Until yesterday evening, that is.
I went outside to defy the local watering ban to ensure Catherine doesn't have a massive crop failure, and as I watched the tiny evil sprinkler give a bit of juice to her tomatoes and cucumbers and radishes, I sat there in our new quite comfortable chairs underneath our metal-framed fabric shadecloth, and didn't do a blessed thing.
Supper had been eaten, there was nothing to do but sit, and I did it with great abandon, listening to the occasional bird chirp and the pattering of water droplets on the dry ground, and catching the ever-so-frequent whiff of dog crap from my neighbor's house. Good grief--it's like living next to a hog farm. What do they feed that danged thing?
Aside from that, however, it was actually nice to be able to sit outside all contemplative like in a very nice square tenty thing. Maybe I will take up smoking cigars and drinking booze to add to the air of fleshly self-satisfaction. Would probably do well, too, at covering up the stench of Rover the Clydesdale.
Oh, and before any of you start griping that I was watering! in the middle of a drought! using a sprinkler!, let me remind you that I never water our grass, wash our cars, do an incomplete load of dishes or clothes, and never leave the faucet running when I brush my teeth. I figure I've saved enough over my lifetime to be able to douse my baby girl's little 8x8 vegetable patch whenever it needs it.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 12, 2007 02:16 PMJust sitting is an experience to be savored, no matter what your lot in life. Things just move too fast these days.
Catherine needs to add some lettuce to her garden - you have the start of a nice salad, there.
Posted by: Diane at June 12, 2007 02:54 PMFor some reason she decided on cabbage. She's also got beans, peas, carrots, and a fat cat that keeps getting sprawling in between the rows.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 12, 2007 03:39 PMTry lettuce next year in the winter—when I had a garden I found that the leaf lettuce and the young spinach were the best and grew pretty well.
Posted by: jim at June 12, 2007 08:34 PMIf you threw some dirt on Lightnin' while he's sprawled out on the garden, would cattails grow?
Only one dog making all that stench? We have three little yappy dogs next door that are kept outside next to our backyard, and every once-in-a-rare-while we'll get a whiff of the excrement. Fortunately the prevailing winds send it away from our house. I think the youngster next door does a fairly good job of cleaning up after them. The incessant barking, though, has given me plenty of temptation to commit "canicide".
Smoking a stink-stick(cigar) would not only help you with the malodorous dog stench but also keep bugs away (six-legged and two-legged). I don't know what you'd have to do to get Miss Reba to kiss you post-cigar unless, of course, she joined you in lighting one up.
Posted by: Marc V at June 13, 2007 09:23 AMJim, I'll tell Catherine and see what she says.
And Marc, it's one BIG dog, and they don't keep the fenced area cleaned up that well. As for drinkin' and smokin', I think I might just have to make do with bubble gum cigars and Welch's. Miss Reba's stature as a temptress is exceeded only by her strict adherence to temperence.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 13, 2007 10:54 AM