I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
A Hat Full of Rocks
When I came downstairs this morning, JJ was up. In the last few months I have exclaimed, “Wow! You are up early!” but I stopped saying that because he always responded “No, I am not up early. I am up still. I haven’t been to bed.” Since his cancer treatments, his sleep patterns have been all messed up. This morning he told me that he was going to try to stay up as late as he could. Each day he hopes to stay up a little later until he is actually sleeping at night and awake during the day. Today he made it to 11 a.m.
This morning one of our elderly neighbors stopped in for a visit. He used to work with EJ until he got sick several years ago, and now he enjoys visiting neighbors and bringing them veggies from his garden. We have a garden but our retired neighbors’ gardens always produce more than ours. Maybe because they have more sunshine, or they plant different things than we do, or they have larger gardens, or they just have more time to devote to their gardens. This particular neighbor greeted JJ warmly and then told him many stories about people he knows who have cancer. Several have died from it. I was afraid this would really disturb JJ, and he did bring it up later, but he understands that this neighbor is very old and frail and he said, “As far as I am concerned, [our neighbor] can say anything he likes to me and it’s ok.” I thought, “Wow! I have a really tremendous son! He shows such love and respect to the elderly.”
After our neighbor left and JJ went to bed, EJ and I took Danny for his walk. Danny pulled us to the nature trails at the park that the Village has been developing over the last couple of years. We let Danny choose which trails to go on–although Danny didn’t really ask us which way to go, he just chose this path or that path and we followed him. When the trails lead back out to the playground/picnic area, we continued on our regular route home.
Just before EJ left for work, we drove to the little gas station. EJ needed to get gas in the car and I needed to get gas for the lawn mower. Yesterday I ran out of gas in the lawn mower just before I finished. I just had a small patch left to mow. I didn’t want to walk to the gas station by myself to get more gas because I didn’t want to leave the container of gas outside while I went inside to pay for it and I didn’t want to bring the gas container into the store with me. It’s easier to either have JJ go with me to guard the gas container while I pay for the gas or to drive the car so I don’t have this dilemma. After EJ left for work, I filled the mower and finished the lawn.
The weather is really oh, so cool today. I think the temperature got down to 48 last night and it reached only the high 60s (or low 70s, depending on which website I looked at). Tonight the temps are supposed to drop to the low 40s. The cooler weather has made me perk up…like Frosty the Snowman when the cold air revived him after he melted in the greenhouse in the old children’s cartoon. Then my mind went off on a rabbit trail–it always amazes me how a thought can lead a person down surprising paths. Thinking of Frosty made me think of the magic hat that gave him life, which sparked a memory of when I was very young. I was out walking (with my Mom, I think) when I found an old hat full of rocks on a neighbor’s fence post. I don’t know why the hat was on the fence post or why it was full of rocks, but I dumped out the rocks and took the old hat home. I loved it and wore it all everywhere and all the time. I have just this one picture of me wearing my old hat. I have no idea what eventually happened to it. It was old when I found it so maybe it simply fell apart.
Anyway, today was so awesomely cool that after I mowed the patch of lawn, I ended up weeding for a while. I picked a few ripe hot peppers and got them to drying in the dehydrator. I washed the dishes, cleaned out the fridge, dumping too-old food, washed more dishes, made potato salad, and washed more dishes.
I love cool days.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
Cool days are my favorite too Teri and we have them also. I feel just more like me. In hot days it is just surviving and nothing else. Love you all ❤
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Love cool days, love your hat, love you! 🙂
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Me too, they seem to energize not only the body but the friends you meet on such a day, it’s good. We have been watching a crane walking the edge of our pond, a few week ago there was action in the water and upon checking we had a slew of baby catfish, I have a feeling they need to take shelter til they can get bigger, have a blessed day and we love ya,
Linda
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I love you all too. ❤
Linda, how awesome to be able to enjoy the wildlife at your pond! You have such a beautiful property.
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