302: Promises, promises

Thistle and grass seeds

The local weather people keep promising us that this heat spell will break.  Of course it will, sooner or later.  But they keep putting it off another day.  Originally it was supposed to cool down into the 80s beginning today.  Then it was moved to Saturday or Sunday.  Now they’re saying Monday.  Methinks they just aren’t sure so they keep promising it for another day.  It’s a bit like dieting or the joke about free beer:  “Free beer tomorrow.”  Tomorrow never comes.

Goldfinch food and nesting material

Timing can be everything, don’t you think?  In the mornings I get up and go about my usual morning routine which includes (but is not limited to) yoga, some form of exercise, breakfast, and a little time with M.  M gets up and goes about his usual morning routine which includes (but is not limited to) yoga (occasionally), breakfast, getting ready for and going off to work.  Before the routines begin, we both make a pilgrimage to the front and back windows of the house (not usually together, mind you, as we’re on slightly different schedules).  I like to go to the front first and look at the sunrise and/or watch the birds playing in the bird bath.  Then I go to the back to see how the pond is doing.  It’s a way of saying hello to the day before I do anything else.

Morning bath time

This morning M didn’t have to rush off to work so he went outside to give the flowers a morning watering.  While he was doing that, I went down to the basement for my date with the elliptical.  M was gone longer than I expected, but I have learned over the years not to pay attention to those expectations as M has a way of going off to do one thing and taking care of five other things that need to be done as well.  I figured he decided to water the veggie garden too, or started weeding, got into the rhythm of it, and time slipped away.  When he did come back an hour or so later, it turns out he’d spent the time over at the neighbor’s discussing where the property line is.

Caught in a web

While he was watering the flowers M noticed a man in a bulldozer busily working near the willow trees.  He went over and asked the guy doing the bulldozing if he knew where the property line is.  Bulldozer Guy, who has some sort of excavation business and should know better, said, “Not exactly.”  Right.  Don’t you think you should find out before you start bulldozing down hedgerows and trees?  It’s the smart thing to do if you don’t want to pay to replace big trees (big trees are terribly expensive to purchase, move, and have planted).

Long story, short, the neighbor eventually joined the conversation and M took him and Bulldozer Guy on a walk to show them where the markers are for the property line.  We know them well, having walked the line (now I’ll have that Johnny Cash song in my head all day) when we were thinking about buying the property.  We walked it again with a map that shows the markers just before making an offer on the property.  The markers are all still out there.  You just have to know where to look.

The moral of this story is, I suppose, not to be a nice guy and assume your neighbor will confine himself or his hired workers to his property whilst he is making major changes.  Go ahead and love thy neighbor but get out the map (an Indigo Girls song) and walk the line.  We almost lost the row of willows and hemlocks that we have been carefully tending and growing for the past eight years.

Today's glimpse of the pond

With the bulldozer noises going on for most of the morning, today’s outdoor time was not as peaceful and soothing as yesterday.  I started to walk over and watch the bulldozing process, but then thought better of it.  It would have angered and/or saddened me, especially after I noticed the hedgerow located just behind the willows is gone.  Until I can find some acceptance about the situation (something I was doing until today’s round of bulldozing), the best course of action is avoidance.

I walked around on the other side of the property for a while and admired the Black-Eyed Susans and the Purple Coneflowers.

They look like miniature suns to me

After I’d had enough of the sun beating down upon me, I went back to the old purple maple tree where I sat yesterday to cool off on all levels.  I found the spot where I sat yesterday, sat down, and then noticed there is a fairy ring right in front of the spot.  With the lack of rain, I was surprised to find mushrooms growing so well.

They must be thriving on the morning dew.  If  you look closely in the photo above,  you’ll see some dewdrops on the blades of grass.  I first noticed the dew when I decided to lie on the ground to get some close-up photos.  That will teach me to always carry a towel.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

~ Douglas Adams, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

You can read more of the towel quote here.

I considered stepping into the middle of the fairy ring, but I’ve read enough stories about people disappearing that way.  They enter the land of the fairies, stay a few days, then find they’ve been gone from this realm for hundreds of years.  I’m not ready to disappear for a few hundred years.  I bet they don’t cut down their hedgerows in the land of the fairies, though.

I tried to get an overhead shot of the ring.  None of them came out well.  It’s a big ring and I couldn’t get the right perspective.  I’ll leave you with a few more shots from my walk back to the house.  The dragonflies continue to show off, and the Queen Anne’s Lace is doing well this year.

Thanks for stopping by the Bogs today and joining me on my walk.  I enjoyed your company.  🙂

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