Seeing Red

Well, this morning's discovery about the flooding really did have me seeing a very frustrated shade of red for a while earlier. I've done about all I can do with the site, short of digging every plant out of there and buying a great truckload of dirt to create a truly raised bed.

That's just not in the cards now, so I have to hope that the sandy soil below helps whatever standing water that may collect to drain off slowly enough to benefit the plants, but fast enough to keep them from harm.

But the garden flooding wasn't the only thing driving my mood. I also find myself annoyed in the wake of yesterday's news that the California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriages. Not the sort of thing you'd expect would annoy me, and frankly, there's nothing I'd like to do more than celebrate 'til the cows (and the bears) come home.

But suddenly gay marriage may once again be THE big issue distracting voters in these last six months before the fall's election...and the idea of listening to a bunch of self-righteous people say all kinds of foul and untrue things about me and my people as if we weren't human or as deserving of equality as anyone else, as though we weren't even in the room to be offended...that prospect kind of turns my stomach and I'll be trying not to listen to very much of that.

Because I really want to be happy about this step (even as I wonder if we're sidetracking the rights of single gay people by focusing so strongly on the right to marry)...so I'll try having a little more faith in my fellow Americans that they are as fed up with the way things have been going in this country the last eight years...and that they won't let themselves get distracted by the fear-mongering of religious types.

And really, at the heart of all my anger this morning was this whole business of nicotine withdrawal. It really is amazing, even as someone who loves and respects plants and their abilities, how this demon weed gets under your skin and plays with your brain (although I know it's as much a product of all the added chemicals and such).

Anyway, as I slapped on a new nicotine patch and prepared to leave for work, I saw that the morning's flood waters were beginning to recede some.

As the sun came out this afternoon and helped to dry up the rest of it, I got to thinking that I could turn the whole business of seeing red into something positive.


So...as I made my way home from work, I arranged my route to capture some lovely red flowers I've been seeing around lately...like the crab-apple trees above, on the road to Rock Harbor...and this flowering quince along the same stretch of road.

I'm stretching the red portion of the color wheel to include these dark pink dicentrus, another variety of bleeding heart, which I wanted to share with Butch, who's got a much paler shade blooming in his yard.

They're a little red...but moreso if you're wearing my smoke-tinted sunglasses, I confess.

As I returned to Harwich, there were these red azaleas in front of the bank. The late day sun was a little strong on them, but I still think this picture turned out okay.

I hope the same can be said of everyone else's Saturday!