Stop and smell the....

I mentioned in an e-mail to my cousin in Washington, DC, that it was OK for him to write about the daily goings-on in his life – his part-time job at the U.S. Patent Museum, the garden in his yard -- because I needed – needed in a most urgent way – to read about other people’s normal lives. Tips for people who spend hours in front of a computer include looking away from the screen periodically to stare at something far off. Well, I needed some emotional far-off staring.

He writes:

...Many times in my past my sanity was safely maintained by looking outside of myself and my own situations, observing others and their happenings, shedding my eyes away from my own problems and seeing what else was going on. You, Leilani, are blessed with the ability of observing and enjoying the wonderful delights of our natural world, so don't forget to take a break often to go outside, and dwell upon the beauty of our world, just outside your door.

He is right of course. And so I did. I went for walk. Checked out what was happening in our whiskey-barrel garden,

noting that peas are ready for picking, and lovely blooms are beginning to appear...

in the snarl of passion flower vines on the ground that exploded after Richard mowed the area earlier in the Spring. Even some with orange bugs ...

And then remembering that there might be butterfly weed growing in the back field, so I came up toward the house and headed in that direction.And just happened to notice the wild wisteria vine that has been growing up into the old peach tree by the barn for years. 

  

The peach tree is about dead, but the wisteria has twisted around itself in a most intriguing way. I don’t think I could have gotten a more perfect spiral had I tried to arrange the vine myself.

And while searching for the butterfly weed, I noticed a fairly large hole in the ground. 

I wonder who made this hole. Groundhog? Fox? And who might be living here now. Who are the people in your neighborhood?

And then I did indeed come across the butterfly weed.

And then I strolled back to the house, spotted our boy sitting under the tree in a lawn chair,

and visited with him a bit and then went back to work.

I later found I had been joined on my walk by 3 ticks. Two were still crawling, and one had anchored itself in the back of my knee. I made short work of all of them.