We have a lone turkey that seems to enjoy meandering back and forth across our lawn....and back and forth and back and forth. She doesn't want to stay with the flock. Everytime I looked out the window this week-end there she was, waddling around the property as if it were all hers. I walked to the gardent to begin my planting and saw what I thought was a cat rolling around in the dirt. As I got closer I realized that it was the turky taking a lovely dust bath. She better not do that now that my plants have established homes in the garden. She really isn't too timid and we can get fairly close to her before she toddles away from us.
Today was a hot and s-s-s-s-s-s-s-steamy day. Yesterday the air conditioning wasn't working in the school and it was uncomfortably warm and sticky. They finally got it working halfway through the day today and it immediately put everyone in a much nicer mood. I saw a friend today while I was out shopping who I haven't seen for a while. She said "I can't believe that your hair is still so thick". I told her it wasn't really that thick. It was just the humidity.....it really does a number on the hair..........BOING!
Memorial Day used to be all about the parades in this family. Torrington always has a large parade on Memorial Day. We spent years taking movies and pictures of the kids in the parade. Brownies, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Soccer, T-Ball, elementary school band, Junior High Band, High School Band.......we did it all.
I have to admit that I love a parade and I loved it even more when the kids were involved. I couldn't wait to see them rounding the corner. It was one of those "I'm so proud of you" moments. By the time they reached the Junior High band I was recruited to be the water bottle mother and had to march along with them and squirt water in their mouths when they called for it. I was always so germ conscious and tried so hard not to touch contaminated flesh when squirting water in their mouths that I would often miss and get it all over their face. The band members usually signaled for another mother, any other mother, when they needed a squirt of water.
Here's a picture of our little Kara playing her clarinet in the Torrington High School band.
And there's little Damon marching with the Cub Scouts and smiling for his mom and pop.
We have had just about as perfect weather as one could hope for on Memorial Day weekend. Feels like summer. Yesterday the storm doors came off and the screen doors went on. All the windows in the house were open. The breeze was blowing the curtains......one of my favorite sights. The clothes were drying on the line. The sky was blue. In the evening we went to Gail and Charlie's to see their granddaughter, Julia, off to her prom.
Two happy, lovely young ladies.
Julia (left) and her friend Jessie (right)
I could hear her and her friend upstairs getting ready. Standing in the kitchen listening to the rise and fall of their excited voices and giggles brought back the thrill and excitement of my own proms. Every young girl should have that one night when she feels beautiful and special.
Gail transported the girls to Waterbury to Chase Collegiate School's parking lot where the school had rented a limo bus to take the students to the prom. A very nice idea and very cost effective. It sounded like a fun bus ride, complete with raffles. While she was doing the prom run, Paul and I went out to have a quick dinner and then went back to Gail and Charlie's to watch a movie. We saw "Weatherman", a forgettable movie! We waited for 2 hours for the story-line to begin but it never happened.
Today was another perfect day. Paul worked on opening the pool. I mowed the lawn and did other lawn work and planted some flowers. Tomorrow......the vegetable garden goes in.
Julia with the proud grandparents, Gail and Charlie. You've done a great job raising this fine young lady, Gail and Charlie. Take a bow!
Finally..........the weekend has begun. We all thought the work day would never be over. Time just seemed to drag. After a couple of weeks of rain and cold weather we are all anxious to spend a few days outside in the warm sun. And we hear that we are going to go to instant summer on Monday with temps in the 90's.
The day started out sunny but slowly deteriorated. By the time that we sat down to lunch at Cathy's Cafe we heard some rumbles of thunder. The storm held off until we finished our lunch and went inside and then it poured and poured and POURED. I have many things I want to plant this weekend so I stopped by the greenhouse on the way home. I knew if I waited until the weather was nice the place would be packed with people and lots of the plants would be gone. There were only two other people there. It was so nice. THAT is the way I like to shop.
Tomorrow there will still be a few showers. It might be a good day to trek back to the greenhouse for some more plants. Tomorrow evening Paul and I are going to run over to Charlie and Gail's to see their granddaughter, Julia, off to her first prom. She chose a beautiful, sparkling dress and I can't wait to see her all dressed up. Prom night is always so exciting. I can still remember the feeling of dressing up for my prom. Such a happy night. I guess one never forgets that.
Sunday and Monday, with the weather expected to be spectacular, are going to be spent outside working working working. I think everyone I talked to today said the same thing. It has been so long since the weather has been cooperative enough for us to get anything done outside.
I wish everyone a perfect summer kick-off weekend.
Finally. We have made a positive move on our screened-in porch. Last night we signed a contract with "Rudy" to begin construction on the porch. The cost of a 4-season porch was so scary that we decided not to do it. The darn thing cost very close to what it cost to build our house.
I will be happy with my porch. I want something where I can escape from the sun and heat in the summer and where I can sit and relax with my iced-tea bug-free. I want to sit outside on a warm summer night and listen to the katy-dids. I want to have breakfast with the morning sun and the sweet new-day smell. I want to have lunch sheltered from the noon-day sun listening to the locusts whir while the cool breeze whispers across the porch. I want to have dinner as we watch the sun go down, listening to the beautiful song of the veery. I have always always wanted a screened-in porch. Maybe someday we will transform it into a 4 season room. Paul has already been talking to the Home Depot people about buying the windows ourselves. It is much cheaper to do it that way than through a contractor. But right now I will be overjoyed with my simple little porch.
On the weather front........it has been COLD. I don't think I have ever seen a May this cold. I have planted nothing. The ground is just too cold. But I have plans to spend Memorial Day weekend in the garden because we have been promised temperatures in the high 80's. We will see how accurate the old weatherman is about this!
My piano teacher, Pat Beegle, is retiring. Today was my very last lesson with her......ever. I was sad. I was nostalgic. I will miss my weekly lesson. More than I thought I would. My weekly visits with Pat have become so woven into my life that they are as routine as cleaning my house every Saturday and reading before I go to sleep each night.
I have been taking lessons from Pat for 20 years. That means I started when I was thirty-nine. Thirty-nine? That seems like so long ago. I don't even remember being thirty-nine. People say, "Twenty years. You must really be good". Well, no, I'm not really good. Sometimes I think it must be agony for poor Pat to sit and listen to me plodding through my lessons. She is so patient. More practice time might improve my style, but there have been times that I have been so tired at night while practicing that I have actually fallen asleep at the piano.
I tell people that it is not all about the lessons. Yes, I love them and yes, I love playing the piano. But lesson time has become an enjoyable social time for me. It's also about friendship. Pat and I always manage to squeeze in a bit of talking during lessons. Over the years we have shared the ups and downs of our lives......births, marriages, deaths, graduations, grandchildren. Pat has taught piano to all three of my children. Pat's son and Kara went to school together. We have shared many recitals. We have shared so many good laughs.
Pat has been more than patient with my regular brain- freezes during lesson time. Pat once said to me, "Now you know, Midge, I always try to say something nice after a student has played for me." Well, not too long after that I was playing for her and I really really messed it up. I mean BIG TIME. I played nothing well at all. I sat there and wondered to myself what in the heck she was going to find nice to say about THAT mess. And, believe it or not, she found something. She looked at me and quietly asked, "Do you know what I like about your playing, Midge?" I looked at her with a big question mark on my face. What could she possibly come up with? "Well, I like that you play so nice and loudly that I can hear all your mistakes!" Her mind must have been working overtime to come up with that one!
Pat baked delicous decorated sugar cookies for all her students at every holiday. They were so delicious that I couldn't wait until my lesson was over so I could hop in the car and devour it. But Pat always wrapped those cookies so well in saran wrap that Houdini would have been hard pressed to get it open. I don't know how many times I almost drove off the road trying to free that cookie from it's wrapper and into my drooling mouth.
It is going to seem very strange next Monday to go straight home from school instead of to my lesson. It already feels strange not to have something to work on for next week's lesson. I will miss you, Pat. I will miss the familiar routine of lessons and practice. I will miss our chats. I will miss our laughs. Thank you for twenty years of very special memories. Life is really all about the special people you meet along the way.
A happy birthday to a very sweet daughter-in-law, Megan. Megan is sweet. Megan is kind. Megan is generous. Megan has a weakness for chocolate and Peeps. Megan loves to bake and is a true Martha Stewart in the kitchen. Megan loves animals, especially homeless waifs. Megan is creative. Megan loves to sew. Megan likes to read books about the westward movement. Megan likes to watch the "House" series on PBS and would love to experience what life was like back then. Megan is a bird-nerd. Megan likes to plant flowers.I remember the first time that Brett introduced me to Megan. I knew this was the girl who would become his bride. They are so much alike, even their handwriting is the same. Except that Megan likes the beach and Brett doesn't and Brett likes extended hiking and Megan doesn't. They are very supportive of each other. They are that rare couple that seem to be "soul-mates". If I could have drawn up a blue-print of the perfect person for Brett to spend his life with it would have been exactly like Megan. Happy 31st birthday, Megan. May your year be filled with joy and happiness.................and a kitchen where the electricity never fails!
Another cool day. I think this is one of the coolest Mays that I can remember. At least our heavy rains have gone. All we had today was a 3 minute downpour. There is an upside to the wet weather. I don't think I have ever seen lawns so lush and green as what I saw today. Everyone's lawn looks like they have hired the White House groundskeeper. Deep dark green is the color of the day. I need to enjoy and remember this so I can think back on it when our lawns are burning up from lack of rain in August.
Did a little thrift-shop shopping today. Found some cute little clothes for Elizabeth. Boy clothes were pretty boring and "used" but I did find a little t-shirt for Eamon. Found a really nice stroller for $15.00. I can't believe that I got rid of all my baby and children stuff and now we are lugging more of it back into the house!
We invited Charlie Olsen over for dinner tonight since Gail and the kids were away for the weekend. Just as we were getting ready to eat Paul's mother drove in. What a nice surprise. It's always fun to have extra guests. We set an extra place and had more than enough food to satisfy us all. A pleasant way to end our Saturday.
Tonight was a nice start to the weekend. We drove to town at 6 o'clock and parked our car right in front of the Warner Theatre. You can't get any better theatre parking than that........and free parking, too! Then we walked down the street to the Venetian restaurant (one of the best Italian restaurants ever) and succumbed to some deeee-licious food. I had chicken with caper and wine sauce and a nice glass of chilled Pinot. Paul had "lemon infused" salmon and a glass of chardonnay. I just couldn't resist the ice cream ball for dessert. A globe of vanilla and chocolate ice cream encased in chocolate. So naughty but so good. We walked back to the theatre in a light rain to walk off the heavy consumption of calories we had just taken in. Did a little window shopping on the way. I found a new children's consignment shop that just opened. Saw a sweet little dress in the window for Elizabeth. LOTS OF BRIGHT FLOWERS! I will just have to take a trip back down there to snap it up.
We settled down in our plush seats in the amazingly beautiful Warner theatre to listen to the Hartford Symphony play a Mozart program in honor of Mozart's birthday. It was heaven. I have always loved Mozart music and it is such a thrill to be surrounded by the real live musicians and instruments rather than a recording. The violin concert master was astounding. How can he memorize whole movements when I am hard pressed to even memorize one line of piano music?
To encourage the attendance of young people they offered a special tonight.....buy your own ticket at the regular price and you could buy a child's ticket for $10.00. It was such fun to watch the little ones spending an adult evening with their parents and grandparents. They were so cute, especially the little girls. They were thrilled as punch to be there and were all dressed up in their frilly long dresses and patent leather shoes. They were all so well behaved and we didn't hear a peep out of them all night. The conductor was very aware that there were children in the audience and did a nice job of involving the children in the program and talking to them. The last selection the orchestra played was "Jupiter", one of my favorites. I was in as much awe as the children. It was a real thrill for me. It was one of those moments when every single cell in your body is in ecstasy. It was over much too soon.
There was a very cute little girl about four years old who was sitting behind us. Towards the end of the first half she fell asleep. I hope she always remembers the feeling of drifting off to sleep in the darkened theatre, cushioned in the soft and warm seat nestled between her grandfather and big sister while listening to that beautiful, gentle, soothing music. What a wonderful way to end the day.
Sunday was a day for Mothers. Nine mothers from the Cortesi side of the family got together with their children, sisters, brothers and husbands. Paul and I don't get together with this side of the family as often as the Frueh side of the family so we were reconnecting with some people that we hadn't seen in many years and some people, especially babies, that we were being introduced to for the first time.
It was another rainy day in a long stretch of rainy days so there were no volley ball courts or baseball diamonds. The men mostly hung around outside hugging the barbque grills and probably talking trucks, tools and tires. The women stayed inside and talked about babies, children, pregnancy, food and our aging and changing bodies. We had lots of good food. I made some baked beans and potato salad. Kelly made the MOST delicious Death By Chocolate dessert which we all assaulted as soon as the words "dessert time" were uttered. Paul never told me (although he insists he did) that we were supposed to bring our own meat, buns and drinks. So Paul and I were meatless and drinkless but there was so much other good food that we found plenty to satisfy ourselves. It was probably a good thing for our up and down cholesterol levels that the meat was forgotten.
Betty gave each of the mothers a perfect pink rose. Mine is still perfect and sits on my gathering room table reminding me how lucky I am to be celebrating Mother's Day. I added some pictures to my gallery of our day. Click on Gallery and then click on "A Cortesi Gathering". Because there are some people who have not seen this side of the family for a while I added some explanation of who is who. To enlarge the picture just click on it. It makes it lots easier to see. Enjoy!
We have had rain and rain and rain and more rain. It rained all last week. It poured on Friday and Saturday. We had almost 7 inches of rain in two days. No longer is there a fire danger. We are still going to have off and on showers for three more days. Our grass is green and lush. Plants and weeds are growing with intensity. The lilacs are so heavy with flowers that they are bending over and touching the ground. The sun did come out after dinner tonight and we even saw blue sky. We took advantage of the unusual appearance of the sun and went for a nice walk after dinner. There was water everywhere. This weekend the forecast calls for partly cloudy weather and summertime conditions by Sunday. I think we will be hearing the vroom vroom of lawn mowers in the "hood" all weekend.
There are only 4 more Mondays and 5 more Tuesdays left of school. That still seems like an eternity. The kids are restless and only want to get into trouble. I can't wait to see the back end of the last bus disappear from the driveway on the last day of school. The whole staff comes out to the front of the school and waves bye-bye to all the busses filled with manic students on the last day. What a feeling! Are we all smiling????!!
One year when we were doing our happy wave we all looked up and there was a streaker running along the sidewalk next to the busses! A high school student's idea of fun. You never know what strange things will happen on the last day of school.
Thank you, Mom.................
For always putting me before your housework.
For playing silly games like Rack-o with me.
For reading to me.......over and over and over.
For taking me on walks to look for polly-wogs.
For baking me good things like sugar buns and apple pie.
For bringing me ginger ale and grape juice when I was sick in bed.
For leaving little notes under my pillow at night.
For making sure I never wore torn underwear in case I got into an accident.
For making me brush my teeth every night.
For telling me "handsome is as handsome does".
For teaching me never to think I was better than anyone else.
For grounding me when I was naughty.
For trusting me to do the right thing.
For being there every day when I came home from school.For making me go to church every week.
For giving me a brother and 3 sisters.
For teaching me to always wash my hands after being in public places.
For loving me.
But most of all, thank you for being the same sweet person today that you were back then.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow is Mother's Day.......a celebration of motherhood. The very best thing that has happened to me, ever, is being mother to my three children.
Being a mother was what I wanted........for a long time, and once it happened to me it felt so natural and easy that I never once looked back on childlessness with longing........well, maybe a few times when I couldn't figure out how to stop a crying baby from crying it's little heart out.
Three children and all so different that I often thought I would love to have a whole gaggle of children just so I could see how different they all could be.
Kara.....the first-born, my only girl. Careening into this world to face a neophyte mother. We learned together and I became a happy and relaxed mother and she blossomed into a happy little baby. Intelligent. Like her father she is not afraid to express her opinions and feelings. Determined and independent. An achiever. Wanting to excel in everything. Organized. Creative. Plays the clarinet and piano. Liked Robert Plante and Bryan Adams music in high school. Liked reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books.Top-notch runner. Sensitive. Always had nice friends. Mostly takes after her father. Wonderful mother to her own two children.
Brett: The middle child. The baby who ate and slept and ate and slept and never cried. Artistically talented. Plays the guitar and piano. Had his own band. Liked Nirvana music in high school. Liked reading fantasy books. Very sensitive to other people's feelings. Intuitive. Quiet. Makes me laugh with his tremendous sense of humor. An observer and watcher of the world around him. Likes the simple life. Does not need lots of "things". Kind. Quick and agile. Hard worker. Excellent soccer player. Always had nice friends. Mostly takes after his grandfather and great-grandfather Frueh.
Damon: The icing on the cake. Kara always used to tell him he was adopted because he didn't have blond hair and blue eyes like her and Brett. An "old soul"......likes the old fashioned values. Conservative. A romantic who has watched "Sleepless in Seattle" over and over. Plays the saxophone and piano. Likes to listen to jazz. Liked reading shark books when he was little. Sweet and kind. Likes all the gadgetry of the techno world. Has always loved dressing up. Used to like to go to school in a suit, tie and vest. Has found a new joy in dancing (esp the Waltz and Salsa) which thrills me. Optimistic. Good luck follows him everywhere. Always had nice friends. Mostly takes after me.
My three children. My life. My love. My happiness. My best Mother's Day gift.
The other night Paul got out of bed to turn the little turkey eggs that need to be turned every few hours. We have been keeping them nice and warm, giving them some moisture and turning them just like good little turkey parents. When he came back to bed he said, "I was turning one of the eggs and I cracked it". Uh Oh. That's not what a good turkey parent would do. But we are very new parents. I told him that it might be a good idea to crack open the egg in the morning and see how far along it was. That way we could get an idea of how far along the others were and if they were even still viable.
The next morning he said to me, "Well, I opened that egg and guess what? It hadn't even been fertilized. It was just a plain old egg". We have been tending these little eggs and warming them and turning them and worrying over them and praying for them and coddling them and they were just plain old EGGS. I wonder how long that mother would have sat on them waiting for them to hatch. Maybe turkeys really are as dumb as they look.
This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. If you are a parent or a PTO member, it means working to serve breakfast and perpare a nice luncheon for teachers and para professionals. If you are a teacher or para professional it means enjoying the fruits of their labor and feeling a little special. We never had Teacher Appreciation Day when I was going to school. We all have a teacher or two who instantly comes to mind when we think about the teachers of our youth. To tell you the truth, I can't remember any teachers I really "appreciated" in elementary school. They all scared the heck out of me. I never had a teacher who "changed my life" but I did have two teachers in high school who are the first to come to mind when I hear the "teacher" word. They were my two favorites but they were both so different.
Mr. Luce was my Algebra 2 teacher. He was a warm and fuzzy person. He was gentle and kind. He never (well, hardly ever) raised his voice. He always smiled. He was oh so patient. He treated us all with respect. He would hold classes after school if you needed extra help. He could explain those algebra problems so very well. I had a 100 average in that class. I was never a math person at all but he taught it so well that I knew my algebra backwards and forwards, and what is more suprising, I LIKED it!!
My other favorite high school teacher was my french teacher, Miss Estey. Now I now that anyone who reads this who went to HVRHS is probably saying........"AWWWWWKKKKKK.....MISS ESTEY???"
She was more cold and prickly than warm and fuzzy. She was rigid. She was old school. She was tough. She wore old lady shoes. She had a man haircut. She wasn't very soft around the edges. She disciplined me once for scratching little love notes on my desk to my high school sweetie. That really devastated me. But she was a really good teacher. I loved going to her class. Maybe I liked the discipline she expected in class. She was so unsmiling but every once in a while you could see a twinkle in her eye and you could tell she was really trying to hold back a smile.
One marking period I had a 100 average in her class. She gave me a 98 because, as she explained to me, "I don't believe anyone is perfect". Wow. I didn't like that. I thought I was pretty close to perfect! But she was right. There is always room for improvement. When I got married I invited only two of my former teachers to my wedding. Miss Estey and Mr. Luce. That must mean they were special to me.
My college professors were strange, wise, wonderful, weird, unique, interesting, boring, intelligent, seemingly dumb, creative. Because we often had the same professor several times, especially in our major, we became much closer to them than any of our high school teachers. We would often spend time at their homes where some of them generously lent us the use of their kitchen so we could cook those home-cooked meals that we missed so much. I have really good memories of most of my professors but there is only one who said something that I still remember to this day. Mr. Shaver.....my speech teacher.
That little man with the piercing eyes. He was frank and honest and his favorite saying was, "Oh go pound sand.................................in a rat hole". I will always remember how he once told us in class the difference between being polite and being tactful. "Being polite", he said, "is when a man walks in on a woman in a restroom and says 'Oh, excuse me, ma'm' and walks out. Being tactful is when a man walks in on a woman and says 'Oh excuse me, sir' and walks out". I have never forgotten that. And I quote it often. When a teacher says something that you will remember for the rest of your life that is a gift he has given you. That is his way of making sure that you will never forget him.
HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK to all those hardworking teachers! I hope you all have at least one student who will always remember you. What a wonderful thing to happen to you.
We had a feeling that this would happen. When Paul walked up to get the paper this morning he checked the mother turkey like he always did. He noticed she was not sitting on her nest. But worse than that he saw many many feathers scattered around. That was not a very good sign. He followed the trail of feathers and found that some animal had buried what was left of the poor thing. Paul suspects it was a bob-cat because of the neatness of the burial site. A coyote would not be that neat.
There were 5 eggs sitting all alone in the nest. Paul brought them home and made a makeshift incubator. He is trying to keep them warm until they are ready to peck their way into this world. I'm not sure if we will be successful. They need to be turned frequently and kept moist. We certainly can't take the place of the mother. We shall see.
Part of me wonders why we are trying so hard to save the lives of these little turkeys when I can't stand the turkeys that are roaming around us now! They make a terrible mess on my lawn, they terrorize my poor cat and they wake me up in the morning with their gobble gobble. It must be that maternal instinct. The poor mother worked so hard to give her little ones life that I want to do all we can to make sure her efforts were not for naught.
Once we got the eggs warmed up we spent the rest of the day outside. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. Paul worked on his garden at the office.
After dinner we took our usual walk. At the side of the road, sitting off in the woods, I spied a trillium. 
It is such a pretty plant but has such a nasty nasty smell. I can remember when I was in high school someone presented me with one. I can't remember who it was. Maybe my father. Maybe the boy of the hour. All I know is that I thought it was so pretty and put it in my buttonhole to wear all day in school.
WELL.........that flower smells just like dead meat. It is really a disgusting smell for such a pretty flower. Everyone pretty much avoided me for the rest of the day like poison. I mean.........I was REALLY offensive. If my father was the one who gave it to me, I imagine that he gave it to me as a joke knowing how awful it smelled. That was his sense of humor!!
A typical New England up and down weather day. It was a bit gray when I woke up this morning. Then the sun came out and it looked quite nice. Then it was gray again. Then it rained a bit. Then the sun came out and it was sunny and warm for the rest of the day. I opened all the windows and let the fresh air in the house. After dinner it turned very windy and much colder....down to the 40's. A little something for everyone!
I checked my asparagus today and I saw a little asparagus tip poking through the soil. The beginning of success. Now I just need to see a few more.
Tonight we went to a Boy Scout steak dinner at the Catholic church in Goshen with Gail and Charlie. It was VERY good. And VERY crowded. When we left there were still people coming in. They had served over 300 people and only had 17 steaks left. After we filled ourselves with all that cholesterol we went back to Gail and Charlie's and watched "Crash". It was a movie that certainly captured my attention. I'm still trying to figure out all the parts. There is lots to think about.
Today was another one of those 10 best days of the year. That lovely, fresh smell of early summer was every where. Cathy's Cafe was open for business and quite popular. I do believe we may have to start taking reservations! We have improved on our decor and have discarded our Maxi-Pad box and now use a card table with a real tablecloth and a bouquet of flowers. We love our location in front of the school as it affords us an excellent view of which children are being dismissed from school, which parents yell obscenities to their children as soon as they climb into the car and how many police cars and ambulances arrive in a 30 minute time span.
I think we may have started a trend in unique lunch venues. Today as we were eating we saw two staff members come outside, open the tailgate on their car, pull out two lawn chairs and set them up on the parking lot next to their car and proceed to have a little tail-gate lunch! One of the girls is from New Orleans and said that tail-gating is second nature to her. Lunch is the best 30 minutes of our day.
What a blessedly beautiful day. This is the first day that it has really felt like summer. The sun was out and it was wonderfully warm. Short-sleeve weather. I think I see a little asparagus sprout poking through.......I hope. The transplanted ferns and lily of the valley are looking hale and hearty.
When we went for our after-dinner walk I noticed that the lilac bushes are very heavily loaded with flower buds. More than I have ever seen before, I think. I don't know why because I really don't know what conditions are good for lots of flowering. I'm really anxious for them all to bloom so they can perfume the air. One of the bushes at Paul's office has bloomed and the perfume followed us down the driveway. That, mixed with the scent of the evening air, was a piece of heaven. Our turkey is still sitting on her little eggs. Such patience.
I know we are getting close to summer when the garden is tilled. What a good feeling. Paul did that yesterday for me. Now I am ready to go. Yesterday I planted some asparagus. I've never done this before and I really hope that it grows because I would love to be able to run out to my garden and cut that delicious stuff for dinner every night. I can't wait to get the rest of the good stuff planted in the garden. It will look so different two months from now. Well, maybe not if it stays as dry as it has been! I also transplanted some Lily of the Valley and some ferns. It was a beautiful day for working outside.
After dinner we went for a walk and smelled everyone's newly mowed grass. Tonight I watched the PBS program Texas Ranch House. I really enjoy those "House" programs, probably because I have always fantasized about living back then. It was reading those "Little House in the Big Woods" books that did it to me.
