The rain comes and the poppies still look radiant. I morn their drooping flower heads, knowing I won’t see them again for twelve full months.
spot prawns
sunday dinner
“This is way too many prawns for the four of us”, I say to my son.
Silly me! After eating some while we shelled them and then taking a plate out to the patio to eat with cocktail sauce, we were lucky to have enough to put on our salads.
the potatoes are blooming
the potatoes are blooming
People ask me why I plant potatoes, it is not like they are expensive, and they take up space in my little garden. But a fresh dug potato, cooked however you choose, is a delicacy for sure. Percy helped me plant this year’s bed, and while I had the four varieties of tubers in nice little piles, he chose to drop them willy nilly in the trenches I dug.
Each hill will be a surprise!
after the rain
after the rain
A gentle rainfall fell for most of the day, keeping me inside. I cleaned the panty and made some soup for dinner, while he shredded the backlog of paperwork we had collected over the past few months. After dinner he took the dog for a walk and I went out and sat on the deck and watched this little guy dart about.
coming home
I arrive home to the poppies blooming. Often their blooms get beaten down by the rain, but this year they are beautiful. Their ruffled leaves unfold to music inside my head.
***
You keep your past by having sisters. As you get older, they're the only ones who don't get bored if you talk about your memories.
Deborah Moggach
I arrive home after spending a few days with my sister where, I help her get some business done. We are so successful we have time left over to play. We go out to lunch one day, shop a bit and pick up a flat of strawberries to make jam. We watch a great documentary one night about Pete Souza, President Obama’s White House photographer, and we talk a lot about our childhoods and our parents. She helps me sort though some of the old memories I have helping me to see things more clearly. Being ten years older, he remembers more details to my bits and pieces. I come home with little bit more sense of where I come from, who I am and how I want to move forward.
heading out
I am heading out of town for a few days. A little road trip alone to go see my sister. I have a book on tape and a a new playlist to listen to. It feels like summer.
may lessons
“Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness.”
― Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary
May felt like a big, deep breath of relief. I backed away from the online world (yes, once again) and discovered some free time. I used it wisely to read, or work in the garden, or maybe just sit for twenty minutes and watch the lake. I used it for a stir of the moment date with Percy to feed the ducks, and dinners with my kids. I caught up with cousins in person and by phone, called some old friends and booked us a trip to the coast.
I took 603 photos in the month of May with my Nikon, and another hundred or so with my phone. Some were shared with family, some were shared here. There were a few put up on flicker, where Baker and I are on week 22 with other dog lovers, while others were set aside for a few projects. And of course several were deleted.
May brought the first greens out of the garden, the first rose, and longer days. So much longer that there were some nights when I found myself in bed with a bit of light streaming through the open windows. May will go down as a month of awakening for me.
I am hoping to continue filling my days with what I am calling real life now.