Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Update on Dad

Went to see the "old folks" today. Mom sprained her ankle yesterday and needed crutches, so I picked them up from the last people we loaned them to and brought them to Mom. Yikes! Her foot/ankle looks terrible! Terribly swollen and purple. I wonder if it might be broken!

Anyway, Dad is doing much better for the last couple of weeks. He's lost more weight and it really helps him be mobile. He has really cut down on his painkillers which is terrific. Today he talked about how much he really liked my mom and really enjoys spending time with her. It was surprising and very sweet to hear it spoken aloud. Wish my brothers and my sister could have heard it.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Late Summer Surprises

One of the joys of gardening is the surprises. An end of the season sale at a roadside nursery (such as the one that sets up each year in the parking lot of a nearby parking lot) I picked up eight lavender augustofolia and an apple mint. When I went to the counter I found that anything 1 gallon or under that I could fit into a "flat" was $5. So I picked up another clematis, a purple columbine, an impatiens and a greater meadow rue. This last one had familiar leaves, but the official name didn't ring any bells, and I've been intending to look it up.

Well, I looked for a picture to post, but everything was copyrighted, and mine doesn't have flowers on it at the moment. Ah well...

Earlier in the year I spread seed from a "purple and green flower mix". I was annoyed that nothing came up, but since many of the seedlings I put in about the same time whithered or disappeared, I shrugged and figured, oh well. Recently I've had some potential weeds coming up, but something about the leaf structure looked...well...right. So I've left them. After a month or so, I was beginning to believe these were weeds, but since the plant structure was attractive, I decided to wait until they looked or smelled bad. Instead I have several plants of two varieties that have sprouted nice purple flowers in varying shades. So that bed is my "purple" bed. The flowering plants are all varying shades of purple between bluish purple and pinkish purple. These attract bees and look sure to attract butterflies.

I was late this year hanging hummingbird feeder, a nyjar sack for finches stayed empty for much of the summer, hanging from the crabapple tree, but since the crabapples are so heavily weighing down the branches I have three feeders that are hidden from view. At least they were hidden from view from most angles...

Pulling into the driveway the other day in the Civic, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and spotted hummingbirds darting about the feeder, dashing in for a drink, then back to hover several inches away before darting back in. A pair of yellow finches were hanging from the nyjar bag and some other bird darted in for a quick bite of seed at the big hanging feeder. I sat for a while in the hot sun, unwilling to spoil the view.

I love my truck, but I would never have had this particular viewpoint from that seat height. It was a special show. Even though ragweed season has begun and I am clogged, swollen, headachy, itchy, stuffed up and fatigued, I am enjoying the wonders and the beauty of this time of year. I'm enjoying the crabapple harvest, the shared harvest of peaches from an acquaintances tree, the excess vegetable harvest from a friend's garden and the second flowering of the year's lavender.

There are big, splashy moments of excitement in life, altogether too few and far between, but I think that the most unhappy, depressed and bored people I know spend far too little time appreciating the everyday surprises and joys.

As I was manning my garage sale this Saturday, I puttered around, replacing a scraggely lavender, deadheading the perennials, giving away a plant I wasn't crazy about (it was a poorly flowering lavendar variety with very little scent, unlike the variety I have planted elsewhere and love. I noticed that my rosebush with the pale purple roses has more buds preparing to bloom than all the previous blooms combined. In fact, it appears that all of my rosebushes are enjoying the weather, because they are all either in bloom or preparing for what should be a glorious show. Can't wait!