Plodding Toward the End of Summer

It has rained in brief but torrential bursts throughout the day.

Jim had an errand in Lebanon, KY, about an hour away.  He chose a winding secondary route which took us past fields of soybeans and corn, swooping around curves, descending into hollows, climbing hills. He drove with rain cascading down the windshield,, rounding a bend to find that the shower had passed and clouds of white mist were rising from the wet black surface of the road. 

I sat contentedly in the car, reading, during the nearly half hour that he was selecting what he needed at the tractor dealership.

Into Campbellsville by the more familiar and mundane route, where I had been promised a few minutes to collect some sewing supplies. 

I scurried around the JoAnn's Fabric and Crafts, finding a skirt pattern, zippers, lining fabric, hastily adding a quilting magazine to my shopping basket as I headed to the checkout counter.

I wouldn't have minded poking around a bit longer, but I didn't need anything else, so back out into the humid dripping heat to find that Jim had disappeared. 

I always have a car key in my purse, so unlocked the door, dumped my bag of goodies inside.

I was considering where to look for him, when he emerged from the shoe store next door!

The man collects more shoes than I do!

Lunch at the Subway sandwich shop and then home through the green darkness of a rainy afternoon.

The sky cleared about 6 p.m. and the slanting sunlight of evening shimmered through the mist rolling up from the creek.

I walked down the lane with tidbits for the goats, stopped to pat and cuddle the barn kittens--who are growing into lanky and sleek adolescence.

Shadow-cat follows me up from the barn, winding about my ankles, tail held high.

He has been told by Willis and crew that he is not to pass the fork in the lane and approach our house!

Here he is, sitting quietly at a safe distance.

The hibiscus by the front porch is experiencing a fresh burst of bloom.

Only one signet marigold germinated from seeds sown earlier.

Ipomoea Pandurata aka Big Root Morning Glory, Wild Sweet Potato, Man of the Earth.

 Naturalized, invasive, but beautiful with a fresh show of silky blossoms in the relative cool of early morning.  Long before noon on these sweltering days the flowers have shriveled.

I have read that if one wants the labor of digging the tuberous roots they can be eaten like a sweet potato--although there is a bitterness not wholly diminished by boiling in several changes of water.

Our neighbors have needed to be away for several days, so I was gifted with the glads that were ready to be cut.

Teasel examined them with interest. Mima had to be shooed away from the bouquet when she had notions of creating a colorful 'salad.'

I usually take the precaution of shutting a vase of flowers in the pantry overnight so that I am not greeted in the morning with the mess of puddled water and disheveled petals from an 

over-turned vase. 

One of the barn cats, Bonnet, has produced another litter of kittens.

They are darling [of course!] but--oh dear!

Our 7 year old great-niece was here for a day last week with her parents; we made several trips to the barn so that she could play with the older kittens and ever so gently cuddle the babies while the 

mom-cat hovered.

Jim removed a set of wooden stairs from the outside of his workshop several months ago.

[I have referred to then as the 'stairway to nowhere' although they led up to the unfinished loft  area above the shop.]

Jim and our renter/neighbor hauled them down the lane and installed them for access to the stable 

hay loft.

There is satisfaction in re-purposing rather than discarding!

A dahlia sent by my sister has bloomed in the weedy edge of my garden, albeit nibbled by some nasty beetle. 

The state of the garden is most disheartening at this point. I had it quite tidy at the end of June, fresh mulch laid down around the perennials, the vegetables and melons mostly free of weeds.

The long spell of damp sweltering weather has defeated me!

My hope is for a long and sunny autumn--and the stamina to tackle the mess once more!