Category Archive

Insomnia has been my ever-present friend these past few weeks. The drugs aren’t working as well anymore, so I don’t get to sleep until hours after I go to bed. bleh. Nevertheless, I’ve gotten some reading done, watched a few shows on the pyramids, Rome, Greece and seen most of Bride and Prejudice. Last night wasn’t any different; I was awake well into the wee hours and finally went to sleep.

Until the thunder came rolling in, then I was awake again for two hours, listening. I leapt out of bed when one huge strike hit the ground somewhere nearby, close enough to rattle the windows. Thankfully, we never lost power. Most of the thunder was of the low, rolling kind, which is actually kinda comforting.

I woke up late this morning, oversleeping is the curse of the insomniac; you only get to sleep right before you must wake. Oh well.

My cat, Moxie, insisted that I get up and feed her. She’s heavy enough that when she plunks down on my stomach I lose my breath, but she’s cheerful about it so I don’t mind. Moxie is very vocal and likes to make sure I know she’s ready to eat.

So, I get dressed, take care of personal business and go downstairs to feed the beast and make coffee. When I sit down to have my first cup I look outside to see the washed, dewy landscape of a summer morning after the midnight rain, and there in the middle of the yard is a doe eating the lower leaves off our mulberry tree. She’s lovely, dainty even, so I don’t scare her off, which I know Dad will the moment he sees her. He can’t stand that something would eat anything in our yard without invitation and that the deer may damage the trees. She leaves before he wakes up.

Later, I’m still drinking coffee and reading, Dad is also and he’s reading the morning paper, just enjoying a companionable silent morning sit. Out of nowhere, the outside dinner bell begins to ring. I turn in time to see a little brown wren clinging to the clapper cord desperate to figure out where this noise is coming from. She lets go and flies away. Then it was time to leave for work.

When I lived in Colorado I ached for rain. Not that it doesn’t rain there, it just rains for a couple of minutes, then it’s over, have a rainbow, move on. I missed the kind of rain that goes on for days and days, when you stayed inside and read good books. I missed rumbling thunder and lightning, I missed a cool breeze on a hot day that smelled of water. I missed hurricanes and so I was very happy when God moved me back to the East Coast.

Yes, I missed hurricanes. The air running before a hurricane smells of the sea and turns the world green, telling it’s tale of wind to come. Then the wind does come, and it howls like an animal, then the rain, washing everything away. Hours later the clearing comes and the world is fresh again. I can’t stay inside during the storms, I have to see the sky mad with boiling fury, feel the wind lashing in anger and the rain crying itself out on this poor earth. Somehow, at least to me, the world feels more alive when hurricanes blow, like God is walking beside me when I am out there.

Now there is the pesky matter of storm damage and deaths, I do pray that people are able to find secure shelter and that the damage isn’t too high. But always remembering that with out these storms the world would become hopelessly and forever polluted. It is just that we humans have built up and love our things so much that we forget that these storms have scoured the face of the earth for millennia, and like the forest fires that are currently ravaging the west, they are necessary to our very survival.

So, here I remain, one of the few that is actually excited at the prospect of a busy hurricane season.

Here is my list of reasons why keeping an organic garden ROCKS!

10. The smell of the dirt, it doesn’t smell like anything other than dirt, which means the smell is clean. That is a lovely smell.
9. You can assign children to work in the garden with out worrying what limb will grow out of their back in a week. Nothing out there is really unsafe for handling at anytime.
8. You can use that nasty light beer left over from a family gathering to catch slugs. You won’t waste it and you can then make more room for good beer. And it works.
7. Peas. Peas in June, right off the vine. Oh, my, that’s nice.
6. Eating a salad in which the only thing you didn’t grow is the dressing. (Olive trees don’t grow in Maryland. )
5. Raspberries, right off the bushes. right off, no washing.
4. The smell of the herbs as the sun warms them.
3. Mint. Just pick a leaf and crush it then rub it between your hands. That is a heavenly smell.
2. EVERYTHING tastes incredible. There are no chemical aftertastes, it’s all just really lovely. really.
1. Being able to barely rinse, or not, the things you eat. I need to find a waterproof salt shaker to keep next to the tomato beds, so I can just stand there and glut myself on sun warmed vine ripened heirloom tomatoes. The taste of fresh herbs on everything. Nothing like, really. There is such a difference between picked two days ago and picked three minutes ago.

Last night there was a fabulous storm and the fading light of the day mixed with the greening air of the coming storm to create really lovely light. The roses, peony, clematis and the rest of the flowers were just gorgeous. I took pictures which I hope to post in the next few days.