It seems it was only yesterday that I was poking in the soil to see signs of life in Mother Earth. The next day we were in the middle of a stretch of 100 degree days. This morning I am wondering if I should have unhooked the hoses last night so they would not freeze. Oh, and some where during the intervening days I recall mowing and cutting weeds and cleaning the goose house and planting seeds and wondering where they went after they came up because the garden was shoulder high in weeds last time I looked. Spring and Summer are a complete blur.
I meant to take a vacation and go back to Kansas, but I must have forgotten, because it did not happen. I meant to go on several hikes, like the Manitou Incline and up Tower Trail in Beulah to get seeds from the Sage plant, but I think it is too cold up there now. I know it is pretty chilly when I go out in the mornings and I have that dew on my car windows. Leaves are starting to fall in the yard and spiders are making their way in through the cracks. Where did the summer go?
I recall one of those pattern books with the cute little sayings that can be embroidered in cross stitch. I actually made several of them and God only knows where they went. I could use them now. The first one was "When you are over the hill, you pick up speed." That is the truth if I ever told it. Seems like some where in the far recesses of my mind I was a kid and the days crept by as slow as molasses on a cold day. I do not recall summer or winter affecting me as far as the creature comforts of warm and cold. I do recall walking home from school behind my older brother and sister who broke a trail through the snow. And I recall sleeping on the floor at school because we could not get through the snow. It must have been very cold. I remember those damned itchy wool blankets we slept under. I recall jumping in the creek or horse tank or a mud puddle when it was summer, so I must have been hot.
I remember the hayloft and how hot it was up there in the summer. Sometimes if the hay was just a little damp the pile would start smoldering and the hay would have to be pitched out on the ground to save the barn. I also remember how warm it was in the winter. Course I also remember the mice and the cat. There was invariably a litter of kittens which would grow up to eat the baby mice. Also spiders. Damned spiders were every where. Black Widows were the scariest. We learned early to recognize the web of the Black Widow. It was shiny and if I touched it with a stick it would crackle. Sent chills through my bones. And I could always see the Widow somewhere with her round marble body, shiny black. Sometimes I could see her dead husband trapped in her web. She killed him after they bred and that is why she was called a black widow. There was one that lived behind the door into the chicken house. Very scary.
(Why does everything always revert back to Nickerson, Kansas and my childhood?)
The other thing I cross stitched was one that said "Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most." That was my mantra for many years until I decided that I had not really lost my mind, just sometimes I let it go on vacation without me! I have been told that I should write my life story and I gave that a lot of thought, but that will not happen and here is why...
When I set down to start to write my mind wanders off. I started to write about how fall is in the air and I had beautiful pictures in my mind, but then I started thinking about how the city fathers have now decided to remove those stupid bike lanes down on Fifth Street. This started me thinking of how I learned to ride a bike in Nickerson, Kansas and that made me remember school there in the big two story brick building.
I usually call this "digressing", but I guess if the truth be known, it is just the old adage "All roads lead home." And I take great comfort in that.
I meant to take a vacation and go back to Kansas, but I must have forgotten, because it did not happen. I meant to go on several hikes, like the Manitou Incline and up Tower Trail in Beulah to get seeds from the Sage plant, but I think it is too cold up there now. I know it is pretty chilly when I go out in the mornings and I have that dew on my car windows. Leaves are starting to fall in the yard and spiders are making their way in through the cracks. Where did the summer go?
I recall one of those pattern books with the cute little sayings that can be embroidered in cross stitch. I actually made several of them and God only knows where they went. I could use them now. The first one was "When you are over the hill, you pick up speed." That is the truth if I ever told it. Seems like some where in the far recesses of my mind I was a kid and the days crept by as slow as molasses on a cold day. I do not recall summer or winter affecting me as far as the creature comforts of warm and cold. I do recall walking home from school behind my older brother and sister who broke a trail through the snow. And I recall sleeping on the floor at school because we could not get through the snow. It must have been very cold. I remember those damned itchy wool blankets we slept under. I recall jumping in the creek or horse tank or a mud puddle when it was summer, so I must have been hot.
I remember the hayloft and how hot it was up there in the summer. Sometimes if the hay was just a little damp the pile would start smoldering and the hay would have to be pitched out on the ground to save the barn. I also remember how warm it was in the winter. Course I also remember the mice and the cat. There was invariably a litter of kittens which would grow up to eat the baby mice. Also spiders. Damned spiders were every where. Black Widows were the scariest. We learned early to recognize the web of the Black Widow. It was shiny and if I touched it with a stick it would crackle. Sent chills through my bones. And I could always see the Widow somewhere with her round marble body, shiny black. Sometimes I could see her dead husband trapped in her web. She killed him after they bred and that is why she was called a black widow. There was one that lived behind the door into the chicken house. Very scary.
(Why does everything always revert back to Nickerson, Kansas and my childhood?)
The other thing I cross stitched was one that said "Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most." That was my mantra for many years until I decided that I had not really lost my mind, just sometimes I let it go on vacation without me! I have been told that I should write my life story and I gave that a lot of thought, but that will not happen and here is why...
When I set down to start to write my mind wanders off. I started to write about how fall is in the air and I had beautiful pictures in my mind, but then I started thinking about how the city fathers have now decided to remove those stupid bike lanes down on Fifth Street. This started me thinking of how I learned to ride a bike in Nickerson, Kansas and that made me remember school there in the big two story brick building.
I usually call this "digressing", but I guess if the truth be known, it is just the old adage "All roads lead home." And I take great comfort in that.
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