A Contemplative Life

Many notions rumble through my mind. Like how 17 degrees Fahrenheit (-8 C) is pretty damned cold! That was the temperature we felt as we entered the cloud bank, pictured above. Not that it had been warm right before we drove into what was freezing fog, but WOW! Nature and weather are pretty amazing elements, let me say. Thankfully freezing fog was the forecaster's term; there was no fog, only clouds as we headed from Nevada into California on Interstate 395. That icy spate lasted until we turned off Highway 36 for Highway 44, when bright sunshine lifted temps a few degrees, yet the sun's warmth was like stepping into a different realm, for the scenes we encountered on 395 were like an alternate reality. They made me think about a similar scene I wrote in The Hawk , when Lynne and Sam observe an icy vista right before Christmas. Yet I conjured that from my imagination. Driving through it, mile after mile, was wholly something else. December, and Advent, are similar, in how many ...

I didn't mean to cut back a dahlia, but sometimes it happens. We might get some rain tonight, so today was spent prepping for it. Leaves were raked, the wood area cleaned, and boy my back is feeling all that exercise! I've lamented not doing more in the garden, but have earned my outdoor stripes over the last few days. Amaryllis have been cut down, blackberry vines among them whacked back. My better half dumped several bins of refuse, bless him! I swept the back patio and am looking forward to how much leftover dust is washed away by the precipitation, perhaps a quarter-inch worth. I can't complain about the impending wet weather, because it's nearly the middle of October and we haven't had much in the way of damp days. In fact, we've enjoyed loads of warm temps for our neck of the North Coast. Yet it's time for a change. Huh, not much about retirement, semi or otherwise, so far in this post. I did feel quite relaxed while raking this morning, the sun shinin...

A wee sunflower newly placed in the garden! But I need to preface it with the notion that I feel like I'm cheating. Yet I've put a number of plants in the ground and in planters, so that counts, right? And they are live plants, lol, so yeah, I've kind of found my outdoors mojo, even during a mostly cloud-filled week. Boysenberry plant that I started last year from a tiny plug; it's the berry of my childhood and doing well. So why do I feel as though I've skipped many steps? Well, last year I started SO MANY PLANTS FROM SEED. Oh my goodness, I was a seed-starting fool last spring. It was our first full year at this house and with little rain and plentiful if not cold sun, I went nuts for veg and flowers. Not all of it did well, due to hungry deer and other critters and meh soil, as well as our mild summer weather. Did I burn myself out, perhaps. Our very wet and cold winter hampered my efforts this spring, as well as malaise from grief. Yet I'm making up for it n...

Just past the large boulders is where the sand drops off about ten feet to the shore. We bought some plants today, then went to the beach, hence the title. Cloud cover should lift tomorrow and we'll put the various flowers, fruit, and veg into the ground then. I've been considering starting some pumpkins from seed, but hesitated because last year's were such a bust. Finding nicely sprouted plants at the store pushed me over the edge and I'm toppling into minor gardening with my fingers crossed. In addition to squash, I chose a cantaloupe plant and a dozen petunias split into two six-packs. And a coleus for our planter that dwells in the shade, into which I'll put one yellow and one pinkish-purple petunia merely because that leaves ten, which is plenty to scatter where the deer and other critters won't eat them. My husband chose a watermelon plant, he LOVES watermelon. No idea how the fruit will do with our mild temps, but experimentation is good. And the petunia...