Anyone who seriously gardens knows the garden is in fact one big metaphor for life transitions.  It changes with the seasons and moods.  It reveals where your mind is at.  It’s order vs chaos, control vs wild.  Managing all the unruly thoughts and uncertainties.  Dealing with impermanence.  Fleeting beauty vs death.  I could go on.  Fortunately for you, I won’t.  If you know, you know.

Shabbat happened.  K was emotionally able to join us.  Y again actually tried all the foods.  E was out being social.  A was tired and frustrated.  You could almost say our Shabbats are a gauge of the maturing process and progress of each family member.  Me, I’m just thankful to be there as witness.

Got a lot more done cleaning up the garden, though the photos don’t do it justice.  Much hacking was done.  I decided to plant some cool weather herbs like parsley and dill, also thyme, and realized–the horror–I didn’t have any more cilantro seed!  So I ordered some, then it occurred to me I could plant a few fall veggies for the family while I’m at it…and that’s how best-laid garden plans “evolve” and multiply.  So much for tilling the whole thing under as soon as possible.  I’m sure this too will change.  Depends on my mood.  Must drink on it.

Yesterday’s achievements were: mowing the lawn, continuing to clean up the veg garden, arranging (for Avdi) for a tree service to do some necessary major tree work, and the utility company to deliver free wood chips for me to use.

E made a fabulous dinner, and I made Avdi and me some well-deserved cosmos.

This little neighbor cat decided to visit and hang out in the front garden, watching blue butterflies with me.

As you see, this cooler weather has restored my will to work!  And lounge around outdoors.

Another productive day.  I weeded and cleaned up more of the veg flower border, the two beds formerly known as poppies and artichokes-turned-vol. tomatoes, the outer raised beds formerly pumpkins/melons-turned-weeds (sad face), and later began the job of hacking veg weeds.  Somewhere in there I made a colorful dinner.

Assessment time: some of my best-laid plans for this year were a flop, still trying to figure it out.  Apparently I can’t grow pumpkins, melons, and zucchini, which makes no sense.  The soil, no matter how much rich organic material has been tilled into it, turns to concrete, with that horrible crab-grass-like weed that can’t be pulled.  The weeds in general were worse than ever.  Even the tomatoes were weeds!  My healthy thyme actually died.  The strawberry bed is totally overrun.  And the tall native flowers I had hoped would do something this year disappeared into a forest of jewelweed.  Perhaps… there’s always next year?

OTOH, I surprised myself with all the cucumbers!  Even some eggplant.  The butterflies and finches and hummers appreciated all the flowers.  The human critters enjoyed picking all the colorful corn.  No lack of feral tomatoes!  The peppers and okra finally did something.  Some of the greens made it, before the bugs devoured them.  Most of the herbs did well, until they didn’t.  All things considered, we got some food out of it, even some excess to share.  I guess it’s always a gamble.  I still learn something every year.  For example, when your fancy heirloom sunflowers fail, just scatter wild bird seed there and get instant sunflowers!

Overall, not bad.

Another cooler day allowed me to keep working on garden cleanup.  Now I’m on a roll.  Sometimes I actually just sit out there and marvel at the way the tall trees are swaying in the cool wind, after that unbearable sweat bath.

I’m still having a new camera issue with closeups only of butterflies, and I mean they’re thoughtfully sitting very still right in front of me, which is frustrating!  Other closeups are fine.  I’ll keep at it.

I took this picture of Y’s room right after much of it was moved to the office shelves, because it’s kind of humorous.  Note the centerpiece of the pizza box, still with days-old pizza in it!  Also how stuff inevitably moves into every free space, just like water.  I know, it’s a teen room, and some floor is still visible.  I’m sure it will sort itself out eventually.  Y has bigger fish to fry, as they say.

It got cooler!  Walking and gardening became tolerable again!  I began with the herb garden.  This monarch was being so cooperative, yet somehow my new camera refuses to do butterfly closeups.  Gotta work on that.

Meanwhile, Jess and Avdi were taking on the big project of moving furniture up and down stairs and reorganizing the office and Y’s crafting supplies.  It’s like a miracle!  All of that stuff I sorted into bins is now organized into shelving units.  Floors have reappeared (for now)!

I stayed for the charc. meeting.  I don’t know how Avdi manages to keep all these events and activities straight, but he does.  I’d be lost.  As it is, he’s always exhausted.

Shabbat happened, with all of us there.  Even Y was able to eat what I had fixed, which was a Cajun-style bean dish with chicken andouille, rice, and fresh garden cucumber and tomatoes.  Weirdly, I couldn’t eat.

Today I took a day off, and slept in.  The Avdi’s went to the annual Festival of Nations, a multicultural event.  I decided to just stay home and get stuff done.

Today was K’s 17th birthday!  Fortunately I had my camera!  I decorated, and made dinner.  Jess brought cheesecake and joined us.  Stacey and the MI family joined us remotely by video.

My new phone camera is still trying to figure things out.  I had some great potential photos of a butterfly that came out a blur.  Other shots were okay.  Still learning the ropes.  The photo of garden veggies is by E.

And I’m back, all phoned-up, thanks to Avdi.  There were so many photos I missed, like the beautiful hawk that landed right in the oak tree above me, and all the other critters that paraded in front of me.  I was forced to just look at them, dammit!  I’ve actually had to read books instead of scroll!  I missed all the inane family texting back and forth (not really).  Such hardship.

Today was bearable out, for a change.  I could stand being outside.  Naturally, the kids were moaning and groaning about having had to, imagine, walk home!!   I’m already starting to plot my fall/winter garden strategy.

Here are the first photos I took on my new phone.

First World Problems.

I can’t take photos.  I could drag out my old digital camera, but I forget how it works.

I can’t listen to my music while walking.  So I actually dug out my old iPod (!), found the right usb port to recharge it (which took like 24 hours), and listened to tunes I haven’t heard in a decade.  I can’t walk miles in this heat without music.  (Or even with it, when it’s a heat index of 111+º.)

I can’t text or connect with people, especially family, except on messenger, which mostly nobody uses.

I can’t look up anything over at Avdi’s, without my laptop, which is one more object to schlep over there in the heat.

If I need to take care of some business requiring a phone, I can’t.  If a business needs to confirm my ID before proceeding, I can only do it by email, not text.  If an individual needs to arrange or schedule a Dr. ride for me, they can’t.  If I had an emergency, I’d be flat out of luck.  And on it goes…

Wah.

Actually, I’m surviving, so far, but I feel bad and stupid.  Avdi had to order me a new phone under his family plan.  Maybe I can start over with a clean slate, not migrate all my old crap over.  And definitely not bring it anywhere near the pool.  I learned that lesson.

If I didn’t have this laptop, I’d be hopeless.  It’s my lifeline.  I get to keep up with all the horrors of the real world under fascists like trump, starting right in my own city.

For example, people are still living in their tornado-ravaged homes in N. STL, or camped out in tents, with not much hope of their neighborhoods being rebuilt.  It’s almost like our own Gaza.  In many cases they have lived there all their lives, near family and friends, many of whom died in the disaster.  They don’t have anywhere else to go, or a way to afford it.  The city is obviously just waiting for the problem to sort itself out or not, so they can be rid of the “blight” and reclaim it…or let it rot.  Racism in action.

In relation to that, my little first world problem submerges– like a phone in a pool.