It’s
been a while since I did one of these, so I thought I see what pleasant
disturbances are in the environment at the moment.
First,
we have a visitor. Actually two visitors. Our youngest, Andrew, fly in
yesterday afternoon from Florida, and last night his girlfriend Jessica flew in
from North Carolina, despite the best efforts of Delta Airlines to keep her
flights from happening. They’re in for a few days, Jessica to meet Andrew’s
family, Andrew’s family to meet Jessica. I’ve been making notes to remind me of
all the old Andrew stories to tell her.
My
reading has become somewhat eclectic – Seamus Heaney’s poetry, Out
of a Far Country by Angela Yuan and Christopher Yuan, You
Are a Writer by Jeff Goins, some short stories, more poetry, and The
Anthologist by Nicholson Baker. No pattern here as far as I can see.
The
writing, well, the writing is still painful. I’m slowly going through notes
from the editor and publisher, revising the manuscript of A Light Shining, and then will rewrite it. Completely. It’s means a
publication delay but there’s no getting around it. Enough said.
I
haven’t done much biking lately, not with the temperature breaking 100 degrees
for so many days. It was 103 when I got home yesterday at 6 p.m. I’m hearing of
105 for Friday, maybe a break into the 90s on the weekend. I’ve been watering
the yard and gardens like a fool. We have a voluntary “don’t water your grass
and gardens” situation in our little suburb, but the suburbs all around us don’t
have one.
I
had to choose – be green and sustainable and let our grass and all that new landscaping we put in this
spring die or turn on the faucets. All the neighbors look around to see
what everyone else is doing, and then we all sneak out in the dark early
morning and turn the sprinklers on.
Yesterday
morning as I rounded the corn of the house to turn the back sprinkler on, I
spotted a small black something in the grass. It was a black field mouse, a
very dead black field mouse. I don’t like
mice, even dead ones. After turning the sprinkler on, I kept going round
the house to turn the front sprinkler on. Then I went inside, got a plastic
sandwich bag to dispose of the dead critter, and went back to the scene of the
death. The mouse was gone. Puzzled, I walked back toward the door, and saw the
neighbor’s cat sitting our front porch, looking very satisfied.
At
least it wasn’t a coyote. I haven’t seen the coyotes lately which live in our
area, so they may have moved on. Which may explain the chipmunk invasion. I’m
still trying to figure out what’s been digging in the garden – three places in
the back gardens – just enough digging to dislodge the mulch, but not anything
deeper than that. Probably the chipmunks.
We
also haven’t seen many squirrels lately. We love the neighbor’s cat.
Because
of a project at work I’m involved in, I’ve been paying attention to our yard’s
bee population. Bees love the perennial Monarda, and our Monarda became a kind
of garden kudzu this year. I’ve seen four kinds of bees buzzing around – big bumblebees,
small bumblebees, honey bees, and leafcutter bees, so small they look like
gnats. (Did you know that most bees – like 70 percent of them – live in the
ground? But I digress.)
And
it wouldn’t be a pleasantly disturbed Thursday or Friday with some photos of
the grandson.s I’m so glad you asked.
At
two months old, Caden weighed in at 16 pounds. We call him Michelin Man.
And
here’s a shot of Cameron eating Rice Krispies – and it’s the only real way to
eat them – with the spoon used for stirring Rice Krispies Treats.
Photographs by Stephanie Young. Used
with Cameron and Caden’s permission.
5 comments:
The neighbors on either side of us have cats and they are great at keeping the rodents down!
We had multiple fox dens around the area and for a long time they ruled the roost. But they've moved on, and now the squirrels and rabbits are everywhere.
Hope you get a break from the heat soon. We're experiencing D.C.'s typical summer-swamp-and-sweat scenario. The only way to enjoy it in indoors with the AC cranking. I continue to be grateful that I don't live in Maryland where it's reported today that the infamous utility has decided the way to deal with power outages is to chop up 50-year-old cherry trees in the subdivision it failed to restore to power for at least a week.
May Andrew's girlfriend's stay be memorable!
Loved reading about your recent comings and goings and, of course, I adore the photos of the grandkids. Michelin Man, indeed! They are both so darling.
Try to stay cool in this heat and may you get much needed rain soon!
Blessings!
keep cool :-)
Enjoyed your disturbedness ....
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