Summer Musings

View from my front door 

I sit at my desk in downtown middle America watching the sunlight play through the tree branches, thinking.  I am not sure if my town actually has something that you can call a downtown.  Where I live is a mid-sized college town.  So, like most college towns it is susceptible to having old houses and being quaint.  It is all of this.  I could ride my bicycle to the organic grocery and stop at my favorite watering hole all in one trip of about 10 minutes.  It would take me that long only because I’d have to go the long way to avoid being killed on the main drag.  Altogether, it is a homey, nice place to be.  I do miss my 2 acres of peace.  So, when I moved last year, I knew that this summer, I’d have to recreate some of the natural feeling of my past home by planting stuff.  

Flowers, basil, ivy, houseplants living on my front porch.

This morning I awoke to my landlord (who is a lovely man most days and together with his wife have helped me heal by renting me 1 of 4 peaceful apartments behind their home…college town remember?) cutting down trees behind my apartment.  There is a small tree line dividing us from the neighbors which used to hang delightfully down into the yard providing all of us with a semblance of solitude and privacy.  Well, in the effort to make mowing easier (argh, the grass, the grass!!) and to keep the limbs off the roof of our apartment…. of course, they all must come down.  I have never understood the need that men have to conquer nature.  All the hacking and sawing and destruction.  “Why not just take off part of that limb”, I asked.  Well evidently the trees penchant for sunshine would require it in another 10 years to just grow back over the house…so it all has to go.   I had to go inside.

Resulting destruction of tree line, mid deck revitalization.

While outside, however, I was surprised by the arrival of a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird flying up in front of me within about 18 inches trying to drink from my wonderful Mandevilla which has delighted me with blooming constantly this summer.  I bought it at a Lowe’s garden center fire sale for $5.  I have gotten every single penny of enjoyment back from it.  I haven’t even bothered to re-pot it because well, I don’t have a pot and why do it, it’s so happy.

My Mandevilla

As I sit to write this blog, I hear from my office, the resident White-breasted Nuthatch who suddenly decided to return from wherever he/she was all summer and start rooting around for bugs on my trees again.  His constant and nasally, “yank, yank, yank” makes him easy to spot up in the ‘bean’ tree or Northern Catalpa, Catalpa speciosa, which is right in front of my apartment.

Catalpa speciosa

A cat walks into the neighbor’s backyard and everything that was quietly going about its business in the pines out front goes crazy   The loud cacophony of calls from the Northern Cardinals, the Black-capped Chickadees, Crows, Goldfinch and Blue Jays telling each other about the invader fill the air.  I stand at the door sending “stay away” vibes to the cat lest I have to run out there and yell at it in my PJs.  I’d most likely frighten the birds more than the cat.

Alliteration .... A Plethora of Potted Plants.

My porches are a plethora of potted plants: Lavender, Cilantro, Parsley, Basil, Mint, continue to produce while Kale and lettuce grew earlier, a pink and yellow Lantana, hot pink Petunia, a yellow Bidy Gonzales Bidens which was a stick when I rescued it has given me 4 flowers, thank you. There is some Alysum, which reminds me of my last home and something else which is pink that I can’t remember what it is…..Dianthus, I think.  Also, did I mention the English Ivy, a winter rescue from Lowe's, 6 plants came home with me, 3 survived and are crawling all over my decks, soon to be replanted I think into 2 pots …maybe.  My 1 tomato plant which I allowed myself, just gave me 1 tomato…I don’t have a lot of sun on my decks so this is a gift.  Also, I am about to plant the second round of lettuce.  We’ll see if the squirrels will keep out of the planter box.

 Alysum and Ivy

    

Mint and Basil

My friend, Bennie, made me take some of her house plants home last fall, she is a terrific caregiver of plants and animals, the meanest, kind woman I’ve ever known, bullying me against all my protestations that I did not want to care for anything.  There is a reason for that…I travel a lot.  But she would not listen and the plant has rewarded me with lots of wonderful growth, so much I’m going to have to re-pot the thing.  But it did provide comfort over the winter as I do talk to it, it possibly replied.  I’m not saying anything….

My talking houseplant

So, as destruction occurs in the backyard, beautiful, wild, uncontrolled life continues all around despite man’s attempt to control it.  Thank you, Mother, for providing all we need and with such joy and wonder.  Town vs wild, beauty vs barrenness, yin vs yang; it is all a balance which if we watch carefully, will provide us with lessons on how to become better humans.  Nature teaches and encourages us to behave more like a human instead of an alien as we walk this earthly path.

Today, maybe take a minute or two and notice, really notice what is going on in your world, see what is there for you and drink it in like a cool glass of water on a hot day.  Let the sights and sounds of the nature which surrounds you (no need to go somewhere else to see it) seep into your bones and nurture your soul.  Do not rant and rail about the destruction (fight against it we must) but accept what is right next to you, here and now.  For even the daisy pushing through the concrete crack has a purpose and a mission…. consider, possibly, what that is and hear what she is saying to you about how to live.

Monarch Butterfly on Purple Clover

Finally, a Winter Wonderland

As I slept, the snow silently, slowly settled upon the earth, trees, houses.  Upon waking, the landscape was, finally transformed into what it should be in Northeast Ohio this time of year...a winter wonderland. Truly beautiful, the boughs of the pines surrounding my apartment drooped with the shear weight of the wet, white snow.  Delightfully sticky, it hung like Spanish moss from the boughs, rested in the crooks of the tree branches, ran along the tree limbs piling upon itself like clouds on the horizon before a storm. 

I knew that I was not going out today and it definitely felt like a soup day.  Alone, I craved the comfort that a warm, long simmering soup brings. After taking stock of my larder, I came up with this soup recipe.  The secret to a good soup is creativity. Like writing a story or a poem, it starts with a basic idea and only gets better the more of you that goes into it. 

I pulled out my favorite cookbook, More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre, (I think, the cover has long since fallen off, it has been much loved) and turned to a favorite recipe.  The premise of the cookbook which came from, I believe, Mennonite Missionaries, is that we all can be healthy and well fed using less of the world's resources.  My love of this book sprung from its simplicity, use of available food sources, protein combining and vegetarian recipes.  it had always been my highest desire to live a life like this; one which had more but used less. Not frugal necessarily but kind, not using more than I need to feel abundant, filling it with love, adventures and memories rather than stuff.  At my best, at times my life has not looked like that. Convincing my children and ex to try lentil anything was kind of a joke.  Imagine the chuckling, now that some of my kids not only eat lentils but hold to similar lifestyle choices.  

So, back to the soup.  Amongst the burnt and torn pages is a marvelous recipe for Leek soup, called Buzz and Don's Leek soup. (pg 206) But I had so much more more  in my refrigerator and in my head that I felt I could do with this basic recipe.

I have been making chicken stock all winter, so first out of the freezer was 16 oz of chicken stock.  Then came, old potatoes, onions, garlic, dried parsley and a pinch of dill (all lovingly raised by my daughter, Mary from Sun and Moon farm in Indiana), the last sweet potato, hoarded from November from Cooley' Family farm in Indiana, was chopped and thrown into the pot. Finally, wrinkled mushrooms and past its prime spinach were chopped and thrown into the mix, hopefully, re-hydrating themselves back to life. 

The cabinets yielded herbs I'd grown at my home which I moved from last April, dried in the Sun room, preserving summer as they hung from the mantel. Thyme, a pinch of Basil, Savory, Rosemary and a bit of Cinnamon. Red Pepper flakes added spice to the mix, created some controversy.  Finally, adding some salt and ground pepper, I put the lid on to let it simmer.  Ah, the smells....to die for....

There is nothing like the happy, bubbling sounds and smells of a kitchen filled with soup.  I had hoped to pull out the easy does it Jiffy Cornbread mix but it was not to be...I'd used them all.  A popular pinning site proved to be a fabulous resource and I soon found a recipe for an Apple Muffin that looked delish.  Into a bowl went some of my aging Spelt & Whole Wheat flour, a couple of pruney-looking apples past their prime and yummy spices. I wish now I'd thrown in the last little handful of walnuts given to me by a friend.

In the cold, of winter, when being alone weighs on you like a wet blanket, eating a communal soup made from ingredients given to you by much loved family and friends is much like viewing a photo album of memories.  I remember picking this dill.  I remember stopping by and chatting with Cooley when I bought that sweet potato.  My herbs made the house smell so good.  Eight years of summer's night memories of watering, weeding, dirt and flowers flow upon me as the warmth of the healthy soup moves down my throat.  Life, love, transitions, health, making do, growth and change all in a bowl of soup and an apple muffin.  Makes me feel really loved and grateful for everything. 

***** I'm trying something new....adult coloring!!! If you'd like to try it too, I'm including a pencil sketch of one of my winter photos.  Feel free to copy and paste it, only...All my  photos and words are copywrote, written, writed? so enjoy this one to use for your own personal enjoyment.  Tell me what you think, do you want more coloring pages?!