Designing in Life

Labor Day

I think I celebrated Labor Day weekend the way it was meant to be celebrated.  Mowed the lawn, stained the deck, finished a blueberry bed for next year, helped Nick close some pools, cleaned the house, made some cookies and...got a chance to jump in the pool...to name a few things that I did.  It was Labor Day, right?  Best of all, though, I got a surprise call from my friend Connie, from Minnesota, who was about to make some mojitos for she and her husband, Bob.  Hope she enjoyed them on this last holiday of summer.

As I was sitting on the deck that I had stained, I noticed how long the shadows on the lawn were. 

Those long shadows reminded me of when I was a kid growing up in South Jersey.  Being allowed to go outside and play after dinner, it was still sticky, hot and humid, but the late day long shadows brought a coolness to the air that let you know that summer was on the way out.

It's around this time that the hummingbirds decide they need to head south.  I have two feeders for them.  Watching their antics from the back deck is, well, pretty cheap entertainment.  They squeak and chirp and buzz and often just miss your head as they zoom off. They must need some pretty heavy duty fuel to fly all the way to Mexico or Costa Rica.  And that's why I've been frustrated. 

The feeders have been over-run with yellow jackets.  I keep knocking them off, or hosing them off, but they return.

The hummingbirds have had to fight with the yellow jackets to get what they need to migrate. ( If you tap on your plus key, you can enlarge this picture – Macs use the apple key and plus sign).  Hopefully they'll win out and they'll be basking in the warm sunshine soon.  We Northern Hemispherians will just have to wait until next year!

Well, Whata Ya Know!

It's the 3rd of September and you have to understand, this is Vermont.  While the rest of the southern part of the country (that would be New York and south) is still basking in summer weather, we usually aren't.  But today was in the 80's and the pool was in the 80''s and I just had to get into it.

As long as the temperature of the pool water is at least in the high 70's, this is what I'll be doing after work and on the weekends.  I can assure you, though, it won't be for long.

September Evening

As the evening light starts to dwindle – What?  It's dark at 7:30 now? – there seems to be a lot to do outiside when I get home from work.  Because the 10 day forecast shows no rain at all, I went out to the garden to water what little is left to salvage.  I say that, but there are still grape tomatoes, basil, beets, swiss chard, cucumbers, rutabagas, carrots, green beans and, oh hey, look at that – a cantaloupe.

A teeny-tiny cantaloupe.  Here I've compared it to the small one I bought at the Middlebury Farmer's Market on Saturday.  It has that nice sweet smell, so I'm sure, even though petite, it will be delicious.

As I passed this tree, I noticed it was sprouting a few small sunflowers.  Every summer some kind bird deposits sunflower seeds in the fork of this tree, and every late summer we have these little flowers popping their heads up in the waning warm sunshine.

As I was watering some of the flowers, I notice a patch of mint that I had forgotten about.  I have not had one mojito this summer.  I decided to make one and celebrate some of the last evenings spent on the deck in the sunshine.  It was a warm and beautiful early evening, and I toasted to the extended good weather that will allow me to spend a few more evenings out there.