Yard Work In The Dark

7-26-2018

Home today. Although it is still high, the water in the creek has subsided considerable, as it tends to go up and down quickly in response to heavy rain. I decided to do some yard work today. Mowing and weeding the garden, both of which desperately needed some attention. I like doing the yard work. It keeps me active and outside even when I’m at home. It is also nice to see the fruits of your labor. The yard and flower beds look fresh, orderly, and manicured when I get done. The garden needed the most love, as it was completely hidden beneath weeds. Most of the seeds I planted actually got dug up and eaten last spring, so I didn’t pay much attention to what was actually growing within the garden fence. But I see now that some food plants are struggling for space and light. Although most of what is growing was not planted by my hand. Instead it has sprouted from the compost I put down as fertilizer. Weeding a garden this far gone will take a couple of days, but I made a significant dent in the weed population. I actually ran out of daylight while weeding and didn’t really want to start just because it got dark. Then realized I still needed to be all the equipment away and tidy some other stuff up. Yard work in the dark is another summer time phenomena in my world!

Yard Work

6-7-2018

Overcast sky, not too humid and not too hot, a perfect day to work in the yard. The bugs haven’t been too bad either, although I have been using bug repellent since getting that stupid tick bite a few weeks back. All afternoon, once and a while, the sun would peek out from behind the clouds just long enough for me to think about getting sun glasses, hat, and sun screen and then disappear again behind the puffy white and billowy grey clouds. I mowed, did some weeding and then raked all last years dead leaves from around the house, woodshed, and utility sheds. It is an anti-tick measure since they apparently like tall grass, overgrown yards, and dead leaves on the ground. I even raked up in the woods around our patio rock, the two trails up to there and a whole area around where I would like to hang a hammock. At some point I did see the futility and irony of raking leaves up in a forest, but only laughed at the absurdity of it. I did not rake the whole wooded area, just the parts we want to travel through and hang out in. At the end of the day, I was covered in dirt and sweat, my muscles ached, and I felt exhilarated at everything I had accomplished today. There is something innately good and right about being outside and intimately interacting with the dirt and plants. It makes me feel alive.

Candles On The Porch

5-31-2018

I spent the day in the yard mowing and weeding. My husband got the weed whacker going so I was able to clear the path most of the way down to the creek before it ran out of gas. Talk about a sense of accomplishment. After a shower, I went back outside to sit on the porch to watch the sun set. When the mosquitoes started biting, I was inspired to light the citronella candles. Their glowing flickering flames wanted company, so all the decorative candles joined them. I sat on the porch, rocking gently, listening to crickets and frogs, watching the sky shift from light blue to dark purple as the stars appeared one by one. I breathe deeply smelling damp earth and cut grass, feeling the air cool off as darkness falls, bathed in the warm yellow glow of candle light dancing on the porch.

Hammock In The Woods

5-30-2018

Sometimes, if the cat fur bothers me profusely, I will sleep on the porch in my camping hammock with it set up on the hammock stand. Now that our summer patio rock is set up, I think it would be nice to have a place in the woods behind the house to set it up. I spent a little time today preparing a good spot. I found two trees the perfect distance apart and cleared the brush away from them, raked the dead leaves and made a path down to the house and over to the patio rock. As it started to get dark, I hung the hammock and climbed in to watch the blue time soak into the woods. Some uncertain time later, I realized I had dozed, the moon was up over the hill spilling its silvery light between the trees. I knew I would get chilled trying to spend the night there without a sleeping bag, so I climbed out and went inside, mind and body full of peace and quiet.

Fairy Baubles

5-6-2018

Every spring I go up into the woods and set up a patio table, chairs, and umbrella on a flat rock we call the patio rock. When the trees are bare it is completely visible form the road, once the leaves have come back, we can sit up there are watch the world go by and no one will know we are up there hidden away in our lush forest. I have a whole crate of fairy baubles I like to hang up in the tree branches around the patio rock. These are colorful, whimsical, wind-chimes, spinners, and light catchers. I spend an hour or so carefully hanging them all up, considering the perfect spot for each piece. This is one of my spring rituals to usher in and welcome the warm sun. After all the baubles are hung up, I sit and listen as the gently breeze stirs the chimes into a chorus of tinkling tones all around. I am surrounded by mystical forest fairy music.

Solar Lights

5-2-2018

I enjoy doing yard work, being outside, feeling the sun warm my skin, breathing fresh air, smelling damp earth. There are days where I will wake up early, get dressed, go outside, and not to come in until after dark. Today I worked on cleaning and organizing my gardening table. I pulled out the little solar lights from the container they had been dropped in last fall. I wiped them off, reassembled them, and set them all up in the yard to charge in the bright spring sunshine. I moved on to cleaning out the flower beds, and other spring yard chores. Later, as the sun set and darkness fell, the little solar lights blinked on one by one, so I moved them each to a strategic spot among the flower beds all around the yard. Then sat on the porch admiring the soft fairy lights glowing merrily throughout the lawn. Soft spring evenings purple and blue, warm air cooling down to a chill, and velvety luminous lanterns like willow-the-wisps in the flowing night.

More Summer Than Summer

9-23-2017

Feeling good today. Now that it is officially Fall, today is more like a hot, sun drenched summer day than most of the days we had up here in the mountains all summer. Go figure! I’m taking advantage of it by doing some necessary yard work. All the flower beds need to be put in order for the winter. Lots of weeds to pull out and bulbs to plant. I pull out the giant knee pad pad I made from an old discarded squishy foam pool float toy I pulled out of the creek a couple of years back. I put on a bikini top with shorts, slather the sun screen onto my back, and put on the trusty wide rimed floppy garden sun hat with sun glasses. Pop the ear buds in to listen to a book while I work, and I’m ready for a garden/ yard day that is more like summer than summer was! Enjoy it while it lasts!