And What to My Wondering Eyes Should Appear

No tiny old man and eight flying reindeer. Something more fantastical than that; the sun!

Howard is seriously contemplating the work facing me on this porch floor. I bought some floor paint this time, so hopefully it won't peel off.

It's only 43 degrees F, but the sun has made an appearance and this makes all things right again. 

How Does Your Garden Grow

Emerald green and overgrown, that is how my garden grows.

We are stuck in a low pressure system, which means it rains a lot. The green outside the window is so vibrant it looks like a bad editing job.

I will mention the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma. It is difficult to comprehend something like this, my mind doesn't grasp it. So, I feel a heaviness in my soul and I look out at an unreal green as I go to the quiet place in my humanity which allows me to carry on in the face of so much sorrow. May the people of Moore find their way, which is beyond my imagination how.

Sogged

I am doing practice runs to see if I will be able to manage the focus needed to maintain a blog once again. I've made numerous attempts in the past, without succeeding, so I really cannot say.

We are saturated. The rain is welcome, but all at once? I must shush myself, we have had a couple of years of drought; rain is good.

I am off to buy my plantings, with high hopes for this growing season, short as it is. Goodday to all.

Storms, Snores & Sundry

Time flies, whether you are having fun or not. I am surprised to see it has been six months since I last looked in here. I don't know what I've been doing but I must be occupied with something.

We got through winter by the second week of May, we stepped right into summer and have now arrived at monsoon season. All in three weeks time, gotta love Minnesota. Otherwise, it's insanity.

Howard is still Howard. My little stub muffin. Grace is her elusive self, a little stiff in the hips, but still camera shy.

Different scenery, same action; Howard is a sleeping machine. I bought a treadmill last fall, so Howie isn't the only machine in the room. I actually use the thing, imagine that!

This handsome fellow showed up at my barn in the late winter. It seems he was someone's pet which became a grown tom. I suppose the cost of neutering was too great so he was turned loose in the country. Lucky for him he moved into my hayloft because he is too friendly to make it outside. I got him neutered and gave him to my mother. As you can see, he is living large in St. Paul.

He is now Murph, Kate's yellow kitty, living the safe and happy life, enjoying sardines and beef liver. He hardly misses mouse in his diet at all.

Mother's German Shepherd died suddenly in December. She was distraught and alone, until I found sweet Emma for her. Emma is a German Shepherd/Corgi mix and really the nicest dog imaginable. She and Murphy took to one another immediately and are fast friends. My mother still misses the other dog and I am sorry for her grief, but now people can visit her.

We are going to have another storm this evening, the entire state is under tornado warning, the horses have been stuck in the barn for a couple of days with a few more likely. From statewide drought to statewide saturation, I'm not going to complain, not yet.

I guess this is all the news fit to print. Time to batten the hatches, weather the storm and hope I don't end up in Oz. 

Photo by Sam Abell

Hello blog. I see you are still here, an image, an idea, caught in the eternal grasp of cyberspace. I thought I would drop in for a look-see, wondering if there is dust on the furniture and cobwebs in the corners. I almost believe someone has been stopping by to dust, keeping things clean while I linger elsewhere.

I feel a nostalgia for the time spent here, earnestly composing thoughts, feelings and random nothings. Enjoying the release and relief you gave me when I needed it. Wandering the pages of my fellow scribblers was a welcome diversion from the life.

I lost it somehow. Poof.........gone! It started slowly, the attraction fading, the words drying and falling from my brain, parched and dusty; sawdust of the mind. One day, we simply parted, whispering we would get together again sometime soon, knowing the truth beneath the promise was, no.

I found a new place, an easy diversion: Facebook. Please, dear blog, do not judge me harshly. Once  words poured through my fingertips and traveling the sphere of ideas and intellect through the click of a mouse was a pleasing adventure. After a time it became an impossible journey. When your mind becomes as dry as the Gobi the only thing to do is status updates.

I'm glad I stopped in for a visit. Perhaps we can do it again sometime, sometime when drought will cease and thought sprouts like the dandelions in my lawn. Catch you later, gator.

Metaphorically Speaking?

In the onion drawer too long.

Something for Everyone

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six. 

~ Yogi Berra

Yesterday, the end of humankind, today tacos and Berra, served up on a blog. Lunch was good, the ground is saturated and I will do almost anything to avoid cleaning the house. That's all the news fit to print.

Now we all know why I retired the blog. : )

Stuff & Such

The earth laughs in flowers ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am a distant relative of Ralph, as we call him in the family, on my father's side. My one and only claim to fame, as it is passed down the family tree.

The earth isn't laughing so much of late, I think. She is having a conniption fit over our lack of care and understanding and I believe she will have the last bitter laugh if we are not careful of her.

Phytoplankton is not reproducing at an adequate rate. Phytoplankton is that microscopic stuff floating on the oceans surface which provides food for much of the marine life, and this is important, it provides about 50% of the earths oxygen. In other words, if this continues, we are screwed.

And the beat goes on........

Uh, huh

I found this on Facebook. I'd say it rings true, and sometimes I think I can be that person.......except I have plenty of vices!

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues. ~Dame Elizabeth Taylor

On the Porch

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. ~ C. S. Lewis

Just because I like the quote.

The first week of June and it is feeling like the dog days of summer. I'm feeling as if I live in the Mississippi Delta instead of near its headwater, which gives me an excuse to sit on the porch eying the crumbling, the peeling and the overgrowth without much enthusiasm.

I've dusted off the old blog, mostly as reason to take photos again. I got out of the habit and find I want to snap the shutter, not because I aspire to be good at it, but because I don't. One thing in my life I have done simply because I enjoy it. I like the history this digital record creates, that I can browse through and remember when.

The view from the porch changes year to year, even as it stays the same, just more so. Crumbling pots that once stood whole, gardens in bloom and then in decline, tree limbs that once sprawled are now gone from a storm. Peeling paint and freshly painted. Empty pots and blooming plantings.

The greyhounds Jessie and Nellie become Grace. Basset Harvey morphs into Howard. I guess we cannot just go on being an ordinary, decent egg.