Splendor in the grass

Even though it is a couple of months too early for fall colors, the big cottonwood in the front yard has started dropping its leaves because of the drought...

and the ground is covered with them.

Had I been walking in the front yard, I probably would not have noticed anything else golden or yellow in the grass besides the leaves.

The other morning though, I had just finished the straight mile portion of my morning walk (I leave the house at 5:45 a.m.) on the frontage road picking up trash and had started up the hill at the “church loop, ” the asphalt driveway that connects with the frontage road and circles around a large pond in front of the church. I happened to be looking down and noticed something yellow in the green grass.

As I said, it is a bit too early in the season for fall colors, and besides, the fence line (5 strands of barbed wire and two hot wires), which keeps the herd of goats next door off the church grounds, has been cleared of everything that could have turned yellow. So I had to stop and look.

I am glad I was paying attention.

Otherwise I would have walked right by.

I did not have my camera with me, so when I finished walking the loop, I drove home, thought about it a while, and then decided I had to try to get a picture of it. It was still there. I had to get down on my hands and knees to get level with it--and then get up again--which might have provided some amusement to anyone speeding by on the highway who might have seen me.

I had no clue what it was, and so I had to enlist the help of my friend Judy, who has several insect identification guides, and eureka, the mystery was solved: Eacles imperialis.

What a lovely, splendiferous thing to see.

Whoops...

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage--Martin Luther

 GAA!

I meant to write about this last Tuesday (June 26) because that was our anniversary.

In years past I have had trouble remembering the date of our anniversary. My parents' anniversary was a week earlier than ours and I often got the dates mixed up. This year I remembered okay, but really fell down on the job in other ways.

We were married in 1971, so this makes 47 years.

Weddings—at least in our social circle—were rather simple back in 1971.

My dress cost $80 off the rack at JC Penney. The bridesmaid’s dresses were homemade from patterns and material we bought at the fabric store.

The reception was cake and punch and, of course, the ubiquitous mints and mixed nuts in the church fellowship hall. It did not break the bank.

We normally do not do anything very extravagant for our anniversary, mostly being content to have a good meal in a nice restaurant. This one happens to be a Mexican restaurant, and as usual, the meal was excellent. I am sure that practically all Mexican food in the United States is a fusion of American and Mexican tastes, but the woman who owns the restaurant is actually from Mexico, so I feel like the food is perhaps a bit more authentic. At any rate, I tend to order something that I don’t usually make at home; in this case, chili relleno. I have tried a couple of times to make chili relleno, but I don’t do well in trying to neatly stuff ingredients inside something else and then dipping it in a batter and frying it. So I am happy to order it at the restaurant.

But to backtrack just a little: The situation here over the weekend before our anniversary was rather hilarious (depending, of course, on your sense of humor). He is hard to buy presents for because if he wants something, he just orders it right then online or buys it when he is out and about. I always know what I am getting because I always ask for a book, which he buys me, so there is no surprise there.

He did give me a suggestion about what I could get him, which was great – and I should have thought of it myself because it is has always been the “go-to gift” when I need to get him something.

However, he had to go to town and said there was no point in me making an extra trip to town to buy the present, so he ended up buying his anniversary present and giving it to me so I could give it to him.

And then last Monday when I did go to town for the usual—aerobics class, post office—I forgot to buy him an anniversary card, so he found a really funny one on the Hallmark Cards program he has on his computer and printed it and gave it to me so I could give it to him.

So Tuesday afternoon when we got back from our lovely meal, I gave him his bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry

 and the silly card he gave me to give to him, and he gave me the book  I asked for..

and a lovely romantic card.

It was a really good day. But somehow, this was just sort of...wrong; funny, but wrong. I am definitely going to do better next year.