End Of Summer

The greenhouse has switched from summer to fall already. The autumn mums are filling the plant benches out front and the Christmas leftovers from 07 are arriving from the warehouse to be sorted and unpacked on tables in the empty (now) annual house. On slow days I'll be in the annual house wiring pine cones together for swags and wreaths.

I spent my day at work yesterday walking. Six hours of walking. I was re-doing the perennial tables; making order from chaos. The tables are still a bit jumbled but most are in ABC order by common names of plants. If I'm still working next spring, the tables will be "really" in ABC order by common name or Latin. One or the other. Not a mix. This is a laughable statement as I have no control over anything at the greenhouse. Even now, while I'm at home on my day off, they could be moving everything back into disorder. Could? Are!

The walking. Instead of filling carts with plants that needed to be moved, I walked over, picked up an armful, and then walked over to their new table, set them down in straight rows, and then walked back to get another armful. Zen. To enjoy the simple concepts of walking, carrying, placing items in a row under a blue sky, sun shining and a gentle (at times) breeze blowing. I could have enjoyed it more if I had taken time to stretch my arms out to the side, lift my face to the sun and spin. I find it easier to do this in the privacy of my own back yard and not in a public perennial yard. Too bad. It was a perfect day to spin.

My pictured roses are blown floral roses. Discarded. I was given them because I adore "cabbage" roses and these blown roses look so much like cabbage roses. And while no longer good enough to be sold, they are still good enough to grace my dinner table on a late summer's evening with blown petals softly falling.

My garden is producing Delicata squash, bell peppers, Savoie cabbage, cucumbers, Red Lightning Tomatoes and several small types of purple and white eggplant. I roasted a medium Delicata sliced into long strips with two small eggplant for my supper on Tuesday. Yesterday G & I feasted on fresh ripe garden tomatoes and soft fresh mozzarella cheese with a hot crusty baguette. Good olive oil, balsamic vinegar and basil leaves topped it all. I wish the garden was producing more yellow squash (which I fry up with onion into a squishy brown delicious mess) but the bees aren't pollinating the squash flowers too well now. No zucchini and no yellow squash. So sad.

What's Good Today: Day off. G is walking the dog. I think I will work on filling a large box for Goodwill, stop at Grand City to see if they have inexpensive Dill Seed for Slam's pickles. My grocery wants $5.50 for a tiny jar. Work on clearing off more of the dining room table. Buying another storage tub for art supplies (right now they are piled on a table and filling the seat of a chair) OR I could delegate an empty dresser from the attic for art supplies. Each drawer filled with a different item. Pencils, paint, stamps, paper.

Now that sounds like a fantastic idea. My "baby" dresser is upstairs waiting to be used. This is the dresser my parents used for my baby things when I was born. I wanted the maple dresser and my mom misunderstood and sent me the "baby" dresser. Very cheaply made and lots of splintered wood to imbed in fingers and skin. Black, tall, narrow with a small decal of a lamb on the center of the top drawer.

The maple dresser came in a set with the maple bunk beds my brother and I used for most of our childhood and then my children used them till they went off to college. But the maple dresser stayed in my parent's attic filled with three children's vintage report cards (all of them- mine stressed that I did NOT play well with others!) and boxes of bullets for my dad's guns. Wow! Is that a psychological treat or what?

I also plan to finish work on my latest Red fabric work and my Suduko puzzle. I have a handout to work on for my class on plant division on Saturday (add visuals) and a visual map (key) for the perennial yard to draw. G is going to karate class this evening.