I didn't feel like getting on the computer last night.
low spirits. Went to bed at 8:30. Tried to watch a movie. Not in the mood for serious subjects,Nor for foolishness.
Weird weather this year back East. The most snow and coldest temps on record, and now the hottest summer on record. Real winter and Real summer.
Im sending my sympathy to all of you on the east coast. It doesn't look like its much more comfortable with the humidity, though i heard that the temps have gone down some.
Feeling for Kate and Paul and the two girls. You must have to stay cooped up inside in the air-conditioning. Feeling for Erin, who has her state certification test today. You can do it !! Feeling for Cole, it's never fun being pregnant in the summer. Feeling for Dad, who doesn't tolerate summer very well, and for Keith working outside in this.
Have a housekeeping job lined up for tomorrow. I think she was doing me a favor offering me the job, only a couple of hours .....and she almost sounded like she didn't really need me. I think she wants to trade produce for the work. She's a great gal.
I also looked into volunteering at the children's camp up here. Its like the Paul Newman camps. But they were looking for college students in the field of child development or nursing or medical professionals. And they take applications in the spring. I found this out on line. I still might drive over there. It's probably only about 3 miles from here.
i worked really hard in the garden yesterday swinging the sythe knocking down more dandelions and then i raked them up. Im keeping an eye on the rose bushes , cutting off the dead stems, trying to keep them blooming. I planted some cilantro seeds and Escarole seeds too.
And while thinning out the lettuce plants i found that little golden colored frog. He could sit on a quarter with room to spare, he's that small, metalic ( yes looks like metalic paint) gold and green a gorgeous little thing. I didn't have my camera. I've seen him 2 or 3 times now unexpectedly. I've also seen even smaller frogs, smaller than a dime. And yesterday i surprised a bull frog in the upper pond. Not soon enough though to see more than the water rushing up over his back as he made his shallow dive down into the darkness. The little water - features here in the back yard perennial gardens are swimming with tadpoles. This is amphibian paradise. You scatter lizards with every step. Not so cute.
I got a little heated up, working hard in the sun. And i put on the hose to spray myself and the water there was too HOT, like , OUCH hot. So i started thinking about it and figured that it would save a little propane if i used that hot water out of the hoses for showering so i set up an outside shower in the middle of the clotheslines.
The clothesline is one of the old fashioned kind, it has a pole in the middle and 4 arms with rows of clothesline stretched out between them. I put the spray end over the line on one side and somehow braced it to aim down right in the middle. I also found a big round black plastic tub which i cleaned out and put under the " shower" to capture the water to use in the garden. I can hang the towels on the line for privacy....though....im the only person who has come down here since Mary and Al left 2 weeks ago. And the fence around garden is mostly covered by grape vines and surrounded by trees or other bushes, it is completely private.
anyway, im going to try it out. one of these hot days. I might just throw on my bathing suit and just use it to cool off. Then again, i could jump in the pond. But honestly even though it's been up to 98 it hasn't been unbearable.
I did a couple laps around the meadow and down to the road. I ventured a little ways into the woods on the trail. i figure, that loop must be 3/4 mile...all together.....from the house, down the drive to Bald Rock Road, turn around go to the front of the house and then to the big gate, down the meadow around the pond, up the hill onto the trail, around the other pond back down the trail into the backyard and to Bald Rock Road again.....3/4 mile , Al, if you're reading this...?
Im discouraged about not losing any weight this week. My activity is up. My consumption is down to about 1200 or lower calories a day. I did have a couple nights without a lot of sleep. My stress is ...i was going to say down... but that's not entirely true. Its just different . I think its that estrogen overdose. One of the side effects listed on the package insert is " weight changes" when using the hormone. and we know what that means. Also a week or so after stopping using this stuff, i got a period. Cramps, spotting, headache.......though that , knock on wood, seems to be gone this morning.
I did see a lovely thing yesterday. I seem to be in the habit , around mid afternoon ( which still feels like 5oclock to me) of sitting on the deck with a book or sewing. ( mending) And everyday that at time the little doe comes out of the meadow crosses the trail and walks up the hill about 150 feet from me.
She takes a few cautious steps and stops and looks around, and nibbles, looks around again. She takes about 4 or 5 more steps and stops and looks around, nibbles, and over and over . She goes just above the pile of firewood, then comes back down to that road (that goes up to the woods from the far side of the garage)....but she tiptoes her way down, and just when she reaches the well house which is behind the garage she goes off the road again and up into the woods; but continues following the fence line.
Yesterday i decided to try and see where she comes out .
Well there i was, creeping up from the deck, ducking and hiding behind the boxwoods peering through the holes in the fence and saw her, she came to the edge of the road about 10 feet past the gate and bent , neck and head down and belly low to the ground through the bottom branches of cedar and Madrone and slid out of the woods onto the dusty road. She walked over to the other side of the road and from where i was i could only see a little part of her ears through the fence, and she moved forward so then i only saw her back, and then her back end and then her legs and then...." whats this?!" Another ear, only shorter.....a little neck, a little back, a little tail.....and they were further from me now and i could see a little more of them in the frame of the opening under the fence of the dog pen. I was greatly rewarded for my patience and my stealthy crawling up on the walkway toward the garage where i could look down the driveway to get the full view of them , the little one bumping underneath her , nursing and it's little twin appearing then from out of the thicket and joining in....She meandered slowly away and turned with them close behind up into the neighbors yard where i could no longer see her. I stood up, dusted the dirt off the front of my shirt. Very much delighted to know that they are bedding right here; just beyond the dog pen. Just past that area where it looks like an old roadway which is grown over with yellow grass, there is a small stand of manzanita.....you can see that it is knocked down right in the middle of it. If you look really close you can see that on the other side and along the road in the middle of all the growth along that side of the road is a trail, it reaches down to where the first stand of tall trees, where the little covey of quail nest.
I also felt some personal validation because i had recognized the sound of her hoof stomping the previous afternoon when walking too close to the thicket with the happy little dog.
She spied me later on though. I went up to bed. It was about 8:30. I didn't expect to see her. I have the blinds opened later in the afternoon after the sun is no longer shining on that side of the house. The window was open and the blind all the way up. And She saw me before i saw her. She looked right at me, And picked her head up even higher staring right at me. She looked back into the woods and i stepped back away from the window. But she knew i was there. And she trotted back towards the woods, to the property in front, and just hopped over the fence and then didn't stop and just hopped away. I've never seen a deer hop before. She usually comes out around this time of the morning but im not going to go back to the window. I've got it and the blinds both closed now to keep the cool air inside.
I've yet to use a fan or the cooler. Im finding it very comfortable. Nights , i start out in just the nightgown and end up by morning under the quilt and sheet. The sun is later and later every day now. I can see the light coming around 5. Last week it was 4:30.
Today im planning on driving to the Post office and sending off the mail to Montana. Im going to take down the rest of those tall, and tough dandelions.....they're so different than the lower, lusher, softer ones on the East Coast. The leaves on this western version are lower to the ground , thinner, not as green and furry. The stems also furry tall and like wire with tiny bright yellow cheerful flowers on the ends. But they grow in anything.....and they're so tough and in part of the garden they are so densely packed that the leaves are growing in layers woven into the leaves on their neighboring dandelion plants truly woven. At first i tried just knocking off the stems and sometimes when you hit them with the blade they just bend down and spring back up. Im aiming lower now. And wacking them off right at ground level. and sometimes the whole clump all the leaves and stems and flowers intact go flying across the garden.
My back and shoulders are feeling the effort at night but it's that good kind of muscle ache that you feel after working out; so im not complaining. 2 Ibprophen and im back to sleep in no time.
Now, can someone tell me what is shuffling through the leaves in slow rhythmic steps and makes a kind of snuffling, huffing sound? Almost like a horse when it blows air out of its nostrils?
of course i wish you were all here.
and before you know it ill be back there.
$2500. + and it's BEAUTIFUL. 
