And like a flash, Tuesday is upon us again. We have been busy celebrating J’s birthday week with bits of excitement; country drives and roadside apples, antique-ing for the store and surprise Farmer’s Markets, a few stolen moments for a glass of wine and a chat, a long line for a lovely ice cream afternoon (cannoli flavored? yes please), relaxing together and making a slow cooked daube (oxtail and olive stew) and more to come.
Many of our ‘plans’ didn’t come together because we’ve been waiting on news of the store and finagling business accounts, etc and we’ve ignored the garden (but maybe as long as we can – those garlics have GOT to get in! But the deer have eaten all my beans, broccoli, and Fall snow peas though I could still pull my carrots and have Asian greens coming up, the Fall raspberries are still fruiting, and the Calendula are still blooming and seeding) in favor of attending to each other. And so far the Snapdragons are holding their own in stunning little colors, the Driskell mint is big and strong, and my Witch Hazel subtley bloomed while I wasn’t looking.
J did not take a week off for his birthday but instead made a limited menu (thank you for making his day a little easier and lighter) which may, in fact, be closer to a real adjustment of the standard menu in the future: he is only one guy, after all. And it makes memberships and specials even more special. We shall see.
D is in full Samhain-swing. We could not find our big blue spider decoration friend this year (lost to the corners of the attic?) so she made her dolls into ‘scary’ situations (and they were really scary, she is not a delicate child! Aaack!) and drew up a hundred snakes and ghosts to put around the house. We need to find a jack-o-lantern pumpkin soon. Right now she is obsessed with pop up scrapbooking, resplendent with mica sparkles, yarn bits and felt, drawings of cats and fish.
A thunderstorm all night kept me up – I’ve managed to devise all manner of display windows for the store, a few design elements that were still up in the air, a couple of conversations I need to have, some dissertation bumps smoothed out, a menu for the week, some Solstice presents, and where I want the new herb bed for next year (ha!). I’m off to work on the writing a bit today while my beautiful Tulips deliver the goods. I will whip up a Birthday Apple Pie today for their return and we shall play some games and maybe make a nice fire. Perhaps J will grace with us with his guitar and Don Gato (since he keeps wandering around singing/humming it lately) which sounds like a pretty lovely evening.
Rock Bottom Homestead 