A Sunday Afternoon

Chris and Forest left around 1pm to run errands: Lowe’s, Target, a haircut for Forest, grocery shopping. That left me to several hours to do what I needed to do around here and for the most part that has been chores. Last weekend was a weekend away and next weekend is a weekend away so that leaves me to cram into this weekend all, or most, of the things I need to get done.

Cranking up the “Romeo and Juliet” station on Pandora—that would be the Dire Straits song—I’ve been jamming my afternoon away to not only Dire Straits but plenty of other good music that puts me into a state of mind for several things: Florida (songs have memories), life pre-Forest, savoring these late summer afternoons. Pre-Forest I could dance around this house in a few hours getting it clean and doing the random bits of things I think of to do, such as baking or what I did today, scamper around the yard pulling herbs to dry, without a pile of toys under my feet or cries for my attention.

Now the dehydrator is humming along at 95-100* dehydrating garlic chives, pineapple salvia, basil, tulsi basil, and lemon balm. I’ll use the pineapple salvia, tulsi, and lemon balm for tea. The chives and basil will go into our herb pantry. There’s plenty left of everything for another round of drying in a few weeks. I’ve been wanting to dry the pineapple salvia for years and just never got around to it. Now seemed like as good a time as any to get that started.

I’ve been bouncing in and out of the a/c. I pulled the leaves off the plants sitting on the back porch since I’ve been inside the house all morning doing chores. That dose of Vitamin Nature was much needed. Summer slipped by, didn’t it? It was incredibly fast in July and August. I felt like I could grasp it tightly back in June and then *bam* it’s gone now. I look outside my window as I type this, looking at the scarlet sage and passionflowers wildly growing in the front bed and see the signs of the slump towards autumn. Flipping through photos at this time last year and in other years, this is what it always looks like. Wild and a little unkempt, with a garden path overgrown with weeds. The only difference in today versus last year is that this time last year (Saturday 8/26) the rains for Harvey were really getting started here in Houston. Today, it’s almost the opposite. Sun fills the sky and the plants yearn for a drink from above. Tonight/tomorrow/and the following days last year we’d lose two pine trees as they fell into the pond and the garden would be swamped. I’ll take what we have today.

And in a little over a week, Forest turns four. While I enjoy these few hours to myself, to clean uninterrupted with the music turned up, I do miss the sounds of that sweet little kid and can’t imagine how quiet this place was, and all the places we lived, before we had him.

Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday, too.