandaging. It goes to show you, once again, that you never know what you’re going to find yourself doing, after all.

I know, you’ve heard all about the poppies and peonies the last few days. But isn’t this so pretty? Olive oil bottles of heavy, green glass that I couldn’t throw away have now been put to use.

I had to kneel down and hold my camera low to get this perspective and yes, I admit that it’s quite misleading. This patch of lupines is all there are… Six or seven little, short stalks. But we make the most of them each year, thusly. Please help me to enjoy them.

Summer days are here. And the established plantings of bush and flower are big and beautiful. Alas, the garden is not. I’ve planted a lot of flower seeds, some of which I hope become established perennials. But it’s a slow start and rather meager looking. And three apple trees. Yesterday, Benny and Jube put up the electric fence. The dog and the deer will stay out. We hope.

I didn’t tell you about missed meds and tears and stinky fish guts and the nasty frog in the window well. Honestly, there’s just enough yuck in life to keep it real around here. Cheers.