The Midnight Garden

FORWARDING ADDRESS

2008-12-20T15:37:00.001-05:00

Did you know the
MIDNIGHT GARDEN
has moved??

Please find me HERE!

Migrations and Transitions

2008-10-16T12:23:00.003-04:00

Gee, it feels a bit like the end of an era. Thanks to Blogger's limits on photo uploading, The Midnight Garden has moved to WordPress. The transition is still in progress just now, so please forgive our dust.

Actually, it's sort of appropos, really. Every other aspect of my life seems a little chaotic lately, though really in good and unexpected ways. It just makes sense that the blog should be in a state of metamorphosis, as well. The import project is going well, though there seems to be some issue with all your wonderful comments getting properly associated with their related posts. I'm a little sad about that, since I love you all so much.

In the future, you can find the Midnight Garden here. Please make a note for your Favorites Lists and Blogrolls! Thanks for the memories!!

Tuesday, For Now

2008-10-14T21:31:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone!!

Sorry I've not posted in a bit. It was a great weekend, and I have many pictures and a few words to share with you on the subject. It was also kind of a tiring weekend, though, and when my internet access crapped out on me last evening, I took the chance to enjoy a little quiet down time, when I suppose I ought to have been cropping and developing photos and doing some rough draft writing so I'd be ready to blog when the opportunity presented itself.

You'll forgive me, I hope, that I've not regaled you with stories and song about the great times we had this holiday weekend. I will soon. I promise. I hope you all had terrific weekends, too!

Meanwhile, I thought you might enjoy these two shots from this evening. The one above was taking from the Stop N Shop parking lot, the one below, as the full Hunter's Moon rose over Town Cove in Orleans. I wish the optical illusion was photograph-able...since the moon appeared about three times this size when I stopped for the picture.

Last Weekend...And This.

2008-10-11T03:41:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, you may recall, I went off to Chatham for an afternoon, touring along Main Street and enjoying the sense of anticipation that was building in the crowd for the arrival of the Budweiser Clydesdales. It was a beautiful day, I had a wonderful time and discovered a lot of lovely late season gardens to share with you all, as well as the horses.

I also discovered later than day that I'd reached my upload limit at Blogger, and was unable to share those photos with you. It's been a long week, and surely you've moved on to other things, but I finally had the chance to put together a slideshow of some of those great images...which I present to you here...while I'm off having a completely different weekend.

I hope your weekend turns out to be everything you hope for and more. Here in the United States, it's Columbus Day; in Canada, it's Thanksgiving.

Whatever your occasion and however you are celebrating, I wish you beautiful days, warm and memorable evenings and so many smiles that your face hurts a little by Monday!

Thursday

2008-10-10T01:29:00.002-04:00

The day here started out gray and rainy. Not much encouragement for getting out of bed and turning on that coffee pot, honestly. But that's okay...we need wet mornings like this one and meanwhile, every time I look at the forecast for the holiday weekend it looks a little better!

These red begonias are in a stone planter outside of the bank. I should have taken a picture of them earlier in the season when they were a little fresher looking. But they caught my attention this morning and so here you go.

There was a little upheaval at the Nest this morning, but nothing particularly monumental. We had suspected in the last couple of days that perhaps there was a leak in the gas line that comes up to the apartment, as there'd been the occasional whiff of the stuff. Today, Lenny pulled off the facing boards on the step ups from dining room to kitchen and bathroom, since the gas is piped in between floors there.

Naturally, it was only once that destruction had been done that it was discovered that the new stove was actually the source of the leaking...and it has apparently been a lucky thing that we've been sleeping with windows wide open so regularly lately. Anyway, the problem is all fixed, there's no more leaking and all is well.

In fact, I like the photo above not for the destruction (and that's no big deal--haven't painted ANY of the trim in the apartment yet...), but I like the way it shows off the red-orange-yellow progression from kitchen to dining room to bathroom.

Dykewife calls my string of lights "cheer lights" and I love that name, though I've never heard them called that before. I've always been a fan of the indirect light cast by these little lights and have often incorporated them in my living situations one way or another for years now. They ARE cheery, though. And another thing I wanted to point out, are the little balls made of grape vines. I got them on one of those novelty strings of lights years ago and love the way they make these great shadow designs on the walls. The shadows do something to the painting on the wall I really like.

I'll try to get some better pictures of what I'm talking about as far as detail of the painting work in the days to come. It's pretty late now and I ought to already have been in bed...but there's a few flower pics to round out the day.

On the way back from the bank, this bed of furry-flowered ageratum and yellow marguerite daisies called out to me from one of those traffic island gardens and so I stopped for a photo or two.

I'm pretty sure this fuzzy topped stuff in ageratum, though I've not grown this variety before. They ought to call the particular strain Animal, after the Muppet Drummer it so reminds me of.

These petunias are showing what end of the season it is, but I still couldn't look away from the rich purple flowers. Next summer I want to do more with petunias.

And here's some of our fall foliage, a blend of pretty Virginia creeper and sneaky poison ivy, climbing the side of a pine tree across the street from the traffic island, at the path entrance of one of Eastham's conservation areas.

Some Progress with the Nesting

2008-10-09T08:42:00.003-04:00

I'm pretty impressed with how well this volunteer hollyhock is doing at the entrance of the restaurant parking lot. As you may recall, none of us actually planted it; it simply began growing there, its seed brought by some random bird or something. I'm quite fond of the single flower and the buttery yellow color.

Ah, what a full day Wednesday was. I started early with a visit to the bank, on the way to my latest eye appointment. The appointment went well - my eye is showing what was described as 100% improvement since my visit there last week. But I also saw a different doctor, and I found that he was a lot more forthcoming about describing my condition to me and how I need to be treating it to ensure that it heals properly.

The previous doc hadn't been nearly so specific, and its just another reminder to me (which I'll try to pass on to you) that these days, we can't count on our health care so-called professionals to tell us what we need to know. We have to be pro-active at our appointments and ask the right questions. Almost makes me think they should be giving ME the $20 co-pay.

With this good news under my belt, and a delightfully sunny day going on around me, I took the opportunity that being further up-Cape provided and did a little shopping, making stops at K-Mart, Christmas Tree Shop and the Mill Stores before returning back to the Nest...where I was met by the withering gaze of our household's executive officer.

I wouldn't say he was in a bad mood, but sleeping pretty hard, apparently, since he didn't meet me at the door. I'm afraid we haven't had quite the snuggle time he might enjoy, as I've been a bit of a perpetual motion machine lately...only ever sitting down for a few moments (except for email and blogging, when I sit a little longer...), before popping up with some new project in mind. I try to stop every now and then to give him a proper scritch behind the ears or under the chin, as he loves...but I'm sure he will be pleased at the additional attention he should enjoy from having a houseguest to boss around this coming weekend.

I'd like to say I was incredibly well organized and that I'm completing tasks before moving on to the next ones...but I'd be totally lying to you. What I'm doing is a little of this, a little of that. The short term effect is that I act and appear a bit scatter-brained. Wifty, you might even say. But as time passes, I'm finding that I'm actually getting a lot accomplished.

For instance, the bathroom is now about two-thirds yellow.

It's only a single coat, and brushed on, because of the uneven surface of the beaded board. In time, I might get around to putting a second coat of yellow on things...but in the meantime, the first coat is looking pretty good and in the few places where a little pink shows through the yellow, it creates a sort of orangey-look I don't totally hate. Still, it's a work in progress, like much of the Nest.

After a short visit to work (it was technically a day off, but I still had a few things there that needed my attention), I was back home, where I got a little more testosterone going as I got out my phillips head screwdriver again and put together the new shelf unit I bought for my music CDs.

At first, I thought I'd done a crooked job of it when I put it in the corner, but really, it's the floor and the walls of the Nest which are uneven. L and P and I had a good laugh about this later on, and they advised me there's a great supply of shingles to use as shims out in the barn, which can be helpful for making everything in this old house seem less uneven.

In the photo above, you can see the progress being slowly made. The modular shelving units (okay, fine...milkcrates), the installed brackets for hanging plants, curtain rods, floral wire for the pothos vines to climb along.

As darkness fell last night, I took a little break to bring some of those milkcrates over to the restaurant for a run through the dishwasher there, and spotted two or three different coyotes in our greater neighborhood. No real surprise there, considering the recent late night outburst, but still...it was remarkable to see several of them in a single evening.

In other news of the Natural World, there's been a lot of excitement and a little bit of concern in our region recently, as sitings were reported of a manatee in a variety of locations. At first, they were just stories, unconfirmed, but now there's details. You can get the full story and video here.

While I was out cleaning up those shelving units, I also picked up a new string of lights to weave into the long pothos vines I was training along/above the wall where the sun and crow are painted.

It's mostly a string of white lights, but I did change out a few bulbs to bring in a little bit of green and amber...and a little blue and red behind the plant basket (for a little purple shadowing). I like the way the bits of color bring out some of the detail of the wall.

By the way, the print I've hung there is A.F. Tait's wonderful Adirondack painting, A Good Time Coming. It's long been one of my favorites, as I am a big fan of the lean-to as a bit of rustic architecture...and my love affair with the Adirondack region is no secret, either. Also, I always like the name as a good omen for entertaining.

So you can see that things are coming along pretty nicely. Like I said the other day, I'm on my own schedule...and I don't really expect things here to be fully settled down for at least another month or two. But I have been encouraged to accomplish a few things in advance of weekend visitors. Still, it remains a work in progress...there's still at least one room that looks like this:

Also - in the interests of full disclosure - Marc, I want to be sure you know in advance that this is the kitchen you will be working in Sunday evening.

It's not one of those big Martha Stewart country kitchen affairs...ha ha...so please keep your expectations low! But the stove works and I'm sure we can find you a little counter space for prep. And I've got dessert all worked out, so no worries on that front!

But lets not focus too much attention on my tiny little kitchen. Instead, let me share with you the sunset over Cape Cod Bay from Tuesday evening, just down the road from the Nest. I think you'll find it much easier on the eyes.

Catching Up

2008-10-08T06:04:00.006-04:00

Well, okay...so thank goodness for Photobucket. Now I just need to get a little better about re-sizing photos before uploading, and I might be okay. Sorry for the delays in posting.

Because of the recently limiting of photo uploading, I'm considering moving the blog to WordPress, where I understand I'd have substantially more memory hosting. Anyone have any bouquets or brickbats to share with me about WordPress? What's your experience been in transferring a blog and its archives from one place to t'other?

Meanwhile, though, I don't want to distract from the important garden business at hand. First, above, you can see that my imperial Chrysanthemum (well, that's what Chuck thought it was when he passed it on to me, anyway...) is fixing to bloom shortly. Also, below, I was happy to know that my favorite - the garden heliotrope - has bounced back from its rough treatment in moving and seems to be taking very nice to its new home by the front door.

Now, I realize (and have been reminded) that the recent photo debacle has left you all in the dark about how progress has been coming along here at the Nest...so I'm glad to be able to share a photo or two with you to show you how things have progressed. As I mentioned, I have finished off the painting in the living room. I might go in with a tiny brush and touch up the dragonflies a little, but I also sort of like the way they seem embedded into the wall, too. Maybe I just want to go in and sketch some of the finer lines of their wings with a marker. We'll see.

Meanwhile, though, I am happy to let them be as they are, while I try to focus less on the painting and more on getting the Nest finally starting to feel more like a home than a collection of empty rooms filled with boxes. After all, I will be hosting some company this weekend and am eager for the place to start feeling a little more comfy and welcoming. Plus, for my own well-being, it sure would be nice to have things unpacked and starting to feel a little less unsettled.

Here's a photo, with Cat, of the loveseat we welcomed to our small collection of furniture this weekend. It's second hand, but we like it just fine...plus, it was relatively easy to get up in the ladder and into the apartment. In the background, is another view on the living room painting (The crow, I'll remind you, I've actually touched up a little so its not quite so recessed into the painting now.).

There were two second-hand loveseats to choose from actually. I liked the muted colors and lighter pattern of this one, which seems to go pretty nicely with the detailed painting I've done in the living room. The other one also featured a floral pattern, but not a brocaded one, as seen here, but merely a print on fabric and in a bright green, red and pink floral pattern that would've been more appropos for the Golden Girls' lanai, or perhaps a shirt for Bea Arthur. I feel I've chosen well and Badum - who's had WAY more time than I to test it out - seems to agree.

I did make myself sit down a little the other night and it is a comfy place to rest. There's just so much to accomplish, though, that I feel a little guilty about settling in one place for too long. Well, not guilty, since I'm on no one's schedule but my own...but there's so much I want to get done. Let's put it that way. In other news, I am about two-thirds finished with painting the bathroom yellow. I like it much better than the dingy pink I am covering over, especially in the golden light of morning.

Speaking of morning, it is pretty early here just now. I have an early eye appointment (slow progress there, but I'm practicing patience, which is apparently my Big Lesson to learn from the Universe just lately) and hope to visit the bank before leaving town, so I'll have a little cash in hand for a stop at K Mart afterward for a few needful things like Flatware and maybe a nice shelving system for my music CDs...and some hooks to help properly suspend some of my houseplants near their favorite windows.

On that front, Patience (the landlord, not the lesson) gifted me a pair of long and dangly pothos plants last evening. She'd had them outside this summer, but was feeling a bit oppressed with the responsibility of bringing them in for the coming winter...so I was all too glad to bring them upstairs to the Nest, where the light is wonderful and should help to encourage that Jungle feeling I enjoy on a winter's afternoon, when all my plants are thriving and green around me.

Here's the view off the deck just about ten minutes ago, as the sky turned from dark blue to lavendar and the sun crept up over the horizon. It's chilly this morning and I wonder, with deciding, if the season for going to the beach to watch the sun slip above the eastern horizon hasn't passed for another year. We'll see. Perhaps there's one more sunrise morning coming our way before the holiday weekend is through. In the meantime, there's this view from the deck to enjoy each morning.

By the way, in the time it took me to prepare and upload that photo, we've gone from pre-dawn silence to a crazy multitude of bird chirpings out there. It's pretty nice. I'm tempted to go back to bed...but I fear I'll never wake up for my appointments if I snuggle back in this morning. Of course, it's also still far too early to think about pounding a nail or anything like that.

NOTE: Apologies about the weird photo file sizes...too early to be messing around with this, perhaps. I'll try to figure this out before next post. Promise. Meanwhile, have a day!!

No Limit On Words

2008-10-06T23:43:00.006-04:00

Hey Everybody. This is the only photo I got just now.

It turns out there's a limit to the free memory storage of a Blogger account (1024MB) and now that I know there's a limit, it makes perfect sense to me to discover that I have reached that limit, considering how many photos I have already shared here at the Midnight Garden.

I see that I can purchase additional storage space, so once I've managed that, I'll be back to the business of sharing photos and such. For now, a thousand words will have to suffice. I know. I shudder to consider which ones will spill out from my keyboard, don't you? I'll try to be discreet.

The living room painting is finished, more or less, and I'm mostly quite pleased with how it came out. I did think that the sponged-on finish coat ended up obscurring a little more of the dragonfly and crow details, so I want to touch those up a little bit. Actually, I did darken up the crow when I got home this evening, and I guess it's working better now: when I looked over at it a little while later, Badum was perched on the back of the chair, staring up at the crow in exactly the same way he does with live birds. So I think I got it right. ; )

He and I had a startling experience last night. Since we are in a seeming perpetual state of Something Was Just Painted here at the Nest, we've been sleeping with windows open for ventilation purposes...plus I always enjoy the fresh air as long as I can in the Fall. Even though it's down in the low fifties overnight, I like the windows wide open, though sometimes getting up in the night (or to turn on the coffee pot) can be a little chilly. But that's why one has monkey slippers and sweatpants, after all.

ANYWAYZ...now that the nights are cooling down, my roommate has been doing more Cat Caving...which is where, while I am reading in bed before shutting out the light at night, he comes up and digs his way down under the covers, exploring the hidden space beneath the comforter. After nosing around, he usually comes up alongside me, kneading against my side as he settles in, far enough down to be just an adorable face in the darkness down there...but overtime, he always slides his way up further, to facilitate the all-important belly rub.

Through all this, and usually when he arrives on the bed--he is a most agreeable kitty, as a rule --the Purring is going full-force...and as he gets comfier, he starts throwing some heat...and often, he'll snuggle right up into my armpit, one soft paw stretched across my chest, or sometimes reaching up to touch my cheek. He's pretty cute like that.

Ah, so there...I've set the stage for the startling experience. So there we were, snuggling in just like that. It was really quite nice and so I put my book down early and settled back to snuggle in with him and even nodded off for a little while before shutting the light out. (I'm hesitant to do that sometimes when the cat's comfy, as the light outened seems to suggest to him that I'm about to roll over and crush him, and so off he'll dash...) But then he stayed even after the light was out and it was pretty cozy...

...and then suddenly, there was this crystal clear and close...and LOUD...coyote howl. One single perfect howl, splitting the night...the sound filling every space. And before it had a chance to fade, there was a response, suddenly, of what sounded like a dozen to twenty more coyotes and in a bit of a frenzy. Either it was the public portion of some committee meeting where they all talked at once, or perhaps it was some kind of attack in the meadow/marsh behind the houses across the road. I can't be sure I didn't hear distressed birds in all the chaos.

Anyway, my gray buddy darted to the headboard, and then made the rounds of a variety of windows. I have often suspected that he came to me from a brush with a coyote or two, as he was a bit scraped up, as well as scrawny, when he came up the garden path that night. He's had a variety of reactions to the sounds of the coyotes, which sort of bear out my suspicions. It was a while before he returned to bed, to curl up against the backs of my legs and resume the purring.

It was a little unsettling for me, as well, but knowing we were pretty safe on the second floor, I could also appreciate that it was sort of cool to have some pretty intense Nature right there outside..

It was a beautiful weekend, and I'm sorry to have exceeded my limit. I've got some beautiful photos from Saturday afternoon, when I went over to Chatham to see the Budweiser Clydesdales as they paraded down Main Street to celebrate the Chatham Squire's fortieth anniversary. Here's a few photos and another account of the afternoon.

It was a wonderful, sunny afternoon, just warm enough for a day in early October. There were some lovely, late season gardens blooming along the way and so I got all kinds of great photos of those, especially some wonderful Montauk daisies, and the pansies above.

People were packing in all along Main Street, really July Fourth parade crowded. I was looking for my pal Jane amongst the masses, since I would've enjoyed spending some time with her. This was really just another act of Wishful Thinking on my part, since I hadn't actually called her ahead of time to say "hey, meet me in Chatham" or anything. Sadly, I never did see her, though I did meet a few other friends along the way. Jane, if you're reading this, ring me!

The horses were quite beautiful, really stunning creatures. However, since I only saw them as they went past, I must admit I get to see more of them in Budweiser commercials. I suspect, too, that some folks had been led down a path by the use of the word "parade" as a verb, instead of the more lengthy noun we are most of us familiar with. It really was one of those "here they come/there they are/there they go/don't step in the horsepoo!" brief experiences.

Still, I got a nice photo or two which I hope to someday share with you all. (I do regret not having captured a photo of that most famous horseshit to share with my friend Tornwordo.)

Meanwhile, I hope you all had great weekends, too, and that your week in progress is being kind. At least there's a holiday weekend to look forward to at the end of it...and plans for it are shaping up to be great fun, too: I can hardly wait.

Friday Garden Report

2008-10-03T14:01:00.014-04:00

I spent most of last night's Vice Presi dential debate coverage muttering as I sponged paint onto the living room walls...it's still a work in progress, so no photos of the finished look yet...but I did catch a few images yesterday I wanted to share with you.

During our early morning breakfast event at work, we had a bit of a sunshower, which gave us the barest glimmer of a rainbow in the northwestern sky...it was already fading by the time I had my camera ready, naturally.

But what's a rainbow, anyway, but a fleeting and intangible promise - like a kiss really - of sweetness and beauty in the future? Who doesn't love a rainbow for that.

I always think there's somethingi cool about it raining while the sun is shining...maybe its two of my favorite elements, water and fire coming together in such a spectacular and sparkly way...I really liked this photo taken under the pear tree outside my office.

After our early morning, I spent a little time in the office, mostly doing unsatisfying battle with my office computer. When it became clear I was about the headbutt the monitor, I decided to take a break for a little time at home and some banking...with a plan to return later on.

High tide was flooding Boat Creek Marsh as I drove through, and when I spotted a blue heron feeding with some gulls in the rising waters, I couldn't resist stopping for a photo or two.

I'm sorry to say the heron disagreed with my idea, and fled at the first sight of me and my camera...of course there was also an unfortunate amount of traffic driving along Bridge Road just then, so perhaps it wasn't all my fault the great bird fled.

But I was pretty pleased with this silhouette shot as it flew out of sight. Also, I loved the contrast of these white asters blooming against the background of some autumn-reddened Virginia creeper.

I took a painting break before dinner and the debates and made it to First Encounter just in time for the last rays of sunset. Actually, I didn't stay long, as there was a pretty powerful wind coming off the bay and it made me downright shivery...so much so that even the Image Stabilization feature on my camera couldn't save all but these two images.

Things are good in the Midnight Garden, and I promise I'll have some more painting photos as the weekend progresses. I hope this finds each and every one of you doing well, with fun plans for at least some part of the weekend!!

Cat Stuff...and Coffee

2008-10-01T09:28:00.007-04:00

Here's my very handsome and charming roommate, as seen on one of his favorite new promontories...the bathroom sink. As you can see, the bathroom is still pink, but that is the next painting project on the docket once I finish up the living room this week. Small dinner event at work this evening, so there will probably be no painting when I get home. We'll see if I am motivated to mask the woodwork and such before heading in to the office this morning.

Badum and I were very pleased to get an email from Mom and Dad last night, and learn that Dewey Cat had returned, apparently no worse for wear, from his walkabout experience after escaping into his new Connecticut neighborhood.

During his absence, I'd remained positive. After all, he's a smart "little" kitty, who knows where all his catnip toys and treats and people are...and while he was surely interested to explore his new surroundings, I'm sure he was as happy to return home as Mom and Dad were to see him in the driveway.

Meanwhile, I spent the customary fifteen minutes or so in bed this morning, trying to cajole my gray buddy into getting up and hitting the button that would turn on the coffee maker in the kitchen. I should've bought one with a timer...

It's not easy, nor is there much interest, in getting out from under the covers when there's a warm kitty nestled against your legs, purring his head off. Of course, since he has no need of caffeine and was at least as comfy as me, I had no luck getting him to turn the coffee on.

I wonder, if I set up a network of eyehooks and string...it could run up the bedroom wall, across the ceiling, through the dining room, into the kitchen and then...hmmm, I'd have adapt something to actually flip the switch on the coffee maker...and I AM hesitant to drive a bunch of eye hooks into those newly-painted walls. Thank goodness I have those monkey slippers to slide my feet into as I finally drag myself out from beneath the covers and trudge toward the kitchen.

Here we are, re-snuggling after getting up to turn on the necessary appliances, but returned to bed to await the brewed coffee and listen to the latest bad news as gently presented by NPR. As you can see, my little gray pal was a little suspicious of the appearance of a camera, but I had the flash turned off...and once I'd snapped the picture, it was all about the belly rubbing, at least until that coffee was ready.

Tuesday's Gardens

2008-09-30T22:30:00.020-04:00

I wanted to show you a little of the detail from my work on the living room walls. I was really pleased with the tiny purple flowers down near the baseboard.

A very important accomplishment today: I finally got myself over to Orleans Town Hall and made sure that I was registered to vote here in town...and learned where the polling place is, too.

Don't we have a nice looking town hall? I learned this year that Orleans is one of 3,310 communities designed as a Tree City USA. Here are the criteria for the designation.

After I'd tended my business inside, I poked around with my camera, enjoying the grounds a little. There was some beautiful blue and purple cranesbill (aka, perennial geranium) blooming just outside the front doors.

It's possible it's looked better than it did today at this end of the long growing season, but that didn' t stop this bee from visiting as I snapped my photo.

There was something about this big patch of clover in the lawn that really tickled me...or would've, if I'd actually stopped to roll around in it...but hey, I just moved to town, a little decorum can't be a bad thing.

I stopped at Friends Market today. I was getting something for lunch, but also looking to bring a little fall flower color to what was mostly a gray and dismal autumn day.

I sure love these red and rusty chrysanthemums.

I also noticed they've got some pansies on special. I thought about picking some up, but I want to make sure they are at the beginning of their lifecyle and will continue to bloom through the winter (or at least resume when the winter passes). It sure is nice to have some of those cheery little faces around.

The sun did make a veiled appearance at the end of the day. Here's a shot of the sky from the deck earlier this evening.

Tonight, I discovered that the door to the deck, which appeared to have been long-ago painted white, really only had some sort of residue on it from being exposed to the elements.

Once I started rubbing it with some polishing oil, the white film vanished and the door's frame turned a nice chestnut color...a great contrast with the peachy-orange dining room walls.

Tonight I also decided that the pair of snapdragons needed a little context for their frivolity, so I painted these flower silhouettes onto the walls.

I swear, these are the last elements I'm adding to the walls. The next step will be taping off the radiators and woodwork, so I can do the final sponge coat of the top color of the room.

Monday Monday

2008-09-29T22:55:00.016-04:00

A cloudy morning started us off today and it sort of matched the mood of my heart. It's funny how it changes a little like the tide lately.

I have chosen with no regret, and seem to be finding happiness wherever I look. And yet still there are things I wish had been different, that sometimes make me a little sad.

I miss the Garden, wonder what is happening along the fence, if the rest of the mums have begun to bloom yet, and if the cosmos ever really started blooming, and if any of them turned out to be seashell shaped.

I have a few roots I would like to extract still, particularly some irises only recently planted there. One or two of them promising to be purple. And maybe a little red dianthus. So I will be heading to Harwich one carefully chosen day soon and I'll be sure to bring the camera along, to show you what I find.

I had to pull over at Rock Harbor when I got a look at the sky over the bay as I headed for work this morning. I'm sorry I didn't notice until I was back behind the wheel and driving what the sky behind me looked like...it was pretty amazing looking. Sorry to tease with just the mention.

Hey, this really bugs me. The property you see here used to be a nice wild patch of woods, all trees and wildflowers. And then last year they cleared most of the lot and built this McMansion. It happens WAY too often on Cape Cod lately.

That was enough of an abomination, a crime against nature, to me...and then this week, they took down another tree or two and hoisted this great banner, which is spotlight-illuminated by night and day. It's a pretty residential area and anyway, I bet its not zoned for nightlit billboards...so add disregard for the law to raping the land, needless power consumption and reshaping the world in one's self-important image. Yep, sounds like an apt advertisement for the candidates.

Oh, I'm getting all itchy thinking about it. Here, let's chill with a bachelor button instead.

As you can see, I got more painting done in the living room this evening. It took a little while to sketch in the crow. I wanted to make sure it looked just right before doing anything with the permanance of black paint.

I'm pretty happy with how its looking right now.

Remember way back on September 13th, when I was painting the bedroom with Cape Cod Gray and tapped the end of the roller on my palm?

I did sort of like the pattern that made...especially as my mind began to transform it into some kind of stylized cave painting version of the sun. And when Patrick suggested in comment that it represented a Brand New Day, I knew it had to be front and center in my plans for the living room.

In fact, it kind of brought together the idea of the garden as cave painting.

It was very important, though, to make the sun a big icon in the scheme of things, and it had to be perfectly round...so I needed something big and round to trace.

In a stroke of luck, I found this pristine metal garbage can lid in the barn outside. What a find! Not only is it perfectly round and just as big as I'd hoped...but also one of those lids that feels fun in your hand, you know, like you've just picked up a great shield and are ready for battle...well, would be, if you also had a sword, and even the slightest clue what to do with it.

I lit my butterfly candle this evening with thoughts toward an orange tiger-striped buddy of mine - Mom and Dad's Dewey cat - who seems to have wandered away from the house in Connecticut they've all just moved into this past week.

I wish him courage and bravery and resourcefulness, and whatever else he needs to make a safe return happen. And meantime, hugs and the power of positive thinking are sent to Mom and Dad.

It's like a mania: tonight I stenciled some more leaves on this particular tree part of the living room wall. I almost think there are enough now...but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there."

"It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between a man who cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said."

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, 1950.

Painting Thoughts on a Stormy Day

2008-09-29T08:18:00.018-04:00

With the heavy rains that spattered against the windows and the exterior walls of the Nest overnight, it would have been an absolute joy to stay snuggled in bed a little longer this morning.

Alas, I had an early morning appointment (the customer had insisted, over my minor protests about the restaurant not yet being open, etc.) scheduled...so was up to prepare for that and also got myself ready to visit the beach after the meeting.

So you can imagine my annoyance to get to work and discover that the appointment had been cancelled in a phone message around 8 a.m...although the message clearly mentioned that the decision not to attend the meeting had been reached the night before...when I was still at work.

So, thanks for your lack of consideration, Potential Customer...I hope there isn't too much bad wedding kharma blow-back from this for you! And that's about as negative as I'm going to let you make me...

My visit to Nauset Beach was certainly a good and fast curative to any crankiness I had about being up and about so early...as Hurricane Kyle churned things about a hundred miles out, there was some wind and rain (I was barefoot, but in a slicker...and delightfully soaked with a warm rain when I finally headed back to the car...more pictures in the previous blog post, for those who may've missed that one!)...and some exciting surf. Our waves here on the Cape are not world-reknowned, though there is still a culture of surfers, who were certainly out there yesterday. But some of the waves yesterday were big and impressive...and once in a while crashed with the surprising KAPOW of a cannon shot.

Most satisfying.

And then it was home to dry off, have a bit of breakfast and turn my attention to getting a little more of the Nest whipped into shape, painting-wise.

The living room remains the focus, as I added some more stenciled leaves to the two tree parts of the room. Since the leaves will become less visible when I've applied the top coat of paint in a day or so, I'm pondering adding a few more leaves to this particular tree-top representation. I guess it will depend on how I feel later on.

I enjoyed some blogger communication today, as I chatted with both Marc and Jess on the phone about their plans to visit Cape Cod for the upcoming Columbus Day weekend. They've actually made reservations at an Inn just down the street from the Nest, as it turns out...and there's talk of an appearance by Marc's Chicken and Noodles, as recently featured at his blog!

Although I will have to work for some of the weekend (these three day occasions are great times to schedule a special event), I look forward to spending the rest of the time with these guys, and also Patrick, who may be catching a ride with them for a return visit to the Nest. (I'll have to save some painting...he's awfully good at it...)

Much has been made about how cool and enjoyable my roommate is. While the Cat Dood is not, like some boys, particularly fond of kissing (he mostly hates when I smooch on him), he is in many other ways a great companion, both fun and caring and not obsessed (as dogs can be) with his next meal. In fact, he is not unlike Ferris Bueller in that, for him, Leisure Rules. If there is a real point against him, he is the only roommate I've ever had who leaves footprints in the bathroom sink.

When he first came to live with me and was a little mal-nourished, he did make a good impression with a mouse-kill, but since then, his interest in mousing has probably been mellowed by being well-fed. I have often joked that he is still interested in mice...the trick is getting them to roll around in the catnip.

So this evening, I was surprised and interested to discover that Badum was doing just a little bit of hunting, and had sort of cornered a breathless and wide-eyed little gray mouse under a bookshelf in the dining room. He chased the mouse from one side to another...and my participation (moving the shelf out from the wall), really only complicated the situation by knocking something off the shelf, which created a diversion during which the mouse was able to dash to the living room...and catch his breath under the relative safety of the baseboard heater, while the cat continued to stalk the place where the mouse had been minutes before.

We'll have to keep an eye on this situation and see what happens and perhaps I'll try not to help next time.

Meanwhile, once I'd finished adding stenciled leaves to the walls, I had a little extra paint left over, and so decided to add that remaining paint onto the walls in a texture that will be somewhat concealed by the finish sponge coat on these walls.

For the texture, I crumpled one of those plastic grocery bags and used that as my paint application tool. Interesting effect, I've always thought, and as I said, only some of it will still be visible when all is said and done.

As I did that, I also made use of the cardboard stencils I made last week, using them to apply some of that paint in the form of large leaves along the baseboard of the interior walls. And then I started playing around with some of the other images I wanted to add onto the walls.

Patience has a little projector thing-y that helped me get some of those images enlarged, though it was not quite as helpful about the enlargement as I had hoped at the start.

While I had to adapt my plan a little bit, things seem to be coming together pretty nicely...and before the night was over, I had the chance to paint in a couple of accent bits, which I'm pretty thrilled with.

Working on this room is so interesting - I find that so many images and ideas and experiences in the Garden, on the blog, in this crazy world of ours are finding their way out of my brain and into my hands and fingers and brushes and stuff and making their way onto the walls here.

Patrick mentioned something in his blog yesterday about how we all seem to become inspired by one another through sharing our experiences and such in bloggety-blog land. I've certainly found that to be true...and in ways I never quite guessed when I started the Midnight Garden a few years back...and in ways I'll mysteriously say you can't possibly imagine. Or maybe you can.

So maybe I'm looking at some of this re-decorating process as a sort of visual journal, an out-growth of that whole experience. Is it all about just addressing the experiences I've had? Am I trying to visualize the future I want? Maybe I'm just thrilled with the way these two dragonflies seem to be dancing around one another and the way the living room's turning into an extension of the garden that grows in my heart.

The creative process of it all certain seems to be opening more doors to the future for me, so I think I'm doing just what I'm supposed to be doing...and exactly where I'm supposed to be doing it. That's an awfully good feeling.

I ran out of steam later in the evening, though I still had a few more things I'd hoped to get painted. But that solar/tribal image and the crow will just have to wait.

Maybe this evening I'll have some fresh energy to tackle that...but I think I'm also going to have to find time to watch last week's two-hour premiere of HEROES before tonight's new episode comes on...so I may find myself distracted with other, very important things.

As I faded to dark last night, I enjoyed an episode of Planet Earth on Discovery Planet. Sigourney Weaver is a great narrator for this terrific series that shows you amazing things you can barely imagine exist in the world. If you have the chance, check it out. It's truly television worth watching.

Sunday at the Beach with Kyle

2008-09-28T11:03:00.010-04:00

HURRICANE KYLE LOCAL STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
1103 AM EDT SUN SEP 28 2008






...HURRICANE KYLE WILL PASS EAST OF NANTUCKET EARLY THIS AFTERNOON...

.AT 1100 AM AST...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE KYLE WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 40.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 67.7 WEST OR ABOUT 140 MILES EAST-
SOUTHEAST OF NANTUCKET MASSACHUSETTS AND ABOUT 355 MILES...575
KM...SOUTHWEST OF HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA.

KYLE IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 24 MPH. THIS GENERAL
MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT DAY OR SO WITH SOME
DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...THE CENTER OF KYLE
SHOULD PASS EAST OF NANTUCKET AND CAPE COD EARLY THIS AFTERNOON AND THE
COAST OF MAINE TONIGHT. THE STORM WILL MOVE NEAR OR OVER NOVA SCOTIA
AND NEW BRUNSWICK TONIGHT AND EARLY MONDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 80 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. KYLE IS
A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. KYLE IS MOVING
OVER COLDER WATERS AND WEAKENING IS LIKELY DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
THE SYSTEM SHOULD LOSE TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON MONDAY.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 70 MILES...FROM THE
CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 205
MILES.

Rainy Daze

2008-09-27T09:56:00.008-04:00

As it was so many places in the Northeast, yesterday on Cape Cod was all about the rain. It's funny, how much more accepting of the rain I was when I had a nice big garden to benefit from the watering. Of course, that'll be the case again before long...but for now, the rain was just an annoyance, a difficulty in the day, the cause of perpetually wet sneakers.

Since my injured eye continues to be slower than expected in its recovery, my eye doc sent me off for a second opinion, which meant half an hour's ride through the heavy rains in plenty of traffic. Since the blurry vision in that eye also seems to be a sort of mental trigger encouraging me to want to sleep, the driving was a bit of a challenge. Happy to say I am still here.

This second doc has prescribed me a variety of drops, as well as some nighttime goop, to help heal my eye. In addition to the abrasion, which is healing, I also have something called corneal dystrophy, which she likened to being similar to when the grout that holds your tile in place loosens up...except of course, we're talking about my FREAKING eye.

And also, ironically, I have dry eyes...which just seems like final proof of the uselessness of the emotional tears, which have been in abundance the last few weeks, but seem to be tapering off a little lately (most of what remains may probably be attributed to the Nicodemon's little tantrums--after all, it's now been 71 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes and 53 seconds!!!).

Anyway, hopefully all that will help my vision to clear up as things heal. Meanwhile, the rain let up for a little while as I was headed home from work last night and although I wanted to get home to see what I could of the Debate, I also was happy to pause at Rock Harbor for a few minutes and stand out in the fresh sea air and snap a photo or two.

Once I was home and had some dinner, I stenciled a few leaves onto the living room walls, before settling down to call it a night. It's starting to look pretty cool...I wonder what I'll be able to accomplish on Sunday, my next day off.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, the laundromat calls me on the way to work...and it will be a full evening at work as we host a Comedy Night fundraiser for the local Pop Warner Football. There's someone billed as a "sports comedian"...so there'll either be jokes about football (oh, yay...), or perhaps its his delivery of the material that's athletic; we'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure I'd remembered to tell you that the cool ceiling light fixture in the living room does indeed work, though I will be picking up a little putty to tighten up the loose light sockets. Just a utilitarian bulb in there now, as I work on the painting, but will be in the market for something a little more interesting later on.

There's a break in the Raining just now, though it appears that may be our theme for much of the next week. Tomorrow, we are to be enjoying some more storminess, as Tropical Storm (possibly by then, hurricane) Kyle will be passing by us, hopefully safely east of our location.

Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, At the Nest...

2008-09-26T00:44:00.008-04:00

My computer's running a little faster and smoother this evening, although you can see from this image that the monitor is still a little substandard and color-blind. I invested in a 4 GB USB flash drive this evening. My CD burner hasn't been reintroduced into my computer set-up since the move, partly because it didn't seem to be working so great beforehand.

But at least the new gadget, reasonably priced at $39, I thought...has allowed me to get all the summer's great photo files off the hard drive, without having to just delete them. While I was at Staples, I did drool a little over the monitors...but I'll have to wait a little while longer on that, in hopes of a nice sale or special or something.

After some dinner tonight, I broke out one of the stencil sheets I picked up at AC Moore a little while back and poured a out a bit of the red brick and the peach colored paints, side by side in a pan and then used the blend to stencil some small maple leaves onto the living room walls.

As you can see, I had a little fun with the remainder of those two colors and their blendings, when I decided to see what sort of results I could get using a plastic knife to lay on some tree trunks, as I hope to evoke more of that Tree House feeling the place has.

I also used some white paint to stencil on some leaves...I'll also stencil some in a shade or two of green, eventually, over those...and all this will be blended backward into the wall once I apply the eventual top color.

I suspect it may be difficult to explain in advance, and may seem a little busy on the face of things. I ask you to watch and see and be patient. I have a feeling about how this will play out, and so far, those feelings or instincts seem to be serving me well, at least as regards the painting. Is it creativity, or madness? And what exactly is the difference supposed to be there, anyway? Lately, I'm more uncertain than ever. But mostly, I'm okay with that.

Forecasts indicate that some tropical weather coming up the coast in our direction will bring a generally crappy weekend, weather-wise. Fortunately, I have this left-over image of the bay last Saturday evening that I've been meaning to share with you.

Do be sure to click to embiggify this one, so you can see all those birds feasting in the tidal shallows just off-shore.

Nature Calling

2008-09-25T21:02:00.013-04:00

Thinking back on the weekend and my evening walk to the beach with Patrick, I can't believe that we stopped to slip our noses into any variety of rosebuds along the way and came away with disappointing results nearly every time...but never thought to stop for a sniff at the pink roses in the front yard here at the Nest, which are quite fragrant.

Java and Birdie have both posted about insects recently, and they reminded me that I've had a few encounters of the bug and insect variety in the past week or so, which I've been remiss about sharing with you. I've uploaded each one of the following to BugGuide.net in hopes of learning more about each of these...and as always, I'll try to update as information warrants.

As we began the painting project in the dining room on Saturday, we discovered two of three of this kind of spider. This one, I'd say was maybe almost the size of a quarter...but it's possible it's grown larger in my memory, too.

Each one I managed to coax into a plastic cup for transport outside, where they were tossed gently off the deck, once I'd checked to be sure no Miss Muffet sat below.

This nasty lookin' little buggy is, of course, an earwig. They always give me the creeps, though they are, apparently, mostly harmless.

This jumpy little spider dude lives in my car, or at least that's where we recently encountered one another. He seems to enjoy running around on the ceiling in my Saturn.

I'm wondering how jumpy I should feel about him being in there, since he seems to be good at hopping and jumping, himself, darting back and forth overhead.

I'm not sure what this gangly thing is. Of course, I see them every year, are they some kind of mayfly or midge or something. It was a couple inches in length, at least, and we crossed paths a while back, the night I painted the bedroom Cape Cod Gray.

I was a little concerned for its welfare, as I hadn't discovered it until after I'd begun painting, but it managed to stay clear of the wet paint, but was never far away from wherever I was working as I made my way around the room.

Of course, these encounters with Mother Nature are all pretty harmless. My friend Heidi writes me this evening from Texas:

"you know we had a little dust up here right? Ike? Or did the news not cover it so much because Bush is from here and it wasn’t Katrina? Or was it? Have a look. We are about 80 miles away from Galveston and we still have neighbors waiting for power. Some did get flooding and some more got trees though their houses...the mosquitoes down there are the size of your hand and outnumber the people about a thousand to one!"

And it occurred to me that I really haven't been hearing very much about the wrath of Hurricane Ike. I mean, I watched the CNN coverage when the storm hit, but I haven't been in the loop about much of the aftermath...and I'm not sure if that's just me being off the grid as far as TV what with the unsettled nature of Life just lately...or if it really isn't getting much coverage because of the idiocy of Sarah Palin as a Vice Presidential candidate or the bail-out of the collapsing Wall Street...which I certainly HAVE been hearing enough about.

And so in case I'm not the only person out of the loop on this one, here's the link Heidi sent along to some of the absolutely amazing and awesome photos coming from Galveston and Houston in the wake of this powerful storm.

Kinda makes an itsy-bitsy spider not seem like such a big deal, you know?

Some Thoughts, Mostly About Paint

2008-09-24T08:10:00.018-04:00

So far, Sleep is a fleeting visitor here at the Nest. At first, it was the unsettled nature of the Moving In...and the whole sleeping on the floor thing. But lately, even with the arrival of something soft to sleep upon, there is the combination of the bright morning light...and assorted random questions and thoughts that roost heavily on my mind, like the blackbirds in the treetops outside.

They have been gathering there a lot lately, the air full of their quiet chatter of clicks and pops and such. I've not yet gotten out the binoculars (though I did recently check to be sure they made the move with me - they have), but I believe these are mostly red-winged blackbirds, quieter at this end of the season, and possibly these gatherings are practice for the day soon when they will gather here, and abruptly head off in a southerly direction for the coming winter.

I happened to be outside last evening when they took to the air from these tree tops, in two waves...and the evening light was such that I was pretty sure that they were segregated by gender as they took flight. Interesting. Of course, that said, the two waves of birds seemed to merge into one greater cloud of birdiness as they flew toward the setting sun and the bay.

I wish I could get a photo or two of the Feline Zoomings, when they occur, so you would know that we don't refer to some kind of other activity when we speak of tearing about the apartment like cheetahs or pumas.

But anyway, here's the Furry Man enjoying some cat TV--there's a very popular bird feeder in the side yard below the window he's perched in here.

And here's a look at the morning's light yesterday, as filtered through breeze-swaying treetops and shining on the newly-painted walls of the dining room. You can see how the bright early light here almost totally washes out the color of the walls.

And I also took the photo because the unfocussed nature of it reminded me of what my vision's continued to be like out of my recently-poked right eye. I'd been continuing to visit my eye doc, who was counseling patience...but yesterday, he agreed that things had actually gotten a little worse over the weekend, and so now I've got these steroid eye drops to put in a few times a day...which seem to be helping. I just hope my one eye doesn't get all big and muscle-y and angry.

Here's Agent LaChat again, now lounging on the unmade bed(he prefers it that way), his whithering stare reminding me he is no fan of flash photography.

And meanwhile, out on the deck, the potted lantana is a continuing pleasure. I just love these red and orange and yellow flowers...and I wonder about how nice a framed photo of them might look hanging on the newly-painting kitchen walls here at the Nest.

The kitchen painting was on the schedule for last night again, with just one wall remaining. I'm glad it wasn't done, as well, as it gave me a chance to take a few more pictures of the process, because Java has questions. She's the Queen of Questions, actually; it's just one of the things I like about her.

Doc Kline told me once long ago that the only stupid questions were the ones you kept to yourself, that there's no better way to learn...so getting emails from Java with her queries actually helps me better examine my life. I sometimes hope I am asking her the right questions in reply, to offer the same benefit to her, in kind.

Yes, that's my green hand there. The sponging work is sort of messy on the hands, if a little tidier generally (once the masking of woodwork is done, I don't always need drop clothes or other protections like that.), so I like to wear a glove while I'm doing it. That also makes it easier to take a break and wander off to check emails and stuff...

Now I think Java (and perhaps others of you) were a little baffled by my previous entry, in which I spoke about the texture of sponging a solid color, and how working the paint brings out the over and under tones of the color you're working with...so I'll try to clarify here.

Here's the sort of pattern you get working with a nice big sea sponge. In this case, I'm working with a dry sponge, as it gives me a stronger texture. You can get a softer, more blended look (which works well if you are sponging over OTHER colors) if you wet the sponge first...but that can also be a little messier, since the paint gets a little goopier with the introduction of additional wetness.

The interesting thing about sponge painting is that, like working with a brush or roller, it starts out as being an additive process. For example, here we start with the Pepto pink walls and each time the sponge touches, I leave the pattern of the sponge in the dark red brick of Mexicana.

But the whole point is that eventually, I want the entire wall to be covered with that color, so that the pink is un-see-able. As I continue to touch new places on the wall, the paint is spread about...but as the pink space becomes covered and I go back to fill in the gaps...the painting process also becomes a bit subtractive, thanks to the sponge. Every time it dispenses a little paint, it also absorbs a little back...and so in some places, you get a lighter tone.

And in bit and places where you get a second coat of the color, you get darker tones. Going back and doing a second coat of sponging helps you to cover more of those lighter areas, and they become smaller, specklings in the solid color of the wall.

So while you still end up with more or less a single color on the wall, you also get a sense of the paler notes of the color (although transparent, it is a strong enough color that the real pinkiness of the under doesn't really come through...or won't once I've been back with a tiny brush or Q tip to finish the last cutting in bits...), and also some darker notes, too.

I love working with sponge treatments, because the pattern actually distracts from the imperfections of the wall you're painting, as opposed to simple brush-and-roller treatment, which lays the color out nice and smooth...a great look when you are hoping for that. The walls here at the Nest are nothing if not imperfect, which honestly, makes them a little more beautiful to me.

I think this photo to the right gives you a sense of the patterns on the sponging, though it's hard to catch with the camera. This was after the first coat of the other evening, and before I went back over it freshly last night. Now the lighter spots you see here are actually a little more muted, as they've been divided into much smaller bits of lighter tones by the second sponge coat.

I don't know if that answers questions you've had, or just brings up more. I know there was also some discussion about whether the brick red and the remaining pink pantry would play nicely together, so I've included this shot here to show you that I think, tentatively, we might be just fine.

You can see on that one pink wall there's been some spackling and I don't have the same deep pink to re-paint with...so I'll be addressing that with a paler pink and an interesting plan still in formation. Of course, you'll be the first to know what I do, when I get around to it!

And here's a shot of the kitchen from just outside the apartment, to give you a sense of the more-or-less finished product, after the last of the masking tape was pulled off this morning.

In the midst of this project, Lenny and I have also removed the nasty old stove that was here alongside the fridge, and brought in the brand new one, which is kind of exciting (due to the size of the kitchen, it's a little small for the cookie sheets I currently own, so I'll have to research smaller ones before the holiday baking season rolls around).

We're smaht enough to have a professional coming by later today to make sure the propane lines are hooked up properly and pilot lights lit right and all.

[On a somewhat related note, Patrick's recent visit has sparked a small flurry of inquiries from some of you, wondering if painting skills were a requirement for visiting the Nest...and I'm here to let you know that, No, painting is not required. You can send me your CVs, resumes, bios and so on, in an email, which will no doubt enlighten me as to what actual home-building skills you CAN bring to the Nest...and then we can talk. Of course, if your name's Carter Oosterhouse, you can come right over. ; ) ]

Kitchen Paint and Flowers

2008-09-23T00:17:00.011-04:00

The on-going painting campaign at the Nest resumed shortly after the sun had set on Sunday evening, as I turned my attention to the terribly-pink kitchen walls, which are being covered with a brick red called Mexicana.

I'll admit I was a shade non-plussed to open it in the artificial light of evening, where it seemed a little browner than I thought I liked. And I still see a little of that in proper daylight, but it's a sort of terra cotta note, which I quite like.

And I'm very fond of the way the peachy-orange dining room walls are playing with the red of the kitchen.

I'm not brushing/rolling the Mexicana, though. I'm applying with a sea sponge, which is creating a sort of mottled texture to the painting. Plus, the more you work the paint with the sponge, the more you can get the over and under tones of the color to come out a little to build on that texture.

The cutting in's actually the worst with this treatment, since you need a wee bit of sponge to get into the cracks and corners...and I've had some bad luck with masking tape adhesives failing just as I start laying paint along the edge.

Ah, well...all the trim in the place will get a nice fresh coat of white once all else is finished, so no real worries there.

There's just the west wall of the kitchen left to get the Mexicana, though that will be a project for tomorrow night after work.

The bricky-red should butch up the pink walls that will remain in the pantry.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share with you a few snapshots from the garden at work.

I just love these yellow David Austin roses. I can't recall the name of this variety, but the scent is just lovely, even muted a little by the recent cool temperatures.

These single pink roses are also nicely scented. You can see that the rose plants are looking a little scraggly at this end of the season, even though they are continuing to bloom. They'll do so on and off til around November, weather allowing, which it often does. That's always nice.

Just a bit of blush from cool evenings on the flowers of this PeeGee hydrangea. You can also see the wear of this part of the season here, as well.

This first evening of autumn (sob...) brings us temperatures teetering between 58 and 59 the last couple of hours. It's mostly comfortable, but every once in a while there seems a bit of chilled air current (not really a breeze, per se...) that suggests I ought to have all the windows closed. I've shut a few, but not all of them.

I like the fresh air as much as I enjoy a comfy flannel shirt.

At Summer's End, A Friend

2008-09-22T06:52:00.028-04:00

Look at this lovely morning glory Patience has climbing a string down in the backyard. I just love the delicate purple markings.

Yes, it's been a few days since I've blogged last, and surely you are all wondering just what the Gardener's been up to, how the Nest is coming along and was anything of note done to celebrate the final days of Summer 2008.

Actually, I had just planned on a quiet weekend of painting and time in nature, but it turned out to be a much more interesting and exciting weekend than that, as Badum and I ended up hosting our first weekend guest!

In commiserating with a fellow blogger about our recent respective malaises (is that the plural?), I had touted the creative process as a helpful means to distraction...and painting as the sort of process you could do while spending time sorting through your thoughts...and I extended a sort of Tom Sawyer-like invitation to come help paint the apartment this weekend.

But I must admit, it was still a delightful surprise when Patrick called to say he was interested in coming to help paint if I'd been quite serious (perhaps he's realizing that I am rarely all-the-way serious about many things...there's little fun in seriousness, after all) about the invite. Which is how we ended up finally meeting at the bus station in Hyannis late Friday night!

The whole blogging experience (or at least ours) has put us in touch with such a great circle of people, where at least the frameworks for real friendships have been somewhat intensively forged online, and of course, that whole cyber world creates this sense of "imaginary" friends, and you never truly know how you'll respond to someone when you meet them for real.

I'm happy to say Patrick and I seemed to step across the gap between worlds with a hug and a smile...and we quickly moved on to proving that old John Lennon saw about how what people really want to do is sit in rooms and talk...although we proved they also want to do it (the talking, People; heads out of the gutter, please...you cheapen us all with your tawdry little imaginings...) in cars, during inauspicious late-night dinners in Wendy's parking lots...and while walking through marshes...or standing in the cool waters of Cape Cod Bay...or sitting in the sun on the deck with coffee and Cheerios...and yes, even while painting...we did get around to a little bit of that, too.

But we did speak of each one of you. Some more than others, naturally, and almost entirely good things. But I wouldn't be surprised to hear that any one of you spent at least some little piece of the weekend going, "hey, what's that I feel in the Universe...something's going on...why are my ears ringing...?" Yah, that was us. We talked about the Secret Wisdom of Bachelor's Buttons, too.

Look at the color of the dining room: it's called Amsonia Peach, which I chose as my orange component of the rainbow painting scheme for the Nest. It's amazing in the way it changes so totally as the light does. One moment, it's pumpkin pie orange, another moment cinnamon brown or here, with a blush of gold and pink, just like the skin of a peach.

The light changes a lot in this room during the course of a day, so it should be fun to watch as this color transforms right along with it. And also, some of the late day light comes in bounced off the now-pink, but soon to be brick red walls of the kitchen...so it will be interesting to see just how that changes things, too.

It really was a fun weekend. It was nice to have a kindred spirit to talk with about so many things on each of our minds. While neither of us saw this as one of those transformative, "How Someone Got Their Groove Back" weekends, in the process we may have at least realized that we each should actually have grooves, anyway...being fabulous gay guys and all.

And hosting a guest on Cape Cod always carries the additional pleasure of making one slow down and appreciate the incredible beauty around us.

With the recent frenzy of life, I've done little more than drive to local beach parking lots lately, to hurry up and soak in the sunset and snap a few photos before dashing home to rearrange some furniture or paint something.

What a joy it was to slow down and walk through the marsh with someone, laughing out loud (but not LOLing, for gosh sakes...) and talking about it or just soaking it in...and then actually walking out into the bay as the tide began to lap in around us, blue herons and hundreds of other birds flying about overhead, foraging in the shallow waters for their dinner as we snapped photos.

I should say we weren't totally chatterboxes. An evening like this would be pointless if you didn't know when to be silent and let the amazing world be around you.

The late season songs of the crickets sounding a little sad, but sweetly so, from the marsh grass. complemented by the plaintive and ungraceful blat of the great blue heron as it soars across the bay waters, the honk of a fast-moving duck overhead, the lapping of the water around our ankles. The mystery of what the small unseen creatures were who occasionally dimpled the calm surface of the water from below and the way the color of the sky changes so gracefully as the sunlight vanishes and the stars appear overhead....it was all quite soothing and wonderful.

It was good to have the birds' foraging as a reminder for us, as we are neither of us apparently clock-watchers, especially not with all the nature and talking and quiet to enjoy...but it wasn't too long after that we discovered that the Gardener's Nest is indeed within delivery range for a Papa Gino's pizza.

Not watching the clock while chatting is also how we missed the earlier opportunity to get Patrick on a bus back to NY Sunday...and it was as we dashed for the car and the bus station a little while later that we remembered we'd not done a proper snapshot to prove we'd met...and so here's that.

If you get the opportunity to meet Patrick, I highly recommend it. He's fun and smart and thoughtful and all that you imagine he might be...and a little more, too. P, thanks for your company this weekend, it was really great fun. I hope we'll do it again sometime soon (there's more painting to do, after all).

Now on a technical note, I'm excited about having met Patrick for another reason: as a blogger, I can now be validated, at least to a small circle of other bloggers Patrick has met (and more distantly, through all the bloggers they have met), and am proven to be a real person more or less as represented in Blogland (perhaps a touch more neurotic...).

Pinnochio voice: So, look at me, everybody, I'm a real boy!

I stopped into work on the way home from the bus station, which is how I learned that Danny and Sara were still in town at the end of their week's vacation and they invited me to join them for the summer's last sunset...which you can see above.

Though I expressed to Dan the interest his internet fan base had in a further photo shoot in the outdoor shower, I'm afraid we never got around to that this time. ; )

We were really too busy just chilling out as the last gorgeous moments of summer slid down behind the horizon.

And it was really no surprise to me at all that the sun turned a lovely shade of violet as it vanished.

Outer Cape Afternoon

2008-09-18T22:39:00.043-04:00

Twelve years ago this week, I traveled from the Adirondacks to Provincetown, where I spent ten fantastic days exploring the wilds of the Outer Cape, both in the narrow streets and the dunes.

When the days turn a little cool, I always remember that trip and what fun it was. That trip marked the first real vacation for me as a so-called grown-up, and I remember what a joy it was to spend the week in a place where being gay was the norm, not the exception...and by the end of the week, I recall my face actually hurt a little from all the grinning I was doing.

Also, by this time in September, frost has usually put the gardens of the Adirondacks to bed for the winter...but arriving in PTown, I discovered gardens still blooming their little heads off, if looking a little bedraggled for the recent passing of Hurricane Eduardo.

It was this week that made me fall in love with Cape Cod as a place to make a life and by the end of the week, not only was I a grinning fool, but I realized after leaving for home that I was homesick for the place and I began to lay my plans to move out here. The rest, as they say, is history.

Yesterday was one of those pretty fall days. It started that way, anyway. We were still enjoying the warmer temperatures that Wednesday had featured...but while I was doing laundry in the morning, we had some dark skies and the temperature managed to drop ten degrees...a Canadian cold front, someone who was watching the TV told me.

I was back at the eye Doc, to check up on things, as my eye is taking just a little longer to heal than anticipated, but we were able to see improvement since Tuesday, so I will resume being patient with myself, since it was probably hurrying that caused the injury in the first place.

Meanwhile, it was a late September day and I had a hair appointment in Provincetown, so after the laundry, I spent some time in the office and then hit the road for the Outer Cape.

This bit of wild phlox caught my good eye, growing as well as it was in a tiny little bit of earth between two sections of macadam outside the salon. I moved some of this stuff to Harwich last fall, but it never managed to bloom for me during the summer. I wonder if its doing so now...

I've always been impressed with the gardens and plants of Provincetown. The quality of the light is amazing there and so that must encourage plants to do their best, as it also does for painters and other artists. Some of the gardens are narrow little patches in narrow little back or side or front yards...and the results never fail to amaze me.

It's always fun to ramble around town a bit, enjoying the seaside views and the scent of the sea air and such.

Of course, there's always a few interesting people and or dogs to be seen in Provincetown.

With cooler temperatures coming to bear, there weren't any scantily clad beautiful people to enjoy (they have probably headed south for Key West now...as flannel becomes a more popular seasonal choice...), but I enjoyed this dog, who was sharing a bench with its people out on MacMillan Pier.

There wasn't much in the way of boating activity this time of year, but it was still kind of cool to walk out along the dock and enjoy the sky and the seabirds who were filling it.

Plus, from out at the end of the wharf, you get the most enjoyable views of the town itself.

One of the things I had hoped to do while I was in town was to replace a bit of stained glass I had purchased on that long ago trip, which had recently broken. It was a very simple stained glass rainbow flag, but it always made my heart sing a little as it caught the sun.

I was sad to discover that they no longer make this particular bit of stained glass, though after twelve years (and with PTown becoming a little more exclusive as resorts go, the whole rainbow flag culture has faded a little...as you may recall from my hunt for the sight of one of the flags back in June...)...but as I walked away, I was a little surprised at just how sad I felt about it...

...which is when I remember that this was actually my second day without a nicotine patch (62 days altogether since the last cigarette...), and so as I go through this final stage of withdrawal, I suppose its not unreasonable that I should be an emotional mess. This, too, shall pass. Of course, the Nicodemon isn't entirely to blame: it was on that long-ago vacation that I also first met Owen, too.

I enjoyed this large frog outside one of the stores on Commercial Street. He's actually a large vase for the flowers held in his left hand. Pretty cool, huh?

I wandered through some of the shops at the Whalers Wharf complex...just one more representation of the way in which the town has changed in ten years.

Of course, WW used to be a big open area indoors, with a sort of disorganized array of vendors and their relatively inexpensive wares. It was that sort of set-up, I imagine, that allowed the fire that destroyed the place the winter I moved here to take hold and spread so crazily.

While the floors in this new place appear wood-like, they are actually some kind of composite flooring cast to look like wood. I did enjoy the way the hanging gardens looked from the second story, though.

And these steel flowers added a nice counterpart to the cosmos I found blooming a little further down Commercial Street, as I made my way back to the car.

A few weeks back, I made a big deal out of all the things I'd done in the Harwich garden which probably encouraged my sunflowers to "be all they could be", but I couldn't live Provincetown without showing you these guys. In just a few scant inches of earth between the street curb and the foundation of this house, these tenacious little fellows are putting on a nice show all their own.

Cape Cod Light, aka, Highland Light, has always been one of my favorite things about the outer Cape and I used to enjoy the way its beam would sweep across the Provincetown night sky.

It was actually a story about the moving of the lighthouse away from the crumbling cliffs above the ocean in Truro that gave me the idea to come to Provincetown on vacation that year long ago...and I've always considered this lighthouse a sort of beacon for me.

A nice sunset capped the day.

With forecasts predicting a low of forty degrees possible overnight, I was happy to head home and close some windows in the apartment, and to spend a little time snuggling with my buddy, Badum, who is pretty good at throwing the heat on a cool evening.

My God, It's Full of Stars

2008-09-18T22:39:00.015-04:00

So, Tuesday was a big day here. We got a bed.

I had managed to speak with Bethy and get our plan in place: she would be heading east after dropping the children at school, probably arriving here in Orleans about the time my early afternoon appointments were to conclude. In fact, that's exactly how it worked out.

Now, there was one minor wrinkle to the day, which actually occurred late the night before, when I awoke in the wee hours and, trying to put my glasses on, somehow managed to poke myself in the eye - pretty hard - with them, instead.

The only thing worse than actually hurting yourself is doing so in a way that makes you feel pretty stupid, as well as hurt. You'd think after putting on...and taking off...glasses for nearly forty years, I'd have it down to a science...and honestly, I thought so before the other night, too. But somehow, jab.

I went to my eye Doc first thing Tuesday morning, with one blurry eye. He took a look and advised me there was a definite dimple on my eyeball, but fortunately, no tearing or ripping, so at least I didn't harm myself too seriously. He suggests this will actually take care of it itself in a few days time.

So, with one blurry eye and one good eye, I went through the day and really, with all the good going on, a little blurry vision was hardly a huge concern. Beth arrived more or less right on schedule and there was a great jumping about, squealing and so on when we saw one another...which you'd have thought we hadn't done in YEARS...but still, that's what friends are all about.

We began our visit with a nice long lunch at the restaurant and then took the party home to get the business of sliding the mattress and box spring upstairs to the deck.

That went surprisingly well, and then we got back to the silly business of laughing and giggling about things past, and chortling and chuckling about recent adventures...and then just roaring with laughter about new things...well, surely you all have friends like this, so you must know how it goes.

After we thought we'd exhausted all that, we drove across town, since I was insistant that Bethy be sure to see the Atlantic after driving all the way from Connecticut, and she had no real problem with that plan.

That we forgot to take the string and bungees off the roof rack from the boxspring only gave us a good reason to stop at the Rock Harbor boat launch first, where we got to see Cape Cod Gray in its natural environment.

And then it was off across town, where we found the Atlantic tide on the rise and the water temperature reasonable enough to take off our shoes and get our feet and jeans a little wet. And we found, as good friends do, plenty more to talk about.

When we'd had our fill of shoreline cavorting and just sitting watching the amazing sky, we headed back to town and found a homemade ice cream shop, where we each enjoyed overly-large Cake Butter ice cream cones, in chocolate and colored-sprinkle-dipped sugar cones in their outdoor garden.

Ah, what fun it was to spend some time together, and how we look forward to doing it again soon...all too soon, Bethy was heading back to CT and the briars of the working day world.

But the cat and I are both grateful for the addition of an actual bed to our environment. We have slept especially well the last two evenings...and in his case, lots of the rest of the time, as well.

You can also see what I've been doing to the bedroom walls here...adding an assortment of different sized stars, just as I did in my last bedroom. I found it to be a real fun and relaxing look at the last place, so I'm happy to have adapted that scheme to this location, with some different background colors. This room's just about finished, which will be the key to getting more progress in the rest of the apartment.

A Few Things Including the Moon

2008-09-16T23:59:00.001-04:00

Still catching up on a back-log of images...

On Monday evening after work, I came home and jumped right into the painting business. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. Now that I have a phone and an answering machine, there were messages to listen to, as well.

Now, Comcast may have referred to this as a new number...but they didn't mean mint. In this case, I appear to have gotten the telephone number of someone named Josh, who ran up a great bit of credit card debt with Capital One, contacted credit counselors about consolidating that debt and also pre-ordered the new Star Wars video game (which is now available) before abandoning the number for me to inherit.

But somewhere in there was also a message for me from my pal, Bethy, who it turned out has a double mattress and box spring in good shape she wants to pass along to me. So we phone tagged a little about the plans to get that to happen...and then I went off to do some painting.

In this case, I was daubing a bit of gold leaf onto the bedroom walls with a sponge, to get a little sparkle going on. The stuff really reeks, though, so even though the windows were open, I was happy to be finishing that just about the time of sunset, and so I made my way off to First Encounter to see the evening's show.

I had barely arrived when this great bundle of energy and fur nearly bowled me over. Never fear, it was my friend Randy's kid, Alexander.

'Xander and I met last week for the first time, and at that time, I happened to have dog treats in my pockets as I was fresh from a visit to the bank...so he gave me the once over and, while disappointed that I was not similarly prepared to see him this week, was still relatively happy to see me.

It was fun to see them, and I enjoyed having a little doggy time.

Randy and I had a chance to visit a little more than during our brief crossing of paths last week, just before everything changed...and so we had much to chat about...and a beautiful sunset and moonrise to enjoy as Alexander explored the dunes and the shoreline for the stinky things that dogs enjoy.

After they'd departed for the rest of their evening, I stayed a little longer to enjoy the feeling of the warm sand on my bare feet and catch the last lingering bits of light over the bay, before heading home for a late dinner and a little more painting.

Oh, what a beautiful time September is.

Did you know the full moon closest to the Autumn equinox is called the Harvest Moon? I suppose we all do, thanks to the old song.

Two out of three years, the Harvest Moon is a September phenomena, but the other year it occurs in October.

They named it that since it appears to rise at a similar time for a few nights, only 20 minutes later than the night before, instead of the usual 50 minutes, giving farmers a little more time to spend in the fields at the harvest.

Weekend Wrap-Up

2008-09-16T20:41:00.013-04:00

This coneflower rudbeckia was apparently a new seedling in the Harwich garden, as it was only just coming into bloom last week when I went back to move a few plants. That was all the encouragement I needed to pot it up and bring it along on the adventure.

Same goes for this chrysanthemum, which is just now sporting buds. Both of these, as well as the coreopsis seen in the background above were planted just outside my new front door, alongside the driveway...not far from that pink rose hedge.

Sunday was a rainy day, though not as much of a rain-out as Saturday had been. It was a day off for me...the first true one since the move and I spent most of the day painting in the bedroom. Still, there was a break in the showers around noontime and while the clouds lingered throughout the day, I couldn't resist a little ramble around to explore the new yard a little more closely.

Here's a shot of the nest from the back yard, the deck-balcony clearly visible.

Found a nice stand of goldenrod at the back of the property. I just love this stuff, it's bright yellow festooning our days just as other plants start to think about winding down for the season. It's always a nice flash of gold on a gray September day.

I also wandered over to the gardens at the property next door. They are primarily summer residents, so it was cool to be able to walk around in their yard without feeling like an intruder. Pretty gardens, too.

Ah, but it's the painting you'll want to hear about...and I will admit that this was one of those parts of the project where I wasn't sure it was going to come out as I'd imagined...and it took a lot of control not to second guess myself, as I began applying crazy, curly-edged flaring stripes of the purple Field Of Heather over the base coat of Cape Cod Gray, which is sort of a blue-green, turned a little more greeny by the close proximity of the purple tones for contrast.

I wanted the vertical stripes, to give the room a little more feeling of height, but the curly edges soften the rigidness of the stripes...plus making them uneven in size and flared a bit toward the ceiling also gives the room a slight illusion of being a little bigger than it is. All justification, when really, I got the idea for the un-uniform stripes by considering the idea of being inside a flower blossom.

Anyway, once the whole room was done and dried, I liked the look a lot more. There's a sort of whimsical "Dr. Seuss designed me some wallpaper" look to it that I think is sort of comforting for a sleeping room...and anyway, this is just stage two. I think you'll like it when it's closer to finished, as I am liking it more and more as I continue to work on it.

As the weekend drew to a close, we prepared to welcome the latest full moon. Here's a shot of it from the deck/balcony, as the wind drew thin wispy clouds quickly across it's face.

(Yes, I'm still running a little behind here. There's more of the painting project, and other household news to share, but we can leave that as a comfortable source of suspense until next time, eh?)

Rainy Weekend Snapshots

2008-09-15T08:06:00.000-04:00

Colors of Inspiration

2008-09-14T22:50:00.010-04:00

So, having chosen all my colors and my general plan for decorating the apartment, it remained now to try to figure out the best way to present that color...and of course, to make the Gardener's Nest my own.

I already had some interesting ideas along the line of cave paintings for the living room, but was open to suggestion for the other rooms. So, imagine my amusement and excitement when this old book appeared on my stairs late last week.

At first, I thought perhaps Patience had played fairy god-landlord and left it to encourage me, but it turns out the book had been loaned by her to a potential sign painting customer...and they'd left it on my steps when they returned it.

So it was much more random, but no less welcome an arrival on the shores of my creativity.

I've always been kind of fascinated with the styles and patterns of the Art Deco period, and also ironically amused by a society that treats nature with such disregard yet uses representations of it constantly...to the point of it almost being unnoticeable. This book was lots of fun to flip through, especially since the patterns featured were almost entirely floral in nature...and the color combinations were pretty enjoyable, too.

I really liked this poppy pattern, and it occurred to me it would be a relatively easy design to recreate as a floor painting...if I was ever feeling quite that motivated. Anyway, the pattern is fun and simple. If I was going to recreate any of them, it would be this one, I think.

I could say the same of each of these. I'm not sure I have it in me to be quite so elaborate. After all, it would be nice to have the painting finished and the business of unpacking and properly settling in well underway by October...and some of these would take considerably longer, I think.

But still, looking at these got me thinking about some ways to bring more of my beloved flowers into the design of the place, and so with that in mind, I visited AC Moore (the craft supply store) yesterday and picked up a few inexpensive flower stencils to play with.

I really liked the way the pansies were represented in the pattern below, and I might actually try to recreate a bit of that, though not necessarily with all the detail of the Roman figures and such. Which isn't to say I'm not fond of the way the flowers replace their heads sometimes, or seem to be utilized as shields and armor.

And of course, there's someone in the household who thought the cat representation was something we ought to do. We'll see. For my part, I was particularly fond of these doves and might find a place for a single one, hand-painted, somewhere in the Nest.

The Earth Turns

2008-09-13T02:11:00.024-04:00

And so a few days pass and it's been a week suddenly. I figured I'd check in and let you all know what's been going on, more or less.

We had a little rain this evening, perhaps in sympathy for those standing in the face of Hurricane Ike's arrival along the Gulf Coast this overnight, but generally, it's been a week of lovely days and pleasant evenings...and when possible I've snuck off to enjoy little bits of nature here and there throughout a week filled with other things.

I've now got telephone, cable and internet service at the Nest, which is fun, but the blogging could cut into my actually accomplishing things, too, so I beg your patience with sporadic posting. I'll try to make the wait worth your while.

Thanks to some regular watering, the recently potted up annuals seem to be recovering nicely from such late-season treatment.

Most of the paint has arrived now and I've even made a bit of a start on that, getting a nice solid two coats of Cape Cod Gray (which as you can see has a nice blue cast in most lights) onto the walls in the bedroom...as a base for things to come.

I sort of enjoyed this tribal-looking mark I got on my palm in the process...looks like the sort of cool representation of the sun you might see on a cave wall somewhere, eh?

I really like the way the Cape Cod Gray plays with the green that was in so many rooms here. Much of the green will go away, partly because there's been some spackling work and it'd be too tricky to try to match the color. Fortunately, some green walls are spackle free and I'll be preserving those as accents of a sort.

I know this next photo isn't especially clear, but I could hardly resist teasing you with the image of what I found myself sketching on one of the living room walls the other evening. It should embiggify for your straining eyes' ease.

In between applications of the blue paint the other night, I took a break and found myself over at Nauset Beach, on the ocean side. It's about a five minute drive from the Nest, especially with the minimal traffic we're seeing out here now that September's here for sure.

It was after dark, but the sight and sound of the crashing surf in the moonlight was pretty amazing and I just sat on a bench and enjoyed the show for a while.

Another night, I found myself at First Encounter Beach, watching the sun sinking in the west, spreading its saturated colors across the sky in its wake.

All the colors of the rainbow were there in the sky, starting at the horizon and climbing toward the violet heavens. In the center of it all, a sailboat moved silently across the bay, perfectly silhouetted, making it postcard perfect.

That night I forgot my camera, naturally, so you'll have to trust me on that.

As the sun's light faded from the sky and the moon rose in the east at my back, I heard a thrilling sound from the marsh behind me, as the Coyote Revival Meeting got underway. They were far enough away that I wasn't concerned, most likely on the far side of Bee's Creek, but it's funny how the sinking sun and the ebbing tide take away so much sound from an evening, making the cry seem all the louder.

First it was just a single howl, and then the call and response of a second...and then a third...and then all of a sudden there was a great howling frenzy of them, all greeting the moon as she took the sky above.

Someone wrote recently to ask if the Monkey Slippers were still around and yes, they most definitely are. As the season turns and the days cool a little, they are becoming pretty popular again.

We bachelors are managing pretty well, but since it's a landscape of boxes and milkcrates and such still, it's really a cat's playground and Badum's been zooming through the night, or slinking through stacks of boxes and books, or batting around catnip mice to his heart's content, when he's not lying around on his back, admiring the ceiling.

He's almost always met me at the door when I came home, not just here. But it's fun at the new place, as I can hear him talking to me from inside the door as I climb the stairs after being out. Well, until we got television...and now I've caught him snoozing a time or two.

Last weekend, during the move, a misplaced half-packet of cat grass seed appeared and once we'd settled in a little here, I got the seeds planted...Sunday night, I think. Already, it's begun to sprout and will be something to make my buddy feel a little more at home. Plus it's fun to have something new growing.

On the way to the bank this morning, I spotted this pair of birds soaring in the sky above First Encounter Marsh, sometimes just hanging in the air on the breezes from the bay.

Although they look like big seagulls in this particular shot, I did get a much closer look at them before the camera was ready and the wingspan here was truly impressive. I wasn't able to actually get out of the car (there's really no place to pull over), tho fortunately a lack of other vehicles coming along allowed me to stop and get a few snaps.

I still can't say for sure if they were eagles or hawks...I've seen both in that area before...and I suppose it's possible they were ospreys, whom I'm really not familiar with. No matter their identity, they made an impressive sight on an overcast morning.

Remembering

2008-09-11T21:25:00.005-04:00

Pretty Things

2008-09-10T15:22:00.013-04:00

I imagine you all thought I was kidding when I said it was nice to have the chair so Badum would have a place to sit...so I thought I'd share this image with you. I'm sure if I'd gotten there first, things might have gone differently.

But I was hard pressed to sit still last night, trying out the new Swiffer, playing the sliding tile puzzle game with all the boxes, cartons, milk crates and laundry baskets full of stuff, so I could Swiff (is that that proper verb form here? I'm new...), rearranging furniture, etc.

Anyway, he looked too comfortable to move and when I did sit down, I had color swatch charts spread out on the floor around me.

What fun to have carte blanche with colors! I think I've come up with the Plan of Attack, and might even be getting a start on the painting this evening. It just makes sense to try to do as much of it as possible before actually unpacking too much.

Of course, once I was reminded on the radio of the good possibility that the world as we know it might be sucked into a black hole when they turned on that particular accelerator in Switzerland, I did settle down a bit. No point being all exhausted when I get to the Hereafter, I figure. Considering I'd just found a great apartment and paid rent, it made perfect sense that the world might come to an end, at least according to the laws of Murphy.

Still, I was quite happy to see this morning that it had not. Hopefully, those scientists will be able to learn incredible new things about the birth of the Universe without all the trouble of those pesky black holes or dark matter. I can get all that in comic books, for gosh sake.

Considering the last few days, though, I am a little tired and not sure I have loads to say today, so I thought I'd give you a break from all that (and me, too), and just share with you some pretty flower pictures, which have been a bit minimal for the last few days. There are some nice shots from my visit to the garden on Monday that I think you'll all enjoy.

Oh, but I did want to show you first, one of the cool features of the Gardener's Nest I hadn't shared with you yet: this cool, plaster light fixture on the living room ceiling. Not having a supply of spare bulbs, I've not had the chance to see if it works yet (on the list of things to do this evening), but I sure hope it does.

Purty, ain't it?

Traveling Show

2008-09-09T18:39:00.015-04:00

So, I did have coffee out on the balcony this morning, as the sun rose up from behind the trees. It was pretty delightful.

Also, with Lenny's help and wisdom (he's seen many move in and out of this up-in-the-air space...), I was able to get our first piece of cushy furniture into the apartment. Look, we have a chair!!

The interior staircase is narrow and steep, so that wasn't an option for this and other bigger furniture pieces...but we were able to slide it up an aluminum ladder to the balcony (after sufficient coffee, of course), and then temporarily pop off the feet to get it in the door...and voila, the Cat has a place to sit!

It was a full morning, as I finally got around to changing my address with the bank and post office and also arranged for the transfer of Comcast services (phone/internet/TV)--I'm a bit amazed that they were able to schedule me for an install this Thursday morning. I hadn't dared to hope it could be that soon.

Of course, we still haven't a television, though one is coming my way in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, once I've got the Broadband, I'll be able to watch the new episodes of HEROES and Desperate Housewives when they appear on the schedule. Meanwhile, though, I'm quite enjoying the serenity of just NPR on the radio.

There was also a stop at CVS, as I was running low on Altoids (it's been 53 days, 16 hours, 6 minutes and 41 seconds now since you-know-what...) and they have a buy-one, get-one deal...plus I needed a grooming kit, because facial hair waits for no man.

And then it was off to Harwich for a visit to the garden. As you can see, it's looking a bit bedraggled and windblown after last weekend's storm.

I'm sorry to tell you the flags were all snapped off the fence, but that was during a rampage in the rain unassociated with T.S. Hanna - I hope he didn't hurt himself doing it. Oh, but I'm proud to tell you it hasn't slowed the morning glories down AT ALL.

After an enjoyable walk around the block with my girl, I got to the business of disconnecting all the cable equipment, so I'll have it for the install (and to prevent him from ordering any more pay-per-view movies, which I found videotaped on the TV table...)...and then went out to the garden to do a little potting.

Dykewife, the photo above was taken special with you in mind, to assure you that at least some of the fabulous orange calla lily rode shotgun with me as I left town.

I also brought along my favorite heliotrope, and then an assortment of black-eyed susans and mums which were about to bloom. Hopefully the move won't be a set-back for them.

It wasn't nearly as well-organized a move as last autumn's was...but there'd been more time to prepare for that one. Today I only had the car, so I had to choose just a few things...but I hope to make another visit with a friend's pick-up truck on the weekend and we'll see what I get accomplished, then.

One of the fun discoveries came when I realized that the over-grown garden was concealing quite a substantial crop of pole beans and I picked as many as I could find to bring along with me.

There were probably twice as many as seen here by the time I was all done. Along with the latest cherry tomatoes, a handful of crunchy beans fresh from the vine made a nice little lunch as I drove off.

And now, a few shots from the new garden...well, the abbreviated, elevated version, for starters. The previous tenants, upon hearing that I was a Gardener, left behind some window boxes of petunias for me, along with a pensive-looking little gargoyle. I've added a few elves, a pot of mother-in-law's tongue (aka, snakeplant) and a tiny birdbath here.

Here's a pair of pots with some of the marine heliotrope I'm such a fan of, as well as my hanging pot of lantana...and one of those tulip-shaped solar lights (the purple).

Because autumn here on the Cape is so often sort of summery, I did take the time to pot up a window box with some marigolds, bachelor buttons and a zinnia and a snapdragon, too, so I'll continue to have some of my own garden on the porch as the season fades. It looks a little ragged just here, but I think it will bounce back nicely.

Here, my Grandma's elf joins the hanging pot of fuschia, another pot of petunias from the previous tenants, and the ginger plant.

As I finished unloading everything, some great looking storm clouds started swirling and rolling in overhead...and I'd sort of hoped for a real ripper of a thunderstorm. There were a few good booms, but really, all we got was some rain...which was just the ticket for the things I'd just planted and/or moved.

And I didn't mind the storminess, since I'd also stopped by our local Benjamin Moore distributor this morning and they loaded me up with paint swatches and brochures about the nature of color. What fun!!

After The Storm

2008-09-08T19:35:00.016-04:00

It was probably around 8:30 that night when I finally got to the grocery store and the humidity of the approaching Hanna was lingering visibly in the air. The AC of the market was a delight and I lingered for a while, trying to sort out exactly what sorts of things I needed. So many things, and most of them I remembered. But not the plastic cutlery I'd need to cover having forgotten to grab any silverware to eat my Cobb Salad with...so another trip out was required a little later on.

It was great, after such a very long and wet day, to have a nice shower and settle in for some dinner and a bit of snuggle time with the cat, and outside the open windows (most of the rain, naturally, fell while I was actually moving...tho we had a few bands of the stuff come through in the night) we listened to the wind picking up, that exhilerating sound when the gust whistles just a little before dying off that tells you things are getting interesting. But after the day we'd had, "interesting" was a relative thing...and a little of nature's fury was a welcoming cleansing.

Amazingly, I wrote for HOURS once I'd eaten, not having journaled in years, either for fear of having to deal with what I might write, or that someone else might read them and react free of all properly context. After so many years, it was nice to let the words spill out the end of the new pens I bought just for the occasion. It was a fun night, actually, by the light of just one or two lamps, with candles to accent, in case the power should fail...which never happened.

There's not yet a mattress in the Gardener's Nest, and so Badum and I fashioned a nest of our own out of assorted sleeping bags, comforters, afghans and pillows on the living room floor, which is working out pretty nicely for us. We lounged around there together, listening to the radio and the storm. Once in a while, one or the other of us would wander off to explore or examine some new spot or other...the other eventually showing up to see what we were looking at.

We drifted off to sleep as the wind howled outside, rain battering against the roof, but the real fury of the wind came in the early morning hours, when we woke to watch as the treetops outside the windows swayed back and forth.

Still, we weren't troubled by it and relaxed for a little more radio, reading and writing as it came and went...and then, in much cooler, less humid air, the glorious sun returned and the world seemed new.

Not having the computer set up has been driving me a little crazy, but there've been other things to deal with, really...and no internet access at the Nest yet, anyway. So following are some un-retouched photos, snapshots in the real sense, of our new digs. Call these the Before shots.

Without being able to check email or read blogs or anything, I also spent some part of the evening almost entirely figuring out just what sort of decorating schemes might be just right for the place. For the sake of some feeble sense of mystery or suspense, I'll leave those details for another time.

Meanwhile, here's the living room and our current sleeping accomodations. Yes, there's LOTS of green, too much even for this Green-loving Gardener...but it's okay, I can work with it. (Of course, since Sunday I've moved MANY more things in, so to properly picture, imagine almost all the free floor space here filled with boxes or loose piles of books. I think I'll be donating seriously to the local library's ongoing book sale this winter.)

This is the smaller and L-shaped of the bedrooms, which I think will at some point house the comic book collection and probably plenty of the afore-mentioned books. Again, green...but please, take note of the fantastic natural light coming into every room. I keep thinking I've left lamps on, and then remember I hardly have any.

Next up is the master bedroom. Double bed frame, but no mattress or box-spring. I've a plan to acquire one, but that may still be a little ways off, while I concentrate on either things.

Still more green (but a slightly paler shade than the Elphaba Green of the other rooms) as we circle around to the dining room. Again, all the floor space now full.

From the dining room, one can go out onto the balcony through the screen door--we love the cross-breeze from that--or up a step to either the bathroom (below, right) or the kitchen (below, left). Both of those latter rooms, as you can see, are rather pink. This too, will change.

I have learned, from the previous tenants, though, that the rather intense pink of the kitchen is called Bed of Roses pink, so I will probably salvage some of that. I think it would be enough to leave the pantry area pink.

A pink pantry, how perfect.

And out the kitchen windows? Remember that fantastic pink rose hedge I showed you the other day? Ha ha...love this!

And then there's the balcony, which faces east. As our tenancy unfolds, I foresee many morning coffees in the days' golden sunbeams...and some container gardening, too.

Meanwhile, the yard is a beautiful green space, surrounded by many trees. There's an incredible array of bird feeders tended by the folks downstairs, the visitors to which are fascinating to both me and the kitty.

The move, at least things from within the house, is complete as of this afternoon. Tomorrow, I'll return to pot up some friends from the garden, who'll accompany me on this new journey.

For those wondering, thanks to being able to adjust my schedule accordingly (and a particularly quiet week for events, thank goodness), the Person In Question and I have not laid eyes on one another in just over forty-eight hours, which I think is good for both of us. Time to let things mellow, again to let them be.

I have been getting in regular morning walks with my girl Emily, in between packing up truckloads of stuff. She enjoys hearing about the cat's adventures and is thrilled when I come in the back door...but we're both a bit sad when I have to leave. I hope we'll be able to work something out there, at least. I do enjoy our walks and such.

Meanwhile, to celebrate being in the new neighborhood, and a successful day's moving, I enjoyed a beautiful sunset at First Encounter Beach last evening. It was lovely to just stand there and enjoy the sound of the surf and the bay breeze in my ears as the sun settled in the west.

Ahhhh...

I've got some fresh flower photos to share with you from yesterday and today, but alas, Time has run short and I must ask you to wait a little longer.

For not the first time, I thank you all for your comments and emails. It surely is wonderful to know I've such love and support out there...you're all the Greatest, really you are!

A Turning Of The Page

2008-09-06T19:03:00.004-04:00

"Oh, dear. I'm afraid you've made rather a bad enemy of the Wicked Witch."

- Glinda the Good to Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

Well, hello, my friends.

When I posted the last batch of lovely photos in the wee hours of the morning, I was making an attempt to be sort of Zen, but this evening, I'm all through Letting Things Be and I'm in the mood for a little venting. It could be that Gardener Crankypants is finally rearing his head, and hopefully you won't be too shocked by this turn of events. But I shall try to keep it amusing, if possible and then we'll move on to other, better things.

You see, now that Drunky McDrunkerson finally got it through his head that I was leaving, we have cast aside the bullshit illusion of "I'm going nowhere without you and I'll never drink again." and he decided to turn it around to save face and throw me out. After a day of silence at work (except for a rather cruel comment about having to put the dog to sleep thanks to my decision to leave...fear not for Em, he has no intention of doing it, only to hurt me with the words...) I came home to him in full intoxication mode, having destroyed every framed photo of us that ever existed...and railing about everything that's wrong with me and my family and my world view.

Yep, he's on the bottle again and actually, I found out he'd never actually left it, which I sort of figured. I have to say, his words don't have the power over me that they once did, I felt no sick to my stomach feeling, nothing gnawing at me, and (since he was chain-smoking throughout the night) only the slightest twinge about wanting a cigarette. (I reached the Fifty Day landmark at 3:00 a.m., and with that approaching, there was no way I was going to give in. And maybe, just maybe, I was enjoying the second-hand thing...)

But no, that power over me is gone and all he really did (though he'd be royally pissed to know it)was offer a curative for the sadness I was feeling about having instigated the break-up. Indeed, I have never seen quite so clearly that I was following exactly the right path and so let him have the rant I knew he needed while I methodically worked through various parts of my environment, packing as I went...pausing here and there for a few Altoids or a sip of water (the humidity of Hanna was already closing in about us).

I slept for a few hours whilst he did the same, and was up bright and early to pack the car - computer first, of course; I know my priorities, bad monitor or not - and was off to the new digs, where I arranged to move in today, ten days early. They were a little disappointed not to have the time to do the cleaning and painting they wanted to in advance of my tenancy, but we worked out a nice deal in that regard...and so now I'll get that done myself, in exchange for no rent 'til the 15th.

My good kharma came back to me when I tried to borrow a friend's van to make better use of my car trips and ended up with a pair of hunky Brazilian friends (perhaps you remember Chicao and Jesu from the party a few weeks back) and the dumptruck from the landscaping company they work at and we made relatively short work of moving my more substantial things...furniture, what boxes were packed, outdoor furniture, lawn mower, mountain bike, etc.

It was a truly moist day, as I found myself working through a few rather heavy bands of rain, and simply sweating through clothes the rest of the time from the intense humidity in advance of our tropical visitor, Hanna. But I have to say I feel so good about it all. Come what may, I've found the place I need to be, to rediscover who I am and to explore and celebrate the world around me.

There remains more to be done and I will be back there at Not Wisteria Lane again tomorrow, when the Ex is at work and it's easier to get more accomplished in some sense of calm. As it was today, he "helped" by heaping all my remaining stuff into a great pile, edging it all closer to the gathering storm outside, which now must be sorted through before packing. Gee, thanks. I've got most of what's truly important and I'll be back to go through the rest later.

At some point later in the week when he's working, I'll pot up some plants. Most definitely including that amazing canna lily.

I'm glad I thought to root through the kitchen trash last night looking for one or two of those missing photographs, as I discovered that he'd thrown away a few of my fridge magnets, too. Truly, it's a trivial thing, but he's always been bugged by my comic book hobby and so I found the Superman magnet in there...but also another that I bought a year or so ago, that has come to have some deeper meaning for me. Perhaps he realized that this one was somewhat of a catalyst for the decisions I've recently come to.

I'll be putting it on the fridge at the Gardener's Nest tonight when I head home (I'm at work just now--no internet connection has yet been arranged for the new pad), but I'd like to share it's message with you, as I begin this new chapter.

"Live with intention.

Walk to the edge.

Listen hard.

Practice wellness.

Play with abandon.

Laugh.

Choose with no regret.

Continue to learn.

Appreciate your friends.

Do what you love.

Live as if this is all there is."

Mary Anne Radmacher.

(Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a kitty exploring the new nest who'll surely be missing me, and I have some needful things to get at the grocery first before heading home to snuggle in with him and listen to Hanna pass by in the night.

The photo, by the way, features the three things I brought first into the apartment: an angel statue my Granny made in her ceramics class, my African violet, and an elephant with his trunk up for luck, which always reminds me of my dear Aunt Madelyn, who loved elephants as I do, and always encouraged us to find the pleasure in the smallest bit of Life.)

Let It Be

2008-09-06T01:53:00.008-04:00

A Few Things

2008-09-04T23:44:00.018-04:00

This morning, I was sitting at the computer with my first cuppa Joe, trying to get my eyes open and make some sense of the world around me, when I heard this sound through the open window. It was like someone had bit into the world's largest stalk of celery. I looked outside and saw a rather large squirrel standing atop one of the older, drooping sunflowers, gnawing through the stalk and harvesting the entire seedhead. Pretty impressive.

What was less impressive is that my camera had just enough to battery to turn on and tell me I didn't have enough power...and by the time I'd recharged fifteen minutes later, the squirrel had fled with the object of his affection.

However, a few minutes later one of our neigh bor hood gold finches showed up to do a little harvesting and munching of his own. The lesser sunflowers are certainly providing a great breakfast buffet to this little guy and his family.

Meanwhile, you might recall me recently mentioning the canna lily and pondering what color it's flowers might be. Red is, I believe, the standard shade for these guys, though I've also seen some nice yellow ones.

But I'm not sure I was expecting such a lovely shade of orange. What a treat!

Now, my friends, I must offer in advance an apology. I'm about to include something a little less pleasant than I often like to...in fact, you may find it downright upsetting. If you don't, I'm inclined to actually be a little concerned that we're friends. But I've learned something about Sarah Palin, the Republican nom for VP who's been ALL over the news this week...and it's too important, too dastardly, for me not to make sure you know.

Again, I'm sorry. I've been hearing about these aerial hunts for a while now, but I never imagined, innocent idiot that I am, that we could be faced with the architect of such barbarism as a possibility to lead our country. As if we weren't in enough trouble already.

Now, take a deep breath, and look at these pretty marguerite daisies I found in a planter outside my friend Jane's office in Chatham.

You may recall my mentioning Jane back on June 12th, when I was celebrating Best Day Ever and treated myself to a massage (it was complimentary, actually) at Jane's new practice, Cloud Nine Bodywork. Hoping to mitigate some of the stress knots that I'd been accumulating in my back the past week, I called Jane and got myself an appointment for today, my day off.

To sweeten the experience, when I arrived, Jane offered me a nice discount if I'd let her practice her new hot stones technique on me. So, a few dollars less and a little minor scarring later (ha ha, only kidding, Jane dear...it was absolutely lovely!), the Midnight Gardener greeted the afternoon a soothed man.

After collecting my paycheck from work and doing some banking, I got myself a nice deli sandwich and headed for the beach. I'd thought to spend my lunchtime in the company of the Atlantic proper, but the beach parking lot at Nauset Light Beach was absolutely packed, and so I opted for my favorite bench at First Encounter Beach, on the bayside.

It didn't take my liverwurst sandwich and I any time at all to be targeted by an assortment of gulls, those seabirds known for having invented the expression, "You gonna finish that?"

They were pretty entertaining, though. I was more inclined to slip a few scraps of bread crust to the little guy, but he was deferring to the big one, who wasted no time in muscling the smaller one out of the way to grab what bits I was willing to share.

The tide was nearly all the way in and since it was a windy sort of an afternoon, there was a bit more splashiness to the bayside surf than we normally see there.

The wind also supported that interesting thing you sometimes see shorebirds doing, where they seem to pause in the air floating on the wind currents. As Douglas Adams once wrote, hanging in the air exactly the same way that bricks don't.

It's a neat trick, that. Unless, of course, they are hovering right over one and one's sandwich. I didn't dally with the sandwich, just to be on the safe side. I've never aspired to being Tippy Hedrin.

It was a beautiful day, for sure. Sunny and bright and clear, a touch of humidity sneaking in at us today, probably a prelude to the arrival of Hurricane Hanna and/or her remains on the weekend. The sun was pretty strong, so I didn't stay for too long, as I had other fish to fry and no sunscreen handy.

Next stop was my new digs, where I wanted to confirm my continuing interest in the place. I was greeted in the driveway by this wonderful hedge of roses.

Just a few weeks back it sported but a single blossom, but now, it's covered with them again. Oh, and the scent from these was quite delightful...just what I might have wished for!!

It was nice to get another look at the place today and start to get a sense of the layout of it all. I measured the ceilings for consideration of moving some bookshelves, and then talked paint colors and gardening opportunities with my friend L, who will also be my landlord.

On the latter front, I was happy to hear that there's plenty of room to play...and a pretty open form to it all. Apparently one of the neighbors also gardens, and has been occasionally discovered planting her divisions in the yard here. Colonizing, I suppose. Sounds like a fun place to bring some plants.

It sounds like this will be a great place for me and the cat, very comfortable and spacious, with lots of light and character. Here's a look at the place--the second story will be the gardener's new nest. To the left is one of several large lilac bushes all around the house and property.

It's also very nicely located for not only groceries and possibly walking to work, but it's also very near the bike trail and just down the road from Rock Harbor...and the nearby marshes I enjoy so.

Glory In The Morning

2008-09-04T19:16:00.002-04:00

Okay, so once again, these are yesterday's photos and I'm a day late getting them up here. If only I could stop myself from taking all these pictures. I mean, you've seen one morning glory, you've seen them all, right? But each flower's so great, I just can't help myself.

I'm a shade annoyed with myself for forgetting to mention something last time around. It turns out that the last post was my 1500th!! Now, sure, that counts a bit skewed by all the individual photos I uploaded here back in the early days of my blogging, before I worked out exactly how to include multiple photos in a post.

But still, it's some kind of a landmark. At the very least it explains the sleep deprivation. Sorry there wasn't a contest or a give-away. There ought to have been, since I have the best readers in the entire blogosphere. I promise I'll try to hit you with something fun for Post 2000; really.

Meanwhile, kisses all around.

Meanwhile, did you know that the bachelor's buttons I love so much are actually outlawed in North Carolina as an invasive weed?

Apparently, even though it was originally called cornflower exactly because it coexisted alongside crops in England, in North Carolina it wreaks havoc with local agriculturalists, who apparently can't stand the sight of a little beauty.

No, no...to be fair, the Carolinas are probably right about that point where the conditions are maybe a little too right for this species and so they tend to take over an area (which bodes well for your success growing them, Java...sssh...). But really, what sweet invasion.

To balance out the recent show of sunflowers, let us focus unabashedly today on the morning glories, the other truly prolific flower in this summer's garden.

Now these flowers, unlike the sunflowers, thrive best without a whole lot of fertilizer and special care. In fact, I've heard if you fertilize them too much, they'll produce all leaves and no (or few flowers).

So I've tried to be careful when fertilizing everything else to give a bit of a berth to the base of the morning glory vines. Certainly they are probably benefiting from some of that adjacent fertilizer, though...which would explain their miraculous and unparalleled success. They are thirsty little buggers, though, so I always try to give them a little extra water, especially when there's heat in the forecast.

Of course, Robin suggested that perhaps they are just growing so well because they know that I love them...and I expect that they probably do. I whisper the words to them now and then, for sure...and they reward me with this incredible show.

It's funny, though, how you can look down the garden border at a certain angle...at many angles, actually...and see that by this point in the season, there is no denying that the sunflowers are ruling the border, have completely wrested from me any illusion that I was even remotely in charge of the goings-on.

Frankly, I'm thrilled with their initiative.

Perhaps encouraged, like the roses, to reblooming by the cooler days and evenings, the honeysuckle is staging something of a come-back and while the show is smallish at this point, the scent is still powerfully wonderful when I lean over to bring my nose a little closer.

(In fact, I can smell it drifting in the open window now, as the katydids roar in the bushes across the street.)

Hopefully, you can bear the sight of a few more morning glories, because I'm making you look at more of them. But you may notice they are not the ones you've seen before.

Now that the registration on the car was renewed, it was time to get her inspected, and so this morning we went off to Nickerson Service Center in Eastham.

One of my annual pleasures is getting the car inspected at this time of year, because it means I get to enjoy the peak of Claire's fantastic blue morning glories, which she plants in twin whiskey barrels and trains up and over the entrance of the garage. Last year, crappy weather early in the season messed up their growth, but I was happy to see that they were restored to their former glory this summer.

She also had some nice zinnias growing in the barrels, as well as some marigolds and other things.

It's always fun to trade stories with another gardener and we did some of just that while I was paying my bill. Claire confirmed something I'm hearing from other local gardeners this summer: it's a big year for bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels and other rodentia.

Some have posited that this is because of a recent decline in the coyote and fox population. But Claire said there's one large bunny in her neighborhood so smart that when he sees the coyote coming, he makes it a point to stand closer to the humans. Apparently gardeners in her neighborhood are so fed up with the munching and the nibbling that they are consider gunning their car engines when they see a rabbit in the road.

I told her all about Liquid Fence and my success with it. Perhaps it will help with their stress levels. It doesn't help anyone if you go all Fudd and it rarely ends well.

I couldn't resist a stop at Rock Harbor on the way to work once the inspection was successfully completed, and the view was, as always, worth the time and trouble.

And in case that hadn't made me smile, there were the delighted cries of this little girl (visiting the beach with her parents, who are just off image), as she had what might have been her first encounters with the big lapping waters of Cape Cod Bay.

Pink and The Tracks to Nowhere In Particular

2008-09-03T11:32:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm running consistantly a little behind lately, what with deciding it might not be a totally horrible idea to get myself some extra sleep now that summer's drawing to a close.

So, these are actually yesterday's photos, but still an enjoyable bunch, I think.

The pale pink morning glories are coming on strong now, which is fun, as they are a nice addition to the color range of the species. Actually, as you'll see, Pink seems to be something a theme today.

Of course the hot pink and blue vines from earlier in the season are still going on like crazy and now leaving the fencepost (yes, there really IS one in there somewhere...a garden lantern, too) to twine and vine their way around some sky-bound sunflower stalks.

The weather's a little cooler now. Yesterday morning I almost wore a flannel shirt (albeit with shorts) for the first time since spring. But after I got dressed, it felt like a warmer-than-necessary choice and I changed to something lighter. I shouldn't have second-guessed, though, as clouds moved in to make it a pretty cool afternoon, with temps in the 50s; the flannel would've been just right.

The cooler temps are encouraging the dianthus to another round of flowering for September. This will be convenient, as I was pricing plastic flowerboxes today with a thought toward transplanting these guys to the balcony at my next location. That they are flowering again will make them easier to find in the current chaos of the fence garden.

I'm also considering one of those clay strawberry pots with assorted planting windows (they are on sale at the local nursery) as a new home for my sedums and hens and chicks, but I don't know how well this sort of planter might winter and what I'd have to do to encourage that sort of survival.

I'm thinking maybe some sand inside, below the dirt, would be more "flexible" during winter freezes and thaws, but I'm not entirely sure.

Here's a variety of sunflower I've shown previously, but didn't include in yesterday's full array of the sunflowers. This one's located down at the very far end of the fence garden.

Behind it you can see that large planting of boneset I featured recently when it was just starting to bud.

The later part of the morning had me venturing up-Cape, on newly-vacated local roads, as I headed for the Registry of Motor Vehicle, as t'was time to renew my auto registration.

On the way, I found this lovely and massive planting of impatiens. It's one of my favorite flowers, but I had no shade for a change this year, so we didn't get to play together as we have in past years.

I'm happy to say it was not the Waiting Room To Hell that the RMV can often be (actually, they are pretty efficient there and I've rarely had complaints, of course, part of that comes of being properly prepared with something enjoyable to read, in this case, one of James Patterson's Alex Cross novels, Cat and Mouse.).

On the way to work from there, I made a stop by a favorite spot of mine, along the abandoned tracks of the Cape Cod Railroad.

Almost all of the rails on the Outer Cape (my standard stomping grounds) were long ago removed and turned into bike trails...which is lovely and fun, but a little sad if you're a rail fan, as I am.

This spot is accessible from an old rest stop parking area from Route 6, and the old railroad bridge that crosses the Bass River is a popular fishing spot, although no one was around when I visited.

There is still some freight service in the Yarmouth area, but the tracks to this remainder of the line have recently been cut...and as you can see, are pretty seriously overgrown.

I've been trying to identify just what these little wildflowers are growing along the trackbed, but to no avail. They are also growing pretty wildly on Not Wisteria Lane, so I had hoped to figure out what they were...but have not been able to narrow things down much further than this family, which frankly, I could have guessed without benefit of a detailed Google search.

As I mentioned, the weather caught me a little off-guard yesterday, as the forecast had a great big orange sun icon all across it. However, there's a storm out in the ocean that's swirling around and occasionally backs some cloud cover in overhead, which helped to keep our temps on the cool side. There's no rain in forecast to benefit us, but the occasional cloud thing is continuing again today.

I was wandering the garden at work later in the afternoon and noticed that the kousa dogwood's berries were coloring up nicely. Like the other dogwoods, this one is a beauty when it blooms in late spring, but I think I like it best for these "dogwood crunch berries", of which the local crows seem quite fond.

I noticed, too, that the cooler temperatures of this end of the summer seem to be encouraging some of the roses out there to another flush of blooming.

As always, I wish I could share with you the fragrance. It was a small pleasure that helped perk up a low moment in my afternoon and I know you'd have enjoyed it, too.

Mostly Sunflowers

2008-09-02T09:30:00.015-04:00

Hello and happy September, everyone. I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend (that's with a U if you're reading from Canada, of course...). I find myself breathing a sigh of relief on a couple of fronts this morning.

First, I'm relieved for the good folks of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, who seemed to have come through the landfall of Hurricane Gustav with minimal worries (well, besides that minor business of having to evacuate a couple million people)--schoolkids from NOLA are no doubt annoyed to hear that school will be in session next week.

Also, now that this last holiday weekend of the summer has come and gone, the roads here on the Cape (and the beaches, too, no doubt, though I've not had the chance to confirm this one) are emptier now, much easier to navigate. While we enjoy (don't we?) the hub-bub and chaos of high summer, it's always a pleasure to get our wonderful Cape Cod back for our own pleasure.

While the calendar page's turning seems to have brought slightly cooler temperatures and lesser humidity, we know that September and the Gulf Stream will conspire to bring us some delightful weather to let us have our last hurrahs of summer without much traffic.

Of course, we are keeping our eyes on the latest tropical activity. There's a storm called Hanna we're especially keeping an eye on, as she seems to be stalking the east coast a bit. And after her are Ivan and Josephine.

We'll keep our fingers crossed...but maybe do a thing or two to make ready, just in case.

Morning glories are back in the picture today. Not only are those early blue and pink ones still going strong, as you can see above, but yesterday morning I was caught off-guard - in the best possible way - by this all-white morning glory. I didn't remember there being any of those suggested as included in the mixed seed pack these came from, but as we've seen before, every now and then something unexpected happens.

As surprises go, it's a pretty sweet one.

Now I know I've been showing you a lot of sunflowers this summer, but let's be clear on this point: there's LOTS of sunflowers to show you. I've tried to work them in here and there with other flower shots, so as not to saturate the market...but the truth is, at this end of the season, the sunflowers are really dominating.

So today, I figured I'd give in and feature a whole bunch of them, so you can more easily see the variety of them I'm enjoying. Plus, Kelly will recently have or be about to return to school, and as she is the godmother of these fantastic beauties, why shouldn't she (and you) get to enjoy them some more?

Perhaps you will think I am being needlessly humble, but I can't help be a little amazed at the smashing sunflowers successes I've enjoyed this year. Many of you have written to say that you've never had that much success with them, and before this year, I was solidly in that camp with you.

I haven't ruled out the idea that the Garden simply knew that I was going to need all these cheery faces as the season wore on, and that all this is merely a bit of good fortune, but for the sake of perhaps duplicating this success in the future, I figured I'd consider the factors which probably also contributed.

First, FULL sun. We simply cannot underestimate the value and power of those warm golden rays. Just about everything I've grown this year has done moreso than ever before, thanks to the bright rays of Ra, or Apollo, or Al Gore, or whomever it is you think might be in charge of the sun.

However, the full sun exposure will quickly bring an end to even the hardiest of plants without the other key ingredient in this recipe, which hopefully, is obviously water. Two thirds of the fence garden here in this year's Midnight Garden is underlaid with a soaker hose, and except on or just after truly rainy days, I have let it run for about ten to fifteen minutes every morning, to make sure all the plants out there have gotten a nice deep drink down by their roots.

The last third, the end around the lamp post, has no soaker hose, though, and I've tried to do some careful top watering of that end of things to keep the balance. That bed is planted more heavily with sulphur cosmos, which is a little more drought tolerant, but sunflowers are also thriving and climbing toward the sky there, as well. I think that might be where some of the luck thing comes in.

Other factors which are no doubt contributing to the show are the quality of the soil. When I dug in this garden almost a year ago, I was pretty pleased to discover that there was some nice rich looking black soil, always a good place to start in the garden.

As spring began to flutter its wings, you may recall I amended the area with lots of coffee grounds...and once the garden got going, I fertilized a couple of times, usually about once a month through mid-July to give everything that extra shot in the arm...or stalk, as the case may be here.

So many people tell me that they actually have success getting the sunflower seeds to grow. That really is one of the easiest bits. They germinate quickly and their seeds are pretty distinctive, so unlikely to be accidentally weeded out of the bed. But they are often the prey of squirrels or chipmunks or bunnies...and so we can't under-value the Liquid Fence treatments in all this.

Those are the secrets, as I see them. I've certainly been happy for the success, since it's hard not to smile when you look out the window and see all these guys. I hope you'll find yourselves a sunny patch and give some a try next year. I think I'll be doing the same.

And so now we've gotten through the last busy weekend of the summer at work, which is also a bit of a relief. Time to turn my attentions to other things for a little while.

I hope your first week of the after-summer (even though the season lingers for another three weeks, I know it starts to feel like its over pretty quickly now that September's here...it's a slippery slope to Autumn, it seems) isn't a mad one, and that you're still able to find a few echoes of the summer...reasons to take a moment to sit in the sun, or admire a few flowers or have a good laugh at the antics of birds and bunnies and the like.

And don't despair: September has treasures just barely imagined yet to come.

"Spring flowers are long since gone.
Summer's bloom hangs limp on every terrace.
The gardener's feet drag a bit on the dusty path
and the hinge in his back is full of creaks."

-- Louise Seymour Jones

Arrivederci August

2008-08-31T18:50:00.018-04:00

Weekend Jumble

2008-08-31T07:32:00.021-04:00

So here's one of those honeybees who were so elusive at summer's start. This weekend, I've been seeing them everywhere...so I'm happy to say that reports of their death may have been somewhat exaggerated. That's a flowerhead of Autumn Joy sedum he's dancing about on, only just coming into bloom as Labor Day weekend gets underway.

Yes, it's that last weekend of the summer, here already, proof that Time doesn't only fly when you're having fun.

I want to say thanks to all of you who've written me your comments or private emails of support, in regards the situation with Owen and I.

I can only really skim the surface of letting you know just how much it means to me...and how important its been to hear from you.

This is probably the last thing I ever wanted to happen; ten years is a long time to be with someone and I know and love him in ways that I don't know many people. Which makes it sadder still that he knows so little about the way my brain works and what has value in Life to me.

You might guess I would be quite happy for us not to have reached this point. And that wish makes me want to be swayed, won over by the somber attitude and thoughtful demeanor I have been subject to this past week. But I know from past experience, and from other peoples' too, that this is a temporary fix...a band-aid on a bigger problem. And thankfully, every time I start to get a little weak in my resolve, one of your comments or emails appears, just in the nick of time.

I really don't want to beat a dead horse, I'm not even sure I'm prepared to declare the horse dead...but there was something else I wanted you to know.

The gardening it seems I've always done...and the blogging started just to show my long distance (and local) friends what I was working on in a secret garden not easily seen from the road...but as you all have discovered it in the last year and come back to visit over and over again, this blog has truly helped me to remember that I have a voice worth listening to, that I am important to the world, in some small way. And that, as much as everything else, has encouraged me to seek a little something better for myself.

So when I say thanks, I hope you know I mean it.

Now sweet Jesus, can we please talk about the Garden again? I am so sick of being on the edge of tears lately.

Here's a Nursery Spider we found in the kitchen sink the other day. I don't believe we have much to fear from them, which didn't mean we both weren't startled to the ceiling when it jumped over a foot to get away from us.

Yikes...

I have made a mental note that next year, zinnia seeds should be started indoors before the season gets underway, or at the very least, planted in the ground the week before Memorial Day weekend.

These guys are only just beginning to reveal their first flower buds and while they are pretty wonderful, there could be so many more by this point.

To the left is a photo taken on Friday. Below is the same flower as seen on Saturday. The whole idea behind the Jumble thing starting to be more clear?

Here are some of those fancy marigolds I bought for the lamp post garden in the spring. In the background there, you can see one flower still bears the distinctive red coloration that caught my eye in the first place.

However, it seems the rest of the plant is a little weary at this end of the summer (I wonder if it needs more water, or maybe some fertilizer), since so many of the other flowers are just plain yellow now.

I don't know what these bamboo-ey like plants are. I know there are a great many of them growing on the side of Mount Dump-it in our yard in Harwich; I see them out our back windows.

Today I noticed this cluster of the same plant out behind the restaurant, in between dumpsters...and noticed for the first time the spectacular clusters of tiny white flowers.

They aren't memorably scented or anything like that. But the flowers themselves are tiny, but kind of exciting when you look at them up close.

Perhaps you don't agree, but there was a crowd of bumblebees and honeybees who couldn't get enough of them

Here's one of the center pieces last evening's custo mers brought for the tables at their Rehearsal Dinner.

I think my favorite arrangements are the ones that don't hold to a particular color scheme, but instead engage all the colors there are. These did that wonderfully, and featured a terrific assortment of flower varieities, too.

I do enjoy the Gerbera Daisies and was a little disappointed that my budget dried before I had a chance to pick up a few for the border this summer.

I used a few as bedding plants in my first garden on the Cape all those years ago, and the effect was pretty terrific.

I have no idea what that orangey-thistly flower is, but it sure interests me. I hope to stop in at the responsible florist and see what I can find out sometime this week.

In just a little more time-travely-ness, here's what the sky looked like over Not Wisteria Lane this past Friday evening.
Thinking of everyone in New Orleans this weekend, as the third anniversary of Katrina's devastation comes and goes, marked mostly by a new evacuation in the face of a much more terrible looking storm called Gustav.

Everyone down there on the Gulf Coast (not to mention all those lives touched by this storm already as its passed through the Carribbean) has my thoughts and prayers for their safety...and hopefully yours, too.

The Week That Was

2008-08-29T11:34:00.000-04:00

So, yes...on Tuesday, the first of my cosmos plants began to bloom with this lovely white offering. It was a pleasure to finally see it. Except, it was not what I had expected. If you look at the photo on the seed packet at right, you'll see (and may recall my mentioning in my anticipation) that I actually planted the seashell variety of the flower...and this is not that.

Now seed sorting is certainly not a perfect or absolute science, so such things are not all that unexpected. You may recall the solitary white cleome that grew from a pack of supposedly strictly purple cleome seeds earlier this summer, in fact.

Not only am I a big fan of the cosmos big beautiful flowers, that once begun will come again and again until Frost, but Owen is, too. They are one of the few plants in the garden he will actually make mention of when they are blooming. And so for both those reasons, I am always sure to include at least a few.

This, as you will see, is sort of ironic.

My friends, I have been quiet with you on a particular subject this summer, as I have spent much time looking into my heart and examining my life and trying to figure out what pieces of the puzzle were missing. There've been a few times that I've alluded to something, or suggested that I had things on my mind, but as I've mentioned time and again, I see this blog more a place to talk about the garden and the good things in life...and I don't imagine you come here to for the Big Bring-Down that Life can be sometimes.

But on Tuesday of this week, I told Owen that I would be moving out. Ten years, I've realized, is a long time to stay in a relationship with an alcoholic who's world view is wrapped almost entirely in his own opinions on any given subject.

I'm not saying there hasn't been plenty of good times between us in those ten years. What an incredible fool I would be, otherwise, to have stayed so long.

But there's also been lots of pain. Not physical pain - that would be much easier to walk away from, it turns out. But the more subtle pain that comes of knowing that someone you care for isn't interested in what you have to say, doesn't care about the way you see the world...or what you think about much of anything.

I could offer a long list of my unhappinesses here, but those have already been expressed to him and it's largely a personal matter. Despite living in Massachusetts, one of the few states that recognizes gay marriage, we are not. That numbers among the issues, though just now I am sort of relieved that we never tied that knot.

He was completely surprised at the two and a half hours of things I had to say on Tuesday evening, which just shows you how f*cked communications have been between us. And that alone encourages me that I am making the right decision.

Owen has asked me to stay, to help him overcome the alcoholism and to give him a chance to make it up to me. To his credit, he's not had a sip of vodka since Tuesday night. The apologies, the roses, the dinner and movie (*) are all nice things. But honestly, I'm not sure that I can or should stay.

Coming to this decision and preparing for it as this summer has progressed has been one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I feel a little broken at this end of our relationship. I need time alone, to regroup, to repair, to reintroduce me to who I am. On one hand, this is a sad thing, but truly, I'm also more than a little excited about the possibilities the future holds.

Of course, I have no idea what those will be. I have identified an apartment, a place which will be good for me in a variety of ways. There are some gardening possibilities there, though who knows just what form they may take. More on that another day.

You, my friends, you and your friendships have helped me through this difficult time as much as the beautiful flowers in my garden this summer, whether or not you knew you were doing so. Thanks.

Just a few of you have had my confidence as I quietly explored my heart and laid my plans, and I offer special thanks to each one of you for listening and helping my thought processes and comforting me and encouraging me to be true to myself. Better friends no man could ask for.

I have received a few emails from some of you who were a little disconcerted by my not posting as frequently this week, expressing your concern, wondering if everything was all right. Well, not exactly...but it could certainly be much worse. How am I? I suppose it's safe to say that I am f*cking Smurfy, which leaves things wide open to all sorts of interpretations.

What do you know, Java's right: these mushrooms do look better with a little person of some variety standing beside them.

And look: the canna lily is finally fixin' to bloom!

I haven't really been watching the Democratic National Convention this week. I'm still tired from all that late-night Olympics coverage. And considering all else that's going on, you and the Dems will forgive me. But fear not, our deaf neighbor Ellie's been watching with the volume up real loud, so even though I've been about other things, I feel like I've not missed a moment.

For those of you who haven't seen the new web cartoon from Jib-Jab--you know they do one for every election now--I'll send you off so you can have a laugh at their latest.

(*) In response to one of my lesser complaints that we never do anything together outside the workplace, last night Owen and I saw Mamma Mia at the local cinema. Not in the mood for anything particular deep, or painfully fluffy and pink or explosively action-packed, this was probably just the right thing. The setting is beautiful, the story amusing and of course, all the music straight from the ABBA library (lest you forget, the first record the Midnight Gardener bought with his own money was the single of "Dancing Queen" lo those many years ago...).

Meryl Streep was, as always, pretty fantastic, and has a surprisingly nice singing voice. Pierce Brosnan, too, sort of...though there was one part near the end where it just didn't sound like him and I wondered about lip synching.

Amusingly, I've learned that the "sing-along" version of the movie hits cinemas today, with all the songs subtitled, because, as one wag put it, "You can't do worse than Pierce Brosnan". There was no need of subtitles last night, though, as everyone in our cine-plex seemed to know the lyrics.

It was a great time, at least until we got to Meryl's powerhouse performance of The Winner Takes It All, which sliced a little too close to the bone for me this week. Still, the credit sequence at the end was pretty fantastic, with its flashy costumes and cameo by ABBA themselves...and we got to hear "Dancing Queen" twice!

The crickets in the neighborhood were singing up a storm when we got home last night, so they don't need the subtitles either. But then, this louder voice drowned out all the others. With flashlight and camera in hand, I followed me ears outside and found this katydid in the garden across the street, it's chirruping sound almost deafening.

It seems to come from the vibration of those membranes beneath the wings visible here.

Just for the record, despite everything else, it's now been 42 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes and 44 seconds since my last smoke.

Smobriety, it's a good thing.

* * * *

"I was in your arms,
thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense,
building me a fence
Building me a home
Thinking I'd be strong there
But I was a fool, playing by the rules."

The Winner Takes It All, ABBA, 1980

Tuesday Snapshots

2008-08-27T23:25:00.006-04:00

Breathe

2008-08-25T23:53:00.001-04:00

The other day, Jenn wondered what it might look like inside the sunflower blossom, and so this morning, I was able to catch a couple closer shots of this latest yellow mammoth, as context for this very busy bumbler. Each of them should get a bit bigger if you click.

I think one of the things that fascinates me about looking close at the sunflower is that you realize that what we think of as the flower is actually a whole garden of tiny flowers, arranged in a ring.

Those big yellow petals are like flags, landing strip markers...something to indicate to the pollinators that there's something wonderful here. It does seem there is never a sunflower without some busy bee digging diligently through it.

Just about every morning lately, the two Super Sweet 100 plants have been providing me a handful of tasty cherry tomatoes as a breakfast-y snack while I'm exploring the border. I think that's actually why I like having them out there. Convenient snacking while gardening.

I suppose there are worse reasons to choose a plant. When I am patient enough to let these little beauties get to that perfectly deep red shade, they are a rich sweet mouthful of Wow.

The portulaca isn't blooming quite as steadily as it had earlier in the season, though the six little plants I bought have grown into a lovely tangled cloud of succulent foliage around the base of my Flower sign.

Perhaps part of the problem is that they are now a bit shaded by giant sunflowers, corn, sulphur cosmos and cleome. But every now and then, there's a rosy little blossom to enjoy.

And in the category of Things For Enjoying, the clematis vine on the lamp post, which is now almost entirely a study in frilly seedheads, has this morning presented one more purply-blue flower.

One of the things I love best about August is that the dragonflies don't seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere. In July, they flit about, exploring the world, getting to know one another, eating their share of the more annoying insects. Dragonfly business. It's nearly impossible to get a good photo of them.

But then August arrives and I suppose we all slow down just a little, or want to. And if you want a good dragonfly photo, that's exactly what you have to do.

This little dragonfly perched on a dried daylily stalk along the walk in the back yard late this morning, seeming to enjoy a peaceful moment to soak in the warm sunshine.

It was one of those mornings where the sun seemed to come and go a little, fading now and then behind a bit of cloud, it's color and brightness ebbing and flooding like the wash of the tide. There was an easy rustle of trees and their leaves as the wind seemed to do the same thing, the tide becoming long, deep breaths.

Today, the dragonfly wasn't just enjoying a quiet August moment. I felt like he'd stopped by with a message for me. Something about being still and steady now and then, and remembering to take the time to enjoy the warmth of the sun.

And to breathe.

Sunflower Sunday

2008-08-24T23:35:00.002-04:00

I can't resist a little visual deja vu tonight and so I'm starting off with the same photo as yesterday, taken about the same time of day...but with a much more interesting array of clouds in the sky.

Weather-wise, it was another fantastic day, to complete a full weekend of them, with bright sunshine and temperatures in the 70s. Instead of just boring blue skies, we saw a cool variety of cloud types to make things a little more interesting.

Also today, this latest sunflower, now measuring in a little better than seven feet tall, has fully unfurled its giant flowerhead. You'll find I'm featuring it throughout today's post.

Can you blame me?

Down low at the feet of all these sunflowers are an ever-increasing array of bachelor's buttons.

I'm really pleased with how well they are growing this year and I will be sure to sow some of these seeds every year, now.

Remember last weekend, when I predicted that the seashell cosmos would probably start blooming by the start of last week? Ha ha, well, that shows you how much I know.

I guess I should have started these inside when I was getting the first sunflowers germinated. Perhaps they'd be well-blooming by now if I had.

These guys seem to have been hit with some sort of alien slow-motion ray...and while the buds seem to be puffing out nicely know, I'm hesitant to make any additional predictions.

I'll keep you posted.

Another seed success story has certainly been these morning glories. There've been so many different color combinations and these plants are so prolific and eager to draw everyone and everything around them in to sweet entanglement.

I guess it is late enough in the season to declare that the everlastings and statice were not to be counted among the season's successes.

I was sure I'd seen a few seedlings, but it seems they didn't pass that all-important survival test. Perhaps in a different setting they'd do better.

I spotted this little grass hopper flitting about inside the fence border this morning. While I wasn't able to get close without him leaping away, he did indulge me enough to hit his lighting mark on this shasta daisy leaf so I could zoom in for a better look at him...or her.

Emily and I had an enjoyable walk this evening, after a few nights off due to commitments at work. It was a beautiful night and she was eager to set off on our walk around Not Wisteria Lane.

We saw a few bits of early fall color as we made our way. Little reminders that the season before us is reaching its final days and the changes of a new season will be on us before we know it.

Which is to say it was just the right time for a walk.

A pair of pugs decided to come out to greet us this evening. There's a black one who paces back and forth across his yard as we pass by on a few evening's recently.

Tonight, that dog was joined by a second and it became clear that - while they are little dogs - two pugs is all they need to have together in order to think they can do the impossible. I was sort of incredulous as the two of them came marching out, shoulder to shoulder, to approach Emily (and probably give her a piece of their little minds about having poo-ed across the street from their house).

I was able to keep her back from them - no easy feat - as she would probably consider the little nuisances little more than a cocktail frank. Their person came out to encourage the two of them to stand down and we were on our way again.

Although the sun was sinking when we returned from our sojourn, there was still some nice light to look at a few things in the garden.

The sunflowers are just getting out of hand, now, but it a great way. They are certainly grabbing hold of my multi-colored color scheme and making it seem overly- yellow.

Of course, the cosmos continuing delay in blooming is enhancing that, as well.

I'd just like to point out that in this photo above, the latest sunflower is taller than the sun.

The cleome flowers are wonderful, but I don't find that they last especially long. I have been collecting seed from them for next year, as they have been very easy to grow and I am a big fan of these open airy flowers.

This flower represents the start of a second wave of blooming; you may recall I seeded these guys into the garden in waves back in springtime.

Tonight we saw the flash and the spectacle of the Closing ceremonies of the 23rd Olympiad in Beijing. It really was an exciting and spectacular two weeks of games this year. So many world records broken.

I didn't get to watch much of the coverage yesterday until pretty late last night, as I enjoyed one of those Midori coladas at the restaurant bar after a busy night of work.

I guess it makes sense they save Table Tennis for the last night, but really, that's not one of the sports they could make available online, instead? It felt like a little bit of an anti-climax. I'd be much more interested in the equestrian or kayak/canoe events. But the cross-country mountain bike race was pretty interesting.

I wasn't able to watch the Men's 10M Platform Diving, but I was excited to hear the news that Australian diver Matthew Mitcham won the gold medal. Mitcham is the only one of over 10,000 athletes competing who has declared himself as gay.

I'd like to think his success in Beijing may make it a little easier for other athletes to consider being more open themselves.

Anyway, it was cool news and, I thought, a nice way to bring the two weeks of excitement to a close.

It's a little bit of a relief that the games are over. I don't think I'll have any trouble sleeping through the Democratic convention after all the Olympic late-nights.

Back in the garden, this clump of yellow snapdragons has begun a second wave of blooming, it's yellow flowers sweetly scenting the air nearby with a tasty citrus-y fragrance. I was amused by this tiny spider hanging out inside one of the flowers, no doubt lying in wait for some even smaller insect pollinator.

I enjoyed these clouds as they reflected the light of the sunset these evening. Really fantastic looking, although they are the sort of thing that puts us all - our persons, our homes, our neighborhoods - into perpective, as these grand beautiful moments happen on such a large scale overhead.

Of course, the dusky clouds were a great backdrop for that new sunflower. And the chance of rain in the forecast for tomorrow would be a wonderful boost to all the other sunflowers still only just starting to bloom.

A break from the watering schedule is always nice. I do the best I can, but really, my best efforts just can't compare with a nice natural fall of rain.

Saturday Solitude

2008-08-23T23:59:00.003-04:00

Gardener's Blues...and Other Colors

2008-08-23T01:01:00.019-04:00

Just checking in so you don't worry, but I'm not sure I have so much to say. Actually, I think the opposite is closer to the truth, but I don't trust I'll find the right words just yet. For now, a few random notes:

* I've gotten lots accomplished in the last day or so, not all of it at work or in the garden. I feel kind of good about that.

* The Olympics are winding down and due to work schedule, I'll only catch the late night stuff now 'til the end. Ah, well, only two years 'til the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

* 2010. That sounds a little weird, huh? Where are those flying cars and rocket jet packs, anyway? I'd happily settle for a few more windfarms.

* It turns out that two weeks of somewhat immersive coverage of the Olympic Games, enhanced by substantial sleep deficit was just the right combination for me to have committed to memory the entire NBC Fall Schedule of programming. Well, at least I've made note of when HEROES is starting up again. I really like that show.

* Thirty-five days since my last filthy cigarette. I know I've probably made it sound easy this time around. Nobody's more surprised than me. I attribute this both to my blasted optimism, which annoys even me sometimes, but also to no small sense of determination. I don't want to be a smoker anymore. (All of your encouragement and cheerleading hasn't hurt, either...so thanks for that.)

* Now that it's been a while since I took the smoke, I am noticing some improvements in me. I'm breathing easier, and I find that singing's a little easier, too. Well, the act is. I'm not feeling lately like I have a lot to sing about...but that's also possibly the reason I've been doing so much of it.

* Unexpected Carnage! A moldy and long-forlorn mousetrap in the cabinet beneath the sink here in the computer room sent a good-sized mouse off to his reward just moments ago. (We bow our heads and wish him well.) I'm blogging about it now, but it will be less creepy to address the larger issue of actually removing the body by morning light.

* I don't find that I like the wintergreen Altoids as much as I do the spearmint.

* As always, I find the garden awfully good for what ails me. Lately, there is almost always an undersong of crickets, but especially in the evening. There's quite a buzz at noontime as pollinators of all shapes and sizes ply their way from one flower to the next.

The goldfinches have been visiting the sunflowers regularly. I saw the hummingbird again this morning. And the bunnies are never far away, it seems.

Each day there are new colors, or fresh combinations of different flowers grown together. As I explore, I slow down and breathe a little easier, as a piece of my stress burns away in the golden sunshine. I can think of no better things than these tiny wonders and it's nearly impossible to be glum in their company.

"And that evening, while he was playing, a brown leaf, the first leaf of the fall, blew into the station and landed right next to the cricket cage. Now this leaf had come from New Jersey. A playful gust of wind danced it over the Hudson River, and up Forty-second Street, and whisked it down the subway entrance."

"Chester was in the middle of a song when the leaf came down. It was such a shock to see this little reminder of all that was happening in the country that for a moment he couldn't continue. But then he realized where he was and forced himself to go on."

- The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden, 1960.

Summer Daze

2008-08-20T23:52:00.003-04:00

The verbena bonariensis just keeps on blooming and blooming. This plant is a wonderful staple for the garden and I just can't recommend it to you strongly enough.

I've cut a little for a bouquet or two, and had to trim off a flowerhead that had been damaged...but that has only caused side shoots to begin blooming. The rest of the flowerheads just continue on and on, producing ever more of these tiny purple flowers. And there's just nothing at all wrong with that. Plus the butterflies love them.

These purple pansies are continuing to bloom regularly and their cheery faces never fail to make me grin. For that alone, I'm grateful that they are continuing to bloom, nestled amongst the neighboring overgrowth of allyssum.

The lamp post garden is doing well, despite not being in the zone serviced by the soaker hose. There's a whole lot to see here, starting on the far left with yet another sunflower climbing toward the heavens.

Moving right, there's shasta daisies, allyssum, down low is a slight flush of pink in the form of some sedum only just coming into bloom, and further back is a yellow african marigold.

In the background there's some corn...and more sunflowers...and then this massive cloud of morning glories where there once was a fence post. All the way right are yet a few more sunflowers and the morning glories are just beginning to reach out to twine themselves around these latest tall stalks.

Speaking of the sunflowers, here's yet another cheery flower from one of those first plants who began growing on my bedroom windowsill way back on the first of April.

In talking about things that were steadily blooming yesterday, I may have done a few of my favorite plants a dis-service, including the dianthus. While they are not blooming as heavily as they did early on in spring, they are continuing to offer a some color down low, where it is quite welcome.

Additionally, the loosestrife continues to put out its tiny star-like flowers. I'm a little sorry to have discovered this plant's identity, as I became quite fond of it before realizing it was the dreaded invader.

Here it shares the stage with one of the legion of bachelor's buttons blooming all along the border.

There are several lychnis plants along the fence as well, which have continued to bloom steadily throughout the summer, moreso when I remember to snip off the faded flowerheads.

Badum is a pretty good natured kitty. He generally spends his life alternating between the pretense of a sedentary lifestyle, and tearing from one window in the house to the next. No doubt, the regular parade of chipmunks, birds, bunnies, wild turkeys and who-knows-what-else through the yard keeps him happily occupied with plenty to watch.

This afternoon I happened upon the gardener's cat peering out the window. "Hey, buddy, what you lookin' at?" was met with the withering feline disdain no other species can quite muster, as if to say, "It's cat stuff. I wouldn't expect you to understand. Please don't crowd me at the window."

Of course, it was a little finch foraging in the lawn outside that had his attention. But I concede there were probably also a dozen other things vying for his attention that I couldn't possibly have noticed.

Heaven knows my own attention was challenged today. It was my first full day off in about two weeks, and with such lovely weather (bright and sunny, with temps in the high sixties), the temptation was to let my senses lead me through the day, or maybe just find a patch of sun or shade and settle in with a good page-turner.

Alas, there are other things I really needed to spend some time working on...and so I made my best effort to focus on some of that, spending some time up in the steamy attic, as well as working on other less lovely, but important projects.

But it was the sort of stuff done in small doses, and so I was happy to walk away regularly to explore the garden at different times of the day, playing with the camera as I found new subjects and different angles and the varying lighting effects that an ever-moving sun provides.

This bumbler was happily plundering the remaining blossoms on the agastache during one of my breaks. And while I was out there, I spotted a hummingbird buzzing along the border, exploring and examining the sunflowers and morning glories and corn plants before taking a breather on the power line high above.

I wish the canna lilies would start blooming - they are certainly tall enough now - and I think their red flowers (if indeed they are a red-flowered variety; I realize suddenly that I'm not certain of that.) would be a welcome addition to the garden, as far as attracting hummingbirds.

The Burpee Big Boy tomatoes are beginning to ripen, so I am continuing to hold hope that a tasty and sweet tomato sandwich is in the cards for me sometime real soon.

I ended up getting a fair amount accomplished today, in between exploration breaks, and so I felt the deep nap I stumbled into at the end of the afternoon was well-deserved.

It also allowed me to miss the newstime spoiler reports of the latest event results from the Olympics. Not knowing how things will turn out always makes watching a little more interesting, I think.

The BMX races are postponed this evening, due to rain in Beijing, which is a shame, because I'm just fascinated by them...and the crazy course the races are run upon. To me, it's quite similar to the moguls skiing events of the Winter Games--it looks sort of painful and wild, but I just can't look away!

Meanwhile, there's been some gymnastic exhibitions. Everyone always performs so nicely when the pressure of competition has lifted a little. Just amazing performances there.

I'd sort of hoped that the rain delay on the BMX might've opened up some primetime space for the kayaking/canoe events, but I suppose that isn't the sort of big ticket thing you broadcast in the evening. I'll have to look online for that.

But also tonight, platform diving! Talk about crazy...I think I may once have jumped (I hesitate to use the word "dive" during this Olympic week, when it is clear I am not worthy to associate with the word) from a high diving board back during childhood swim lessons, but knowing my irrational fear of heights, it's also entirely possible that I just climbed back down instead. And in any event, it wasn't nearly as tall as what they are diving so gracefully from!!

Oh, and what a fantastic way to end the evening's post: Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor just locked up another gold medal for the USA in the arena of Women's Beach Volleyball!!

By the way, I have been remiss in making a recommendation: if you, like me, are enjoying submerging yourself in this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, you may enjoy visiting TR over at From the Faraway Nearby. Tim's working the games over in Beijing, and his experiences in the city have been a fascinating and fun counterpoint to the television coverage. His blog has been one of my favorite new discoveries this summer.

By all means, check it out!

Just Another Day

2008-08-20T01:11:00.018-04:00

The annuals really own the garden this time of year. Most of the big ticket perennials have come and gone. Of the fabulous lilies only green leafy stalks remain. Just a few of the former multitude of daisies are still showing their cheery faces. There is still some phlox to tease the eye and scent the air.

But the day belongs to the hardest working residents in the garden: the allyssum, the marigolds, bachelor's buttons and sulphur cosmos.

The other cosmos still have not joined the show yet, though there are buds forming. I can't believe they are waiting so long this year. I think there's some reason behind that I've not quite figured out. The seeds were certainly sown early enough. Perhaps the soil is too rich for them. The plants are tall enough, some of them topping off at nearly four feet.

I hadn't thought I was going to show you any morning glories this morning, though there were plenty in bloom. And then I spotted this bumblebee tight-rope-walking along one of the twining stems, clambering over tomorrow morning's flower buds.

And this pale pink morning glory was a bit of a surprise, since I've not seen any this color before today. At first, I thought it was actually a bindweed flower, but a closer look showed it to be another color of glory heard from.

Pretty, eh?
Here's something for the Big Book of the Minorly Weird: at work today, one of the waitresses was cutting lemons and discovered this lemon with another lemon which had grown inside the first.

Hardly a sign of the coming apocalypse, but vaguely interesting nonetheless.

We heard of a severe storm warning around 1:00 this afternoon, and within minutes it was swirling in on us, thunder echoing in the distance to the west.

In a matter of minutes, the clouds billowed out of nowhere to obscure the sun and the sky grew very dark. It was sort of amazing how quickly it happened. I learned late tonight that there was actually a microburst causing lots of tree damage not far from the Cape Cod Canal at about that time, which explains the speed with which everything was moving.

As the thunder continued booming and lightning flashed across the sky, the gusty winds arrived first and then the rain. At first, it made a sort of fog as it came in contact with the hot pavement and evaporated.

Then suddenly it was falling in sheets and making visible the great gusts of wind that were blowing in a variety of directions.

I understand there was golf-ball sized hail connected with the microburst, but we didn't see any of that in Orleans, just lots of that heavy, heavy rain, sometimes blowing sideways, helping us feel a sort of kinship with our friends and family in Florida who were braving the battering wind and rain of Tropical Storm Fay.

I did download an impressive radar map of the storm's track and another detailing the frequency and location of the lightning strikes...but sadly, I've misplaced those files, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was a big, unexpected storm.

[EDIT: 8/20/08, 8:20 am: here's a link to more coverage of this storm, if you're interested.]

After work, I stopped by Rock Harbor for a look out across the bay, where it was cloudier than I'd expected, since we'd ended up having a pretty sunny afternoon following the storm. It wasn't until I got home to Harwich that I discovered that they were having a second storm about that time.

It's much cooler this evening, with temperatures dropping down into the low sixties...and now, after midnight, we've slipped down into the 50s. Definitely a nice night for a sweatshirt. I think I'll sleep well for a change.

There's still some fast moving clouds passing by overhead, and I didn't find the right setting to capture those crisply on the new camera yet.

But really, I wasn't so into photography tonight and mostly just sat in front of the TV and enjoyed some more Olympics coverage. Men's diving, women's gymnastics, BMX bike racing, more running and hurdle-jumping.

It's all good, though I am often a little disappointed that, in trying to make sure we see as much of the games as possible, some of the "lesser" contenders don't get their televised moment of glory. We see all those countries' athletes enter the stadium on the first night, and many of them are never seen again.

Succeed or fail, they are all part of the beauty of the Olympic experience.