Much Tamer Kingdom Today

I was out taking pictures of my planted garden and flowers this morning early (because it was pouring down rain soon after I finished planting yesterday) and I spied a Red-bellied Woodpecker on one of the feeders.  I slowly raised my camera and snapped... just as it flew away.  If you look in the lower left side of this photo (click to embiggen) you will see a blurry gray wing.  That's how fast he/she was or how slow I or my shutter was.  I'm keeping the picture.  (Trust me, it really was a woodpecker not some random mourning dove.)  Then when I was talking to DD on the phone a chipmunk was having a fit out in the yard.  First it was grazing on spilled birdseed and a squirrel came bounding across the yard and bounded right over the chipmunk which raised its head as if to say "huh?"  That made me laugh.  Then it climbed up into the pot with the parsley in it and started chirping and calling like a meerkat warning the tribe that a hawk is coming.  Hmm, maybe our hawk was trolling around for breakfast... anyway, then it started digging by the parsley so I chased it away.  Not that it'll stay away but I tried.


Yesterday Durwood and I picked up my knitting pal, MW, on our way to this year's first Farmer's Market.  They mostly had rhubarb (which we have too much of already), asparagus, and a few other early veggies, but there wasn't a full complement of vendors and lots of the ones there had crafts and plants.  We managed to get crab rangoons (me) and pork eggroll (Durwood) for our first "traditional" market breakfast.  MW lined up at the next booth for a strawberry banana chocolate crepe.  (Hmm, who had the better food?  I think I did.)  I found flat-leafed parsley, rosemary, sweet basil, and sweet bell pepper bedding plants for a fraction of the greenhouse cost and Durwood got his $5 bag of hydroponic tomatoes.  In the last aisle a Mexican lady was selling homemade tamales 2/$3 so we tried them.  They needed some sauce.  Once again MW went his own way nabbing some iced tea from the Attic.  That's when I snapped the pic of my Farmer's Market pals, the Beard Squad.  We had a good time.

Once we were home I went out and spent the afternoon planting the garden, the herbs and shallots, and all the flowers I bought.  It sprinkled rain but I kept working and I have to say that the ground is farther away from my shovel than it used to be so I have to lean over more and the dirt (no, Barbara Sue, soil) is a lot heavier than it used to be.  Somehow it took me all afternoon to do what looks like an hour's worth of planting.  Maybe I am getting old.  After I finished, another knitting friend, HH, stopped over (just as I stepped out of my second shower of the day) looking for thread to match a dress she needs to move buttons on.  I had some!  Imagine that... of course I do have the barrel full of thread from Mom.  Once HH left I fired up the charcoal and took my aching back to the bedroom to put fresh sheets on the bed.  You can tell how sore I was that I actually let Durwood help me and I never do that.  While we sheeted the bed it started to rain.  No, not rain, POUR.  I raced to clap the lid on the Weber to save my hot and ready charcoal, then I slapped the chicken on and watched the raindrops sizzle and evaporate on the grill wondering if it'd stay hot enough to cook the food with all the cooling rain pounding on it... it did.  In 45 minutes the thigh quarters were perfectly cooked.  Durwood micro-baked a potato and steamed some absolutely fantabulous fresh green beans.  I took 2 Aleve with supper and managed to stay awake until almost 10 PM.

Today all I have to do is mow the lawn and do all the laundry in the world.  Okay, maybe just all the laundry on the west side of Green Bay, but it's a lot.

June 2--Hungary, Shield.  "It looks like a tattoo of a tattoo," Nadine said.  She didn't like it, Jack could tell.  Nadine wasn't the sort of woman who made you guess how she felt.  She was more likely to smack you in the face with her opinion.  Jack was find with that.

That's all I wrote last night and it was a real struggle getting that much on paper before I conked out.  I'll try to do better tonight but don't hold me to it, there's that mowing and laundry to do.  Enjoy your Sunday.  The line of storms that swept through last night took the hot and humid with it so it's in the mid-60s and breezy, perfect lawn-mowing weather. Exit, stage left.
--Barbara