Hello on a beautiful sunny summer morning. The dew is laying on the grass and I have already had my walk to the post box and back. I have been doing that first thing in the morning while my knees are the most cooperative. It's an easy walk and quiet. Not much to hear. The birds quiet down this time of the year. Nesting season is over. You still hear them, but they are much more subdued than they are earlier in the season. It is hard to believe that summer is more than half over and that in just a few weeks the children will be going back to school. Each night I pray that my grandchildren will really enjoy these last weeks of their summer holidays happily and safely. I hope that they are.
I can remember always being more than ready to go back to school at the end of August, much of the novelty of summer having been worn off. We were not a family that did holidays away perse . . . so, generally speaking, things had gotten quite boring come mid August.
Our next door neighbors in Gimli had a station wagon and the back windows were covered with destination decals. Decals showcasing all of the places they had visited on vacations, with the ultimate vacation being Disneyland. I can remember gazing at them all and wondering what it must be like to go to places like that. Dad was a no-nonsense kind of a driver. When we went anywhere, there was no stopping along the way to view the world's largest ball of string or anything like that. It was pedal to the medal all the way. The only stops were for gasoline. End of.
That was also the only opportunity we girls had to use the loo. A bottle was kept in the car for our brother, but that wasn't practical for us girls. We had to hold it. Not that we really went anywhere. We did not. There might have been the odd day we went into Winnipeg, and I can remember going to Winnipeg Beach once. I got a bleeding nose on the bumper cars and bled all over my pretty yellow dress, but they gave us free tickets for other rides so I felt good about that.
We did go and stay with one of our parents friends for a few days once. The dad's went out camping and hunting. The women folk and children stayed back at the house. I remember they had a vegetable garden and she made Perfection Salad which we all enjoyed. (Veggies in jello! Bring it on!) A bear tried to get into the bedroom I was sleeping in and I caused a great ruckus and kind of spoilt the holiday/getaway. I was afraid to sleep in the bedroom after that. It was thought that I was making it up, but I saw what I saw, and there had been bears in their garden recently. There was a box of Muffets cereal on the dresser in that room and I think the bear was after that. In any case, that was our one and only holiday. And I had to go and spoil it. I know . . .
It wasn't much better when I grew up and got married. I married the same kind of man. Pedal to the medal. His last words to the children every time we got into the car were "Seatbelts on, mouths shut." Eileen still says that when we get into the car.
Mind you, I understand the impracticalities of taking holidays when you have a growing family. There usually isn't a lot of money for extras like that. Just making sure we had enough to get them new shoes for school took most of our budget, not to mention school supplies.
I don't expect our family was much different than many others.
Ohh, this photograph reminded me this morning of the time I discovered the plum tree orchard on the Manor grounds when I worked there. I had no idea it even existed. It was as if I had found a great treasure. The family I worked for were away at the time. There was all sorts on the Manor Estate that I was never told about that I could have used. A garden loaded with raspberry bushes, fig trees, medlar trees, the plum trees. Anyways, I discovered the plums and picked quite a few to use in jams and cakes, etc. They were beautiful plums, almost to the point of being overripe.
They were a real treasure to me.
This is an actually photo I took of the plums that I discovered. You can see the fruit just hanging from the trees. What a shame it was that they did not use it. I did and made some lovely things with it. The boss was not fond of plums I guess.
What I wouldn't give to have a motherlode of plums like that now!
Eileen and I had a fairly quiet day yesterday. She spent a good part of the day sleeping off the anesthesia. My cleaners were here late morning, so she was up for that. I made her her favorite raisin bread toast with peanut butter and a cup of milky tea. After the cleaners left she went back to bed for a while and I got some work done. Then I made us supper. It wasn't really much. Just chicken, scalloped potatoes and green beans. We finished off some blueberry cake for dessert which we enjoyed with a bit of ice cream. We watched a movie on Netflix. (The Last House)
She wasn't up for doing any Diamond art yesterday. We were both in bed by nine. Today she will be busier as she has a CSS visit and then we will be doing our usual Wednesday night supper with Dad and I will take her back to her apartment after that. She will be back here on Saturday.
She is recovering quite well from the D&C. No heavy bleeding or anything so that's good. I hope and pray it continues.
Weeding is a delightful occupation, especially after summer rain, when the roots come up clear and clean. One gets to know how many and various are the ways of weeds -- as many almost as the moods of human creatures. How easy and pleasant to pull up are the soft annuals like Chickweed and Groundsel, and how one looks with respect at deep-rooted things like Docks, that make one go and fetch a spade.
~Gertrude Jekyll, from Wood and Garden, 1899
I have to confess that I have never seen having to weed the garden as a delightful occupation. But, then again, I would never have considered myself to be a gardener of any sort. As much as I love to enjoy the beauty of them, and the bounty they bring to the table, I am no gardener. Not by any stretch. I greatly admire anyone whose talents stretch to those of being a gardener. We have had vegetable gardens through the years when the children were growing up, but not much more than that. Our gardens at our home in the U.K. were quite lovely, but that was not down to me or any of my efforts.
I can see now where some of the birdseed has sprouted in the mulch in the front garden and I will need to get out there and pluck it out. I wouldn't have thought that it would grow in such an inhospitable environment but that is the tenacity of nature I guess!
And bright and silvery the willows sleep
Over the shady verge -- no mad winds tease
Their hoary heads; but quietly they weep
Their sprinkling leaves -- half fountains and half trees;
There lilies be -- fairer than all these,
A solitary Swan her breast of snow
Launches against the wave that seems to freeze
Into a chaste reflection, still below
Twin shadow of herself wherever she may go.
~Thomas Hood, The Two Swans (a fairy tale)
Swans were quite a common sight over in the U.K. Most parks had them, and waterways. All the swans in the U.K. are the property of the Queen/King and protected. They were quite beautiful to watch, but really they can be quite nasty birds if provoked. I only ever enjoyed watching them from afar, being a bit too afraid to get very close. They are quite large you know!
Summer is perfect now.
The wheat says so, when in the dawn it drips with half-an-hour's rain and gleams like copper under the fresh, dim sky; it cries aloud the same when it crackles in the midday sun, and the golden sea of it washes murmurously to the feet of the hills.
In the hedges and fields the agrimony wand and mullein staves, the climbing vetch, the cushioned bird's-foot lotus, the myriads of ragwort and sow thistle, are golden too.
The meadowsweet and honeysuckle flowers and the wild carrot seeds give out sweet scents, but not so strong as not to be drowned, when the wind blows, by a thousand lesser scents from field and wood and farmyard.
Wood pigeons coo in the high-shaded storeys of the beeches and in the wet willow copses where bushes and herbage have grown so dense that hardly a bird's-nester or a lover would care to penetrate them. In the dark wood alleys, all day long, hang insects whose wings seem to be still in their swiftness, like golden lamps.
The gardens have amber lilies, fuchsia trees, phloxes, poppies, hollyhocks, carnations, snap-dragons, rockets and red flax rising above rose of Sharon and lemon-scented balm and yellow stone-crop, where the tortoise-shell butterflies worship with opening wings.
And on the garden walls the purple plums ooze and heave in the sun with yellow wasps that give a touch of horror to the excellent and abounding life of perfect summer.
~Edward Thomas, The Heart of England, 1906
How blessed am I to have experienced all that Mr. Thomas writes about above. Perfect summer. We used to walk with Jess, long walks down through the orchards surrounding our cottage along the public footpath. It took us past the orchards and next to the local gold course. You could walk all the way through to the next village. The wild plants would be coming to their ends this time of year, going to seed, the hedgerows filled with ripening hips and haws and buckthorn. Silent now from the birdsong which made them seem alive just weeks before . . . now only quietly interrupted now and then by the light movements beneath of rabbit and shrew, or fieldmouse going about their ways.
The air was hot and humming with the sound of insects . . . a high pitched drone . . . the occasional snap of a branch cracking in the heat. Cracking too, the acorns beneath our feet, somewhat uncomfortable to walk on in many ways. But they were pleasant walks.
I miss being able to walk like that.
I haven't much else to say this morning. I need to wake up Eileen. She will be going out this morning. I am not sure what time, but it is best she be up and about and readying herself just in case it is more sooner than later.
A thought to carry with you . . .
☾ ° ★° * 。
• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★★ 。* 。° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★*Every artist
was first an amateur.
~Ralph Waldo Emmerson
In The English Kitchen today,
Easy Blueberry Streusel Cake. A small batch cake that makes only four, moist and delicious berry studded portions. Enjoy!
I hope that you have a lovely day today. That it is a day filled with joy and with promise. Don't forget!
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And I do too!
