We sat out in the Secret Garden this morning, drinking our second cup of coffee. It’s the perfect place to talk; intimate, relatively quiet, birds singing, chipmunks running by. I’m treasuring these sunny mornings – it’s going to rain tomorrow and Monday and off and on throughout next week.
That means I’ll be doing some mowing and other garden chores today. I’m fine with that, in fact, I’m in the mood for that.
Thanks for all your support as Don and I play with our cameras and Don learns an entirely new skill. It’s good to have something to get excited about. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’re not mourning the loss of Margaritaville. We are. We just try to keep the sadness at bay. Yesterday, we took a little nap together on the sofa and when I woke up, I felt such sadness that I wouldn’t be getting a call from Don as he made his way to the theater for the evening. That he wouldn’t be hanging around with his Margaritaville family. That audience members who planned to see it in the fall are being deprived of seeing it with the original cast – a more joyous group of people you will never meet. That particular cast will never perform together again. And that makes me unbelievably sad. Imagine how it makes Don feel. Sigh.
So we mourn, then we distract ourselves. It’s all part of the process.
This bee is exploring the mullein that grows in the back forty. This is the mullein that is over 6 feet tall. It is no longer standing up straight, but is curving downward because of the torrential rain we got last week. I’ve tried to help all of the mullein stalks stand upright, but it isn’t working.
It’s a pretty time in the gardens. But I still have to weed. And I’m approaching that time – it happens every summer – when I no longer want to expend the energy to weed. I’m not there yet, but it’s coming. Prediction: August.
We’re off to have a little breakfast in town and then Don is going off to do his thing and I’m coming back here to do mine.
Happy Saturday.
Good morning, Claudia. I guess our rain is coming your way. It’s been raining here since yesterday, but we’re getting little peeks of sunshine this morning. It’s only 70 degrees, but very humid, so we still have the AC going. Our feet were sticking to the hardwood floors! I’m enjoying following yours and Don’s photography adventures on IG. Hope both of you have a good weekend. Today is our Phil’s 30th birthday. So hard to believe, and of course, very bittersweet. I woke up with a headache and am just feeling very off today. I know that a lot of it is because of this day. The three of us will be going out to lunch later to toast Phil, but I wish I could push a fast-forward button to tomorrow.
xoxo
Oh Melanie. I’m thinking of you and your family today. And of Phil. Sending you my love on this difficult day. xoxo
Big changes are so hard. While moving forward there is still sadness and loss. My daughter has left her job at Google and while its bittersweet for her, she is looking forward to new opportunities. Her choice so not the same as Don and ETM cast but still after 15 years its a big change. Enjoy your day. Outside work and time with Don.
Change can be wonderful on the other side, but while it’s happening, it’s often very hard, indeed. xo
Sorry to jump right to instagram, but that puppy! Moose, love it. I’m reminded of our oldest son, when he was in pre-school. He had such a crush on another little kid, known only as Moosey. Oh, it was Moosey this and Moosey that. I felt as though I knew the kid, but I never met him. I often wonder about his real name and how he grew up—he’d be over fifty now!
Loving your photography and Don’s! (Sorry that there is such a learning curve, but he’ll get there. We know he has an excellent eye for it, now it’s just learning the mechanical stuff!)
He is so adorable! And so soft! He was a puppy mill rescue.
I know that wall of which you speak. After hauling hose for day after day with no rain, I was about to hit mine. We had some beautiful soft rains all day yesterday, so I do have a bit more of energy today. But, I can tell August is coming soon. However, we did have our first tomato this week. SO GOOD!!!! And there are several more red ones to go and pick. The zucchini are wild as are the cucumbers. So there is that!! I also need to pick basil before it goes bitter. I will dream of these days in just a few months.
I hope you have a nice time in your yard today. I know I feel anchored somehow when I am wandering in the yard. Enjoy your Saturday.
I mowed. So I’m tired. The other things I wanted to do have been shelved. Mowing really kicks up my allergies.
The rewards of mowing, weeding, trimming are many, as evidenced by the colorful photos of your garden flowers, Claudia. I don’t recall you growing any vegetables. Have you ever had a vegetable garden? My friend has given up on growing edibles because of the veracity of the deer in her area. We are now harvesting string beans regularly, and the Japanese eggplant that miraculously survived our mild West Coast winter flowered and is producing eggplant again. I plucked one and broiled it with a miso glaze last night. So yummy. We also expect a decent Yukon potato harvest. It’s the first time we’ve grown potatoes so we only planted one, and it’s so big now!
I’ve never had any desire to grow vegetables. They’re too prone to bugs and rabbits and deer. It’s a lot of work and taking that on in addition to the flowers gardens? Too much! Plus, we have lots of farm stands around here, so anything I want I can usually find quite easily.
We do have a lot of deer. And a black bear. And bunny rabbits. And groundhogs.
I probably wouldn’t grow vegetables either, having many farmers markets near me as well. However, my daughter is interested so she does it. We don’t have the critters you have, but we do have a particularly relaxed squirrel. She/he used to like to sit in the large pots that held the strawberries, leaning with his/her back against the inside of the pot, while leisurely picking and eating strawberries. Last year, he/she particularly enjoyed the tomatoes and since she/he found less ripe ones acceptable, often beat us to the fruit!
He was quite the entertainer! I would have laughed out loud!
She/he was! I didn’t fault him/her for enjoying the berries, especially since he/she kept to one pot.
xo
Well, I hope you have a good rest-of-Saturday. Lovely flower photos. Here, we’re bracing for a new heatwave in SoCalif and I’m totally dreading it; high humidity percentages and then plunging to single-digit humidity, with temps elevating. Heat warnings, not watches, for a good part of the coming week; I guess Tuesday is supposed to be the worst. We’re having a really hot summer here and, of course, never any rain. Sigh.
We’ve had several periods of high temps and humidity – far more than we usually have before August. Also: lots of heat warnings. I hear ya!
I was feeling low and under pressure of some things that are going on in my life so my husband instinctively knows what to do in that case; he gets me out of the house and to the beach which is always my healer. Ahhhh, breathe. So spectacularly beautiful at the shore this evening around 6pm, can’t even describe it. Like a watercolor painting, offshore islands in the distance; the pale blues of the distant mainland bluffs descending to water’s edge, wispy white clouds in a even bluer sky as we lose some of the humidity; the shades of beige with wet sand/dry sand of the shore; sun-sparkled &, deep blue-green sea, all kinds of boats out there, and wind surfers, people flying kites, playing volleyball, dogs running around, gulls soaring and swooping; kids with their sand buckets, shade umbrellas being buffeted by a strong breeze off the Pacific, palm trees leaning west to east, cleaner air/fresh air. Harbor Patrol driving the beach and lifeguards in their towers, watching over everybody and keeping things safe. High season, weekend as well; a lot of tourists; but everybody having a wonderful summer day, just forgetting anything/everything else for a little while, like me…living in the moment with such a stunning, welcoming landscape/skyscape. I always leave the beach feeling grateful to be alive. Lakes and mountains and rivers don’t do it for me; I have to live at or near enough to an ocean. I mostly always have, and I guess it’s in my DNA.
So, yeah, yucky week inland ahead but this evening at the beach will sustain me for awhile. Maybe Don knows how I feel; I think you told us he hails from SoCalif and the beach communities of L.A./San Diego. Like born & raised here. But I know that you’re from Michigan and the lake areas there can also very much resemble an ocean, with shore and dunes. Plus you lived in San Diego yourself, with Don; you’ve known a beach life, too!
We both know how you feel. Don was born and raised in San Diego. He loves the ocean. I grew up surrounded by lakes and I lived in San Diego for 8 years and Boston for 5 years. I’ve spent a good deal of my life near water. We’re talking about driving to a beach next week if there’s a good day to do it.
I just remembered that you answered a comment some posts back, saying to one of your readers how you missed being nearer to water; I’d forgotten that momentarily. So, you both, Don and yourself, feel the lure…
I’ve recently had a birthday and of course went to the beach on that particular evening since it’s the only place I want to be for any occasion…and, have to say, the tourists DID get to me a bit because I wanted to hear other sounds, like birds and wind and waves crashing besides the humans’ incessant (loud) conversations (and their music); was just my mood. You have to expect and be tolerant of a lot of people at the shore in July, though; it’s their vacations, they’re trying to escape urban/inland heat and they’re probably celebrating, too. I just get spoiled with the winter beach when there are fewer people.
But, oh, I hope you get that good beach day. Do it. Wear shorts. Get in the water! Where do you go? How far do you have to go?
Was Don skipping back and forth for work, West Coast to East Coast, from early-on in his career or did he remain on the West Coast for quite a long while in adulthood before the two of you landed in NY? I can’t remember your timeline exactly.
We don’t want to go to the Jersey shore, so it would have to be Connecticut or Massachusetts. I’m not sure where we’ll go.
Don was based on the West Coast for a long time. He also did a lot of tv, film and regional theater, so he traveled around a bit.
Thanks for answering. I’ll look forward to seeing what you do for a beach trip! I know so little about the East Coast shoreline. I do enjoy Susan Branch’s photos of where she lives on Martha’s Vineyard. And we have friends who have moved year ’round (retirees) to the beach in New Hampshire. They are so happy.
As is so often the case with conversation here on your blog, it prompts me to seek out more info of whatever we talk about, so I looked up some New England beaches, just to educate myself:
Connecticut – – East Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach; Westport; Milford (Silver Sands State Park, sandy beach, overlooks Charles Island); Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison (2 miles of sand); East Lyme, Rocky Neck State Park (white sand; swimming beach); near Mystic, Bluff Point State Park (unspoiled beach).
Massachusetts – – Horseneck Beach State Reservation, at Westport Point (600 acres of beach).
My husband’s niece lives (enviably!) in Newport, R.I. I hope when we can visit her there, to go to Block Island by ferry; it’s supposed to be a nice beach getaway.
This is all so interesting to me. I wish I could spend a year exploring New York and New England.
There’s also Cape Cod, but that’s a bit of a distance. It won’t be happening this week as we’re in for a lot of rain.
Our rainy spell has started today…supposed to last all week which is good because we really need it!…I love that mullein…did you plant it or does it grow in its own?…Coffee in the secret garden sounds so relaxing….
The mullein just appears and has for several years. I see it as I drive around this area, so I think it’s fairly common here.
Thanks Claudia…I looked it up after I asked you about it…Common Mullein is an herb that can be used medicinally…it is considered invasive but there are decorative varieties you can get now in different colors…The information is interesting as Mullein has been around for thousands of years in Europe and Asia and was brought here where the Native Americans also discovered how to use it medicinally!
Yes, I looked all that up a few years back and I found it fascinating!
What lovely flowers. Enjoy your photography.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn!
Maybe the older we get, the better we are at handling disappointments. You two seem to be doing it well. Bless you and I hope that these days pass soon.
We’re trying!
Hello Claudia, having a quiet time in the morning is the best thing ever. That’s why I always get up early. How fortunate the ones are who have a quiet spot in their garden. The summer this year has been extraordinarily beautiful in my parts of the world. Life is easier when the sun shines. I wouldn’t mind some rain though. I hope you could enjoy the rainy days inside. Have you made a decision about the dollhouse yet?
I absolutely need my morning quiet time, Regula.
No decisions on the dollhouse.
I’m thinking.