July First

Still cold and rainy. But, my favorite flowers are blooming. Rose Campion. Very difficult to find as a plant or in seed form. I saved seeds for years and when I began working at the greenhouse last spring so many people asked for it---- and I packaged seeds and gave them all away. I hoped, with fingers crossed, that some of my plants would return. They are biennial. Meaning they produce flowers every other year and make little rosettes of leaves in between. If you have enough seeds scattered around, you get some rosettes and some flowers every year.

I usually scout around my yard looking for rosettes and I dig them up and transplant them to one spot so I have a large grouping of Rose Campion to enjoy. This year, with the major digging and weeding of the perennial beds here at my house, I finally have the little beauties right next to the back porch and near my chair. Tall silvery stems with flat open magenta flowers right on the tippy top.

My friend P brought those veggie burgers over yesterday along with some wonderful bread and pickled green tomatoes. We had a lovely dinner together with some organic wine (a bit thin) and then went to Art club together. Only five of us. But we enjoyed each other's company and I stitched two circles.

I was describing Riley's behaviour yesterday with the car to my husband this morning, and I finally realized what the dog had noticed immediately (and I had failed to see). I was asking him to jump out of the car WAY too close to the invisible fence line. Smart dog.

G is vacuuming the floors. I am washing clothes. Riley is resting up for his walk in the woods. The skies are overcast. The grass needs cutting. We are going out for lunch. Which probably means no dinner needs to be cooked. All that food I bought on Monday!!!

Who cares? I'm just going to go with my whims today. Do what feels good. Pretend I'm on vacation. A vacation where you do laundry. Which, actually, is what I do on vacation. The first place I visit in any hotel is the laundry to see what they have available. I also iron in my room. I don't overpack so I need to wash clothes even when we are only gone a week.

I looked into the garden yesterday while taking Riley out and noticed that I have small yellow squash growing. Cute. And the cucumber plants are finally sending out those curling tendrils and grabbing hold of the trellis. And the roses are blooming. And the leaf lettuce is ready to pick, wash and eat with salt, olive oil and Balsamic vinegar.

Those stacked (neatly) bodies out on the balcony with all their luggage? Could those be all the things I have put aside "for later" like painting, travel and art? Or were they just dead bodies?