Catching My Breath

53°f/11.7°C, mostly clear.

The heavy rains last week caused much flooding, none disastrous, thank goodness, and now we are back to enjoying cool days and much less humidity. Weather really impacts our lives, particularly here in the country where it is the main determinant of what we do each day. Last week was a whirlwind, so today I feel like I am just catching my breath.

After all the rain last week, I put down mulch, working around the very wet areas, so now I have only about 1/4th of the garden left to do. I had to put that chore on hold though, as other life things intervened.

One of those things was a visit from two friends who are also gardeners, one of them a former landscape company owner and who wrote a weekly column for the Charleston newspapers about flower gardening. She is retired now but still works as a consultant. The lady coming with Lynne was Pam, a lady whose path has crossed mine numerous times over the years, but with whom I have never had the pleasure of spending much time. Now retired, she still lives far out in the country on her 200 acres. One of the ways we often saw each other was at music events, as she is a member of a women's Celtic music group.

So, you know I was working hard to make my gardens look as good as I could given all the rain, and, like most women I think, also getting my house put to rights. I am also grateful for the push to clean when company comes, because I am quite happy to give a link and a polish most of the time and spend my hours on more fruitful activities. I even made some chocolate-orange shortbread cookies! 

Well, it was a lively visit. I picked them.up in town, then we came here for coffee and cookies and a garden tour--which was marred a bit but the stench from the darned chickens. The rain had made a quagmire of their run, and although Larry did his best to alleviate the situation, the smell was still, um, pungent. Still, we enjoyed the flowers and the herb gardens, and discussed the vegetable garden from a discreet distance. Lynne took these photos of part of my gardens.

She also took this one of me, apparently mid-tale!

(Today Larry has finally agreed with what I have been asking him to do, and moved the chickens back to their old coop until we can get things figured out.)

We left here to drive the back way to Ravenswood, where my friends had fun checking out the antique mall. Then it was lunch at the nearby Mexican place, and back to their car. It was fun to hang out with them, and we are planning at day at Pam's place next.

Yesterday we celebrated our 40th anniversary,  which was Friday, in a small way, but taking a "mystery picnic lunch" trip on a sternwheeler in Marietta, Ohio. My friend Tamara showed up, unexpectedly, early that morning with some plants for me, from the high school greenhouse, which were going to be thrown out. She stayed for breakfast---scrambled eggs with cheese, ham, toast and sliced tomatoes from our friend Mark's high tunnels. So good! We got ready to go quickly, and arrived at the boat just as boarding started. 

The boat trip was great, and so relaxing. I have a fascination with steamboat history, and with sternwheelers, and Larry enjoys them too. 

The Ohio River is still quite high.

Mystery lunch!

My pasta salad.

Our mystery picnic lunches were varied. Mine was a chicken salad croissant that had cherry tomatoes in the filling, a Caesar salad, a pasta salad that was interesting but with too much pesto for my liking, and a sweet little lemon meringue pie. Larry's was a roast beef wrap, potato salad, tossed salad, and a sweet peanut butter cake with a caramel sauce. He pronounced his lunch delicious.

The flag of my people!

After the boat, we stopped at the antique mall where we had once had a booth. One of my favorite workers was there, and it was so nice to see her. We keep up on Facebook but hadn't seen each other since we closed our booth. Then we went back to Ripley, stopped at Shari's for coffee, then went on to Charleston for a little taste of the city-wide art festival called Festiv-All. It was fun to sit outside at our favorite brewery and just watch people. 

Larry enjoyed a stout, while I had ice water.

I wonder what outfit was passing by that caused me to look at it like this?

I guess since it was an art festival people wore their "artsy" outfits, so it was a colorful mix to see.

Last stop was Taylor Books to browse, have a glass of wine and listen to a group that is becoming a favorite of ours, Minor Swing. Their music is a neat blend of jazz and swing, which they define as "gypsy swing". Not my usual listening, but I really like their sound.

Today? Not much going on, although Larry has dressed out two rabbits, which I cleaned up for the freezer. He has picked a gallon of raspberries, which i also n put into the freezer. Jam in my future, I think. Raspberry is my favorite of all the jams I make. I painted some small pieces for our booths, made dinner, and rested, as I am feeling worn out. No surprise, after such a busy week. 

So that's what we have been up to. Tomorrow Larry has a doctor appointment,  but this time I will stay home. Maybe I will get that mulching done? Maybe.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.