Posted tagged ‘weather’

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“When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow, but the gardeners themselves.”

February 17, 2011

The weather is amazing today. Even though the sun is in and out, it is still in the high 40’s and will even reach the 50’s, almost spring weather. I have a few errands after this, and I can’t wait to open the windows to smell the fresh air.

Yesterday I saw my surgeon who figured out why my right leg still hurts. It seems that whatever he put between the screws has moved and is lying on a nerve and that is causing all the pain. The only solution is to fix it through surgery. He also figured he’d add screws to the corresponding bone on the other side. They then should reinforce each other. I knew he didn’t use Gorilla Glue.

My garden shoots are even higher. I keep a daily watch. None of the garden centers are open yet, but that will come soon enough. This year I’m adding a small vegetable garden in the back yard. I’ll start some in the house and then transplant them. No zucchini! It is like a monster from outer space which can replicate itself to take over the planet.

I don’t remember squash when I was a kid. I think my mother decided not to try it on us as she had enough trouble getting us to eat carrots. She used to mix them with the mashed potatoes. We never asked. We just thought mashed potatoes were multicolored. I always like peas so they were served even though my brother hated them. I don’t remember any other vegetables served when we were young. I guess my mother picked her battles.

I’m always proud when stuff grows in my garden because I’m not a gardener. I buy flowers by color, and every year the perennials come right back all on their own without any help from me. My herb garden flourishes, and I love snipping what I need to make a dish using herbs from my own garden. I have high hopes for the vegetable garden. I’m way past mixing my carrots and potatoes.

Categories: Musings
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“From coast to coast the railroads roam, yet every inch of rail stays home.”

February 15, 2011

The wind is fierce on this very cold day. I had to go to the dentist this morning, and his office is by a field. The wind came whipping across, and I was freezing as I walked from the car. Today is a day to be home, warm and cozy.

A wind advisory is in effect with winds ranging from 30 to 50 MPH. It’s 24° but, according to the weather channel, it feels like 10°. From my window I can see even the tallest pine trunks swaying to the wind. The backyard will be filled with their dead branches. Pine trees, even the largest, are not hearty. Tomorrow will be in the 40’s, a virtual heat wave will be upon us.

I’m amazed when I think back to my childhood and remember walking to school in every sort of weather. Nothing fazed us. We’d open our arms to the wind and hope to fly. When it snowed, we’d stick out our tongues to catch the flakes and throw snowballs at each other all the way home. Rain was the least popular weather. We would take advantage of any large puddles, but mostly, we just got wet.

I really like traveling by train. My favorite trip was from Quito to Guayaquil, a route no longer available. The train left Quito and my first view was of the volcanoes which lined both sides of the rail. From there we started mountain climbing through to the summit at Urbina. Then the train went down the mountain and continued into the tropical zone where we could see bananas growing on farms on each side of the rail. It was the very first time I had seen bananas in the wild, so to speak. The most exciting part of the ride was the switchback when the train zig zagged up the mountain then switched and rode backwards to the lower line. Okay, that was a bit scary. I admit it. The train ended at Duran where we had to take a boat across to Guayaquil.

I know there are spectacular train rides here and in Canada, but I just haven’t gotten around to taking one. I’ve put it on my to do list, but I’ve always said I want to do my overseas travel when I’m young and save the US for when I’m old, and I’m not there yet.

Categories: Musings
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“One for whom the pebble has value must be surrounded by treasures wherever he goes.”

February 7, 2011

Today is another lovely day with lots of sun and the temperature hovering around the low 40’s. Gracie has been in and out all morning as she loves days like today. I should warn her to get her fill as rain or snow will be here for the next couple of days.

My mind is filled with silly things, things of little value. I move stuff around in a room, step back, take a look and then move them back. After much contemplation, I’ve decided to do two washes today with one just for my spread. If that isn’t an earth shattering decision, I don’t know what is. I think I have Monday syndrome. It’s characterized by low energy and a dislike for work of any kind, even laundry. Couches and books are appealing. Yup, I have a bad case.

I have a box here and another upstairs filled with little treasures. They wouldn’t seem like much to anyone else, but they are important to me. In the box down here, I have three Ghanaian coins, some pins from the Boston marathon I work every year, a couple of political pins, all democrats, a few Icelandic coins from the wonderful trip my mother, sister and I took, a two dollar bill I got in France, some American coins including a couple of liberty dimes I got in change and some pennies.

When I was little, my treasure box was a cigar box. I kept it hidden in my closet because everything in it was important to me. Lots of times I’d open the box and take out my treasures one by one and remember why they were treasures. I remember there were sea shells from a family vacation, a ribbon I won, some odd really neat buttons and a postcard I was sent. At some time, my treasure box just disappeared, and I didn’t even notice. Maybe  it was when we moved to the cape. I don’t know, but I do know I never outgrew treasures as I have them still. My guess is I forgot for a while how important little things can be.

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“Surely as cometh the Winter, I know There are Spring violets under the snow.”

January 31, 2011

Good news about my iPad and Mac. Both now intimately know my router thanks to a comment by Mikelj3. He said, “Most users forget to unplug the router, shut down the computer and within 10-20 seconds plug the router back in & start the computer. They have to shake hands with each other & this usually fixes the problem. I cannot believe that any of the people you called didn’t ask you to try this. It usually works.” It did, and I’m so excited!!!!

The sun is shining even though it’s freezing out. From my perch here in the den the world looks deceptively bright and beautiful so I couldn’t believe how cold it was when I went to get the papers. I wish I could stay home and play with my new toys, but Miss Gracie and I have two errands a bit later. She’ll wear her lovely Pendleton coat and totally outclass me.

Winter turns me into a sloth. Staying in the warmth of my house reading a good book is one of the best ways I know to spend a winter’s day. Getting cozy under covers to take a nap helps while away a dreary winter afternoon. I know winter is cold, bleak and sometimes snowy, and I’m okay with that. I live in New England where winters aren’t supposed to be warm, but around this time every year, I miss color the most, even more than I miss the warmth of the sun.

The trees are bare; there are no flowers in the gardens, and the snow, which can be beautiful, is just plain white. I do what I can to blunt the dreariness. In my front windows I keep candles lit all year long. They chase away a bit of winter’s darkness. When I shop, I often buy flowers. They bring color and they bring hope. They remind me that spring, as always, will naturally follow winter. I just have to wait, be patient and keep warm.

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“Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.”

January 20, 2011

Okay, I’ve had enough. Snow is coming tomorrow, the sort you have to shovel, while from Sunday through Wednesday snow showers are predicted. I thought that strange. I always think rain when I hear showers. I wonder what happened to snow flurries? Anyway, it’s cold and it’s going to get colder. The high on Sunday will be 18° and on Monday 17°. The low on Sunday will be 4°. That is not a typo.

It amazes me that when I was a little kid I walked to and from school in all sorts of weather. Single digit temperatures just meant bundling more. Sometimes we’d even walk backwards because the wind was so cold it numbed our faces. Getting to school was a relief.

As a kid, I loved sleeping in a cold house. I’d snuggle under all the blankets to stay warm. The problem was my nose. It was always cold. Sleeping with it under the blankets just didn’t work. I felt smothered. I’d rub it with my hand to try and get it warm, but that never lasted too long. It was my destiny to have a cold nose every winter night.

Even now I love sleeping in a cold house, but the problem is still my nose. It’s always cold. Gracie’s ears meet the same fate as my nose. They are always cold. I guess I should be glad to have company in my misery.

When I was in Ghana, I wanted winter and snow, and I wanted to be cold. It was hot every day, stifling sometimes. I’d shower at night, a cold shower as I had no hot water, and not dry off. After my shower, I’d run to the house, jump into bed and let the air cool me so I could fall asleep.

I figure we all want to be somewhere else when it’s too hot or too cold. I also figure the weather gives us something to gripe and complain about. Stand in line at the grocery store and listen to the conversations. Most times people are talking about the weather. Today, with snow predicted tomorrow, the grocery stores will be filled and the bread and milk will disappear.

The cold weather lets us recognize that there are some things we all have in common. That, I suspect, is its greatest attribute.

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I’d love to get pajamas. Good, nice and warm flannel ones.”

December 27, 2010

I had every intention of writing this morning, but I thought I’d take a small nap first. Well, that small nap lasted for hours, catch-up time for what had been a rough night. Gracie joined me. She snored, but I was glad for her company so I ignored her and fell asleep anyway.

I could hear today and see it from my window. The wind blew loudly, and I could almost feel the cold. Birds were at the feeders, mostly gold finches, and they flapped their wings against the wind to keep their balance. A nuthatch flew in, took a seed and then flew to a sheltered branch to eat it.

We had a bit of snow, some rain then snow again. I’m guessing we had maybe three or four inches, but the snow blew sideways and drifted in the wind which made an estimate difficult. The wind is still blowing, but the snow has stopped. It is a night to be close to hearth and home.

On days like today I stayed dressed in my flannels and sweatshirt. They keep me warm and cozy. When I was a kid, I wore flannel pajamas every night all winter. I was too old for the footed pj’s so I envied my sisters wearing theirs. On my feet were sock slippers, the new ones I got every Christmas, so my feet stayed warm even without the pj’s. My favorite part of those slippers was the soft leather soles which made a scruffy sound on the floor when you dragged your feet. We used to do it on purpose to drive my mother crazy.

My flannel pajamas were always two parts: a top and bottom. They always had a print and it was usually flowers, not a print I’d choose. The top had buttons and the bottom had an elastic waist. The flowers were small and I swear they were always red. I suspect I got the exact same pair every Christmas for ten years, but I can’t prove it. They wore out quickly as I wore them often and my mother washed them in her wringer machine which was hell on clothes.

My mother was cleaning as I walked in the door after school one day. Right away I recognized the rag she was using to dust and polish the living room furniture. I could barely see the red roses, but I knew that rag had once been part of a set of flannel pajamas.

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“And, of course, the funniest food of all, kumquats.”

August 6, 2010

The day is sunny. Yesterday’s quiet has been replaced by the sounds of dogs barking, kids yelling and a lawn mower or two. We had a thunder storm early yesterday evening which rumbled and rumbled but didn’t bring much rain. Tonight is supposed to be cool and the next few days drier. I have some errands today then it’s back to the deck. My book is almost finished, only about twenty more pages to read.

My neighbors are Brazilian, and around dinner time I smell the most wonderful aromas wafting from their kitchen. I don’t know what my neighbor is cooking, but I’m going to ask her. I’m curious as to what dish smells so delicious. I wonder what she thought of the hot dogs I was cooking on the grill the other night.

My mother, when she was a teenager, used to hang around the Stoneham Spa. It was still there when I was a kid, and I remember the wooden booths and the swivel stools at the counter. Small square signs with prices for food and drinks hung on the walls. The signs had handdrawn colored pictures. One sign, on the back wall, was for a lime Rickey, and on it was a crudely drawn glass with green liquid not quite to the top. When my aunt took me to the Spa once, I ordered the Rickey. It was the first time I had ever tasted lime, and I didn’t like it. My taste buds were attuned to a kid’s drink, to Zarex or to the Kool-Aid I got at a friend’s house.

I didn’t try lime for a long time. It usually happens like that. As kids we taste something and find we don’t like it so it goes on the list of foods we don’t eat. A lot of vegetables used to be on my list. Only round beans, Brussel sprouts and beets remain. I periodically try those foods still on the list just in case my taste buds have changed, but the list has remained pretty steady over the years. The last thing I tried was olives, and I still find them really gross. They’re at the top of the list.

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“Someone told me it’s all happening at the zoo”

July 31, 2010

The temperature is 66° right now, and I’m delighted. I even sat in the sun on the deck to read my papers, something I’ve avoided for days. It will get warmer later, into the mid 70’s, but the nights and early mornings will stay chilly for the next couple of days.

More great whites are off Chatham. They can’t pass up those free meals just lying in the sun waiting. Swimmers were warned out of the water yesterday at South Beach as one of the sharks wasn’t all that far off shore. The great whites have become tourist attractions.”Move a bit closer to that fin, Alex, so I can get it in the picture.”

My mother used to pack lunches for us when we went on our adventures. We’d be gone all day. One summer was spent at the zoo where we got to feed the animals, including Babe the elephant. That was my favorite summer of all. We got to be friends with one of the workers who took us behind the cages where the public couldn’t go and taught us how to feed the small animals. We, my brother and I, would fill our buckets with all sorts of fruits and vegetables and walk down the lines of cages feeding each animal in turn. I remember the cages were wooden and painted green. Most of the animals in them were small ones like raccoons. Babe had her own place as she was the big attraction, and we’d go in right with her to leave dinner. People were on the other side of the gate, and I always felt a bit self-important as I went about my task, and sometimes I even patted the elephant for effect.

It was always a long day at the zoo, and we lived at the totally opposite end of town. My mother sometimes had enough money to give us bus fare one way, and we used it for the ride home. If not, we walked, though plodded is probably the better description.

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“If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?”

July 13, 2010

The hot and humid air mass just hangs over New England. The slightest movement makes me sweat, not a pleasant sight. The air conditioning at night gave me a cold which is now just about gone. I thought it was allergies, but it was too persistent. Maybe the dog huddling beside me every night should have been a hint.

Summer is hot and winter is cold. These are givens. People complaining when it is too hot and too cold are also givens. The weather seems to be the one thing we all share, a commonality. It is an ice breaker, a reason to chit chat in the grocery store line. “How about this weather?’ or my favorite, “Hot enough for you?”

One summer it rained every weekend and a few days each week. Even I felt bad for the tourists. I couldn’t imagined being stuck in a cottage with herds of children and no diversions. I pictured countless games of Monopoly, the most boring of all games. The movie theaters were so filled every rainy day that summer people were parking on the grass and across the street at the lumber yard. The roads were totally clogged with cars driven by harried parents hoping to find something to keep their kids busy and quiet. I would have suggested duct tape. It seems to work for just about everything.

Every day is a beach day this summer, and the tourists are delighted. I’m glad for them. Nothing makes me happier than to see jubilant tourists.

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