Tuesday, For Now

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.

Night Falls

The Good Times ice cream truck returned to Not Wisteria Lane tonight. The last we'd seen the truck and it's female owner/operator, Nicole, she advised me that she'd be back on Tuesday and Saturday evenings. As it turns out, I'd been here most of the Tuesdays and Saturdays the last two weeks...and no ice cream.

But then this evening, when all hope was lost, we heard the distinctive tones of the electronic "Turkey in the Straw" drifting on the evening air and we dashed around waving them down and grabbing some money. What can I say, those Strawberry Shortcake bars are a rare treat.

When I mentioned her absence, she told me she'd been working the Eastham beaches (oh, sure, now that we're in Harwich...), but she gave me her card, "in case you have an ice cream emergency." (Weren't we just chuckling about the Cookie Emergency truck in Montreal?)

So now we've got her phone number and it almost seems worth it to have another barbecue, just to get the ice cream truck to cater dessert. She also does Weddings (picture, if you will...), Birthdays and other Special Occasions, naturally. Next time, I'll have to ask her if the truck plays "La Cucharacha", as I hear this is a popular choice for ice cream trucks in Baltimore.

And so we had our dessert while dinner was still cooking.

* * *

The sun sinks behind the trees, light on the garden becoming first dappled, then indirect...and gradually seeping away as the sky darkens above.

Walk with me along the garden's edge, our bare feet in the damp grass of evening. We'll light some candles and talk some about the various plants...whispering their names and stories, if we know them.

We stoop to sniff at one blossom or another. All the snapdragons smell like different kinds of candy, their scents growing stronger in the gathering shadows. In nearby bushes, birds chirp their young ones a nest-time story as they settle in for the dark night ahead.



Here's a sort of group picture, the Midnight Garden Class of 2008, Spring Semester, if you will.
As the sun sets, the moon suddenly appears behind the treeline across the street. As the evening progresses, we watch it clear the treetop and light the sky, puffy cotton clouds lit sideways with it's glowing beams.

I believe that "star" to the east/left of the moon is Jupiter. It's elliptical orbit has it as close to the earth as it ever gets this week, thus the extra brilliance.

The Fair Orb is not quite full this evening, but it's close enough that you really can't tell much of a difference. It's bright beams catch the white petals of the daisies and snapdragons and that single white cleome and set them to gleaming in the dark. Maybe someday I'll have a White Garden for just such occasions, as Vita did at Sissinghurst (though perhaps on a more manageable scale).

For now, the daisies' glow is enough.

Last Light

Ain't No Sun Up In The Sky...

I admit, I had a rather mellow morning, sort of an exchange to having been woken so awfully early by my kitty. I had a nice soak in the hot tub and then caught Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on HBO. It turns out it may've been a mistake to see the movie just hours before getting my hands on the final book in the Potter series, since I had almost NO memory of the movie.

While I was busy at that, the sun was working to thin out some of those clouds, so it was almost sunny when I finally got myself motivated to get some weeding done.

I decided to try the dandelion tool on this nasty witch grass. I should have known better, but on my first few attempts at eradicating this, I was just pulling this stuff out of the garden bed, without being very careful about it. I got lots of roots, but some were breaking off...and that breeds a sort of Sorceror's Apprentice scenario: for every bit you yank out, two new bits pop up elsewhere.

The tool let me loosen the soil down deep around the grass roots without disturbing the flower seedlings which are also now sprouted in this bed around the lamp post. Most of the grass came out pretty effortlessly.

As I worked at the grass removal, there were long, distant rolls of thunder shaking the air. It seemed to be getting a little closer as I finished the lamp post bed (my minimum goal for the day), so rather than continue throughout the bed, I decided to get some more seeds planted: squash/zucchini seeds for the Three Sisters garden[78y87tttttttttttt...as a cat crosses the keyboard]and some California Giant zinnias throughout the fence garden.

While I was working, Sophie's Dad called my attention across the street to a pink lily that'd come into bloom in his yard this morning. Purty, ain't it?

Although I was pretty sure there was a storm headed our way, the grass weeding had caused me to churn up some soil which had then dried in the sun. For the seedlings still in the beds, I watered the bed to keep them growing well...and was just finishing that up when the thunder and lightning got close enough to send me inside.

This was a pretty satisfying thunderer and was accompanied with some seriously torrential downpours, though fortunately none of the hail they were reporting on TV across the bay. But rain we had plenty of; in fact, this was the first time I've seen the garden beds flood seriously in a while.

Fortunately, all those plants are thirsty little green monsters and so within a few minutes of the rain tapering off, the standing water was soaking in nicely.

When the rain started up again a few minutes later, I just couldn't watch any longer and so I drove to Dairy Queen and took a Peanut Buster parfait to the beach parking lot, where I watched the lightning dance across Nantucket Sound as the storm moved east.




Naturally, the best lightning happened while I was nose deep in my ice cream and by the time I had hands free for the camera, the most exciting bit of this storm had passed by.




There was another round of lightning without rain that followed my return home, but after that the clouds seemed to break up a bit and we had a little sunshine shining through here and there.


Big surprise waiting for me there in the spotty sunshine: look what this first sunflower is preparing to do! I can't believe it's going to bloom already. Not only is there this big perfect-looking bud, but there's also no fewer than eight others going down the stalk beneath this first one. Wow!

Several of them seem to be making ready to bloom, actually. I love this one's spikey dangerous look. Looks more like some kind of green spider instead of a sunflower.

Here's what happened when I crumbled some old hot dog buns and set them out in the side yard. A few smaller birds came by, a crow and then later a grackle. And one seagull circled around and then landed on the roof of the house. He seemed to retract his neck, giving himself a squatter appearance. Perhaps squatter is how he felt, since we usually just see this guys flying by high overhead. Maybe he was deferring to the resident birds, though that seems out of character.

He set up a skreeking lamentational sound, that brought the attention of another, who circled and then landed beside him...quickly joined by a third. Two of them resumed the same sound, in unison, as they walked circles over our roof, wing to wing. Up one side of the house, over the peak and down the other side. Reappearing further down along the roofline. Allvery comical, as the third bird and I watched, mostly silently, he from his chimney perch and me from the street in front of the garden.

A fourth gull wheeled by overhead and the other three took to the air. I don't believe they ate any of the stale bread, which seems unusual for them.

Although there were still some serious clouds overhead around sunset, they worked beautifully with the angled light of the sinking sun to create a nice glow in the western sky.

Now, the skies are crystal clear, a million stars glittering like diamonds above. Tomorrow's going to be a beautiful day.

The Full Rose Moon

We had a nice heavy rainfall last night, starting around 12:30, but none of the lightning or hail that accompanied the storm as it mades it way toward the coast. The hail I could do without, but I was looking forward to some exciting thunder and lightning action.

The forecast had suggested rain continuing throughout today, but I awoke to warm golden sunshine and took my coffee out to the garden to enjoy the Camelot-like weather and to marvel at the magic a night of rain works in the garden. And also to doing the edging, trimming away all the tall bits of grass a lawn mower can't cut around the rocks.


More of the red roses on the fence had opened in the morning sunshine and I tried again to get a better sense of their fragrance, even to the point of tasting a rose petal.

It's a scent as lovely as the flowers themselves, but I'm no closer to being writer enough to make you think you can smell them.



This tiny white flower has appeared in the garden this week. I've not a clue what it is, and no doubt someone will come forward to snark about it being a weed which we must eradicate.

But I'm kinda grooving on this little one (the flowers are about the size of the tip of my pinky finger), so for now, it can stay.



The garden's turning into a sort of rainbow flag now that all the dianthus have come into bloom alongside the pansies, and just in time, too. You can see in the shot above that the curly grass is now half as tall as the split rail fence, and keeping pace with the beebalm and the rudbeckia, both yet to bloom.

Here's a closer look at some buds that are forming on one of the rudbeckia plants. I've sort of lost track of which one was which, so these will be a great surprise when they do get started.

For a day supposed to feature much rain, it was wonderfully sunny today, with a toasty 74 degrees to encourage the plants to make the most of last night's rainfall.

On the way home tonight, I swung by the beach to see what sunset was looking like. It was, it seems, muted by these clouds, the eastern edge of another lightning and hail storm which fizzled out as it reached the bay.

Mary from City Garden has tagged me with a meme thing, but I'm just not going to get to that this evening. I'll try to work it in tomorrow, when I'm not so tired.

But meanwhile, you should surf on over to see Mary's blog if you've got the time, and read about her family's allotment on the Greek countryside. And we think we have challenges in the suburbs.

Friday Night Sky

Cloud Watching

Although Emily's always happy to see her grandparents, this week's schedule of after-work dinners, whale watching and general comraderie have played havoc with our nightly walking routine...and she's let me know it.

So tonight I was happy to get home from our latest dinner before the sun had totally gone to bed, and me and My Girl enjoyed a nice stroll around the block.

Although it was a lovely day, there was a storm out over the Atlantic which backed some late down clouds across the Cape, giving us some nice dramatic skies to enjoy as the sun headed west.

Sunny Monday

At the feet of the arbor vitae (I think that's what it is...I'll look more closely in the morning) by the back yard gate is a nice spread of creeping myrtle, or vinca. Over the past week, blue flowers have been quietly unfurling from its carpet of shiny green leaves. Here they are in the early morning sunshine.

I found this tiny spider in the box of dryer sheets and shook him out into the garden this morning. I'll probably need a clearer shot for identification, but I'll see what I can find out and get back to you.

Here are some of the chewed tulips. It looks like they've not begun to show their flower stem, so perhaps that's not been short-circuited. I have some fresh ideas about how I might go about discouraging this. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, you can see the daylilies towering over the nibbled tulips, with some sword-shaped siberian iris leaves shooting up near the feet of a rose bush. I'm not entirely sure from this vantage what that unfocused stuff is, sweet William, maybe.

Don't be too sad about the tulips, though. Many more things are being spared by the mystery muncher(s). The hyacinths are coming into bloom finally and adding a nice splash of color here and there in the border. Some of the crocuses are still doing their thing, too...and I spotted the first signs of some grape hyacinth flowers poking up.

I met up with Mom and Dad for dinner again tonight and we enjoyed some great Chinese take-out, before enjoying a walk down to the beach and back. We were a little late for full-on sunset...but the angle from that particular beach isn't quite right for it, either. Still, it was nice. Very peaceful.

Too peaceful, in fact, to only tell you about it.

I dedicate this to anyone who's Monday maybe treated them poorly, or anyone who's looking to find a moment or two of serenity as they make their way through the week.

Take a deep breath, make sure your volume's on...and enjoy!

Beautiful sky this evening as Emily and I took our almost- nightly constit utional (which sounds so much nicer than saying "Em dragged me around the block", although that is essentially more true).

I must admit, I was taking pictures primarily because the silhouettes of the bare tree branches struck me...only later, did I discover a few things in the sky which were pretty interesting. For example, if you embiggen the top photo, there's something in the center of the sky, right up at the top of the image. I'm sure it was just the way the setting sun reflected off the clouds...but does it look a little like the Bat Signal to anyone else? I'm mean, I know it's not, obviously...there are hardly buildings tall enough to swing between here in Harwich.

And then there was this sort of arrowhead looking thing.

On the "back side" of the block, there's this tree (I'll have to wait for it to leaf out before I can attempt to properly name it); I just like the way it looked against the sky.

Not that I'm feeling particularly patriotic these days, but when I looked at the lower part of the image, I couldn't help seeing the American Flag up there in the red and blue clouds. All we'd need is a few stars to finish it off.

Anyway, it was a nice drag...er, walk around the block.

Valentine's Day

This brilliantly-colored male cardinal felt like a Valentine from Mother Nature on this grey New England morning. He was foraging for seed outside the kitchen window and despite jostling by our kitty, I managed this decent shot of him.

I'm fond of this tree and its silhouette, which is my landmark to turn onto our new street. Despite the cold, I wanted to stop and share it with you all.

Here's the Love Bandit Bear, who came to our house looking for me today, from the Vermont Teddy Bear workshop.

Isn't he the cutest thing?! The "local agent" who arranged for the Bandit to find me is, too!! (Thanks, Owen--I love you!)