Thunder Woke Me

 



And then I couldn't go back to sleep but since it was 6 o'clock I got up and grumpily started my day.  I read the paper while drinking my coffee and the county horticulturalist said that the Japanese Beetles are about to hatch and eat our roses and raspberries so I went out and cut all the roses and brought them in so I get to enjoy them instead of the beetles.  I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do about the raspberries since they're at the top of the steepest slope in the backyard and that's still too steep for my ankle.  Grr.  I am so OVER this ankle thing, I could scream.  I've sprained this ankle enough times and know that it takes a long time for ligaments and tendons to heal and stop hurting but, damn it, I'm tired of needing to baby it and I'm especially over it's newly prominent barometric pressure predicting trick.



I cut out and sewed a swim shirt for LC yesterday while downstairs doing laundry.  I hope it fits her.  I found a free pattern for a simple swimsuit for her to wear under it but don't think I'm going to push myself to cut and sew that today too even though I don't work today.  I have plenty of fabric left.  Maybe over the weekend.




Once again I missed taking a picture of a hummingbird at the bee balm so here's a view of the metal dragonfly that lives in the garden.




Yesterday's big excitement was a housefly invasion.  It took a while for me to realize that some fly that got in the house a few days/weeks ago (I don't know the fly gestation period) laid eggs in the bin where we put organics to be recycled and they hatched yesterday.  Ye gods, there were a ton of flies.  Fortunately for us, they were sluggish and easy to swat.  I hurriedly put the organics bin outside and am sad to say that I dumped the contents into the trash out there.  We need to rethink our collection and storage method before starting up again.  There will be vacuuming today, especially around the patio doors.  Eesh.  But on the positive side, I dug out a little clay pot and saucer and potted the celery.  Now to see if it likes growing in soil as much as it liked growing in water.

July 11--Russ Gutshall, Youthful Pondering.  "Luke is a thinker," his mom always said.  "He looks before he leaps."  Luke could never decide if she thought that was a good thing or a bad thing when he would hear her say it to the aunts or into the phone.  Living so far out of town he had a lot of time to think.  School bus rides started almost two hours before the bell.  It was dark when he got picked up and dark when he got home.  He kept a small flashlight on a chain in his backpack to help him feel less alone in the solitary dark.

Now I'm going to go sit on the couch and knit the second side of the Autumn Cumulus sock cuff.  I thought I could keep count of the stitches and manage it while the TV was on last night but I was smart enough to know when failure was dragging at my yarn, rip it out, pick up the stitches again, and vow to take advantage of silence to get the darned thing knitted.  Today's the day.  I have nothing pressing to do and Durwood's napping.  It's now or never--or later but I'm diving in.
--Barbara