Reverie

Take me down to the sea again,
To the crashing, spewing foam.
We'll spend happy days by the sea, my dear,
Then wend our way back home.

Nosey Parker

Well, as planned, I did weed the onion patch, and it looks fantastic. In fact, the whole garden had a jolly good going over, and, fully satisfied with the results, I came to my desk for a few quiet moments. Then the desk had a good clear-out, too. It was just one of those rare days when things just had to be put in their right place. I looked up from my labours, and turning my head to the window, imagine my surprise as I looked into two huge ebony eyes staring back at me! A deer was curiously looking in at my window. Nosey Parker! I know I gasped, but she didn't seem to care. She just dropped her head to graze awhile, then calmly walked over to the driveway, waddling her way up to the church. How lovely to live side by side with so many of these gorgeous creatures: deer, bears, raccoons, owls, squirrels, both red and grey, we had a moose once but I didn't see it. It left huge footprints all over the veggie patch! We had a weasel this winter in the rock wall. I didn't see that one, either, but Kevin and Emi saw it.

I can't imagine living in a city, devoid of such creatures. But wait, wouldn't there be mice and rats and squirrels and those beautiful pigeons, and dear little darling little sparrows?

I suppose you could find beauty anywhere, if you just took the time to look for it...

I have to tell of the traumatic event in the onion patch. As I weeded, I noticed hundreds of those busy little garden spiders rushing away from the devastation I was causing by my weeding, each carrying under her belly a neat little egg-sac. So then, having been made aware of the dilemma, I carefully checked each clump of baby crab grass before gently pulling it away from the earth and laying it in the bucket. This greatly added to the time alloted to this particular patch. Unfortunately, I found an egg-sac without a mother. I felt awful, like a murderer. These 20,000 baby spiders are now orphaned because of my carelessness. I gently picked up the egg-sac and tenderly placed it under the 2nd onion on the left-hand row, and went about the exhausting job of weeding these onions. A few minutes later, I went back to check on 'my' babies. About 12" away I saw a very distracted spider, so I very carefully put the styrofoam ball next to her. She grabbed it, popped it under her belly, and ran for cover underneath the johnny-jump-up plant I had left in the row! Phew! What a relief. All babies safe and sound, with a doting mother for each 20,000 or so babies. (These are not scientific figures, by the way, merely an imagination running amok!)

I could tell of the distracting dilemma of the rice grains here, but better to leave it for another day...! Wouldn't want to be considered totally barmy!

A Song of Joy

Hey ho! The sun doth glow
The rain droplets gleam on the lawn
Birdies sing their joyful song
Seems they'll sing it all day long
Nothing, today, can e'er go wrong
Coz I'm going out to weed onions!

Strength and Beauty in Sweetpeas and Life

This afternoon, the storm clouds broke up for a few minutes, minutes enough for me to go out to the veggie patch and gently pull the newly rooted baby crab grass, which was threatening to choke out the courageous sweetpeas, who had braved the stormy blasts of May and early June. The day I planted out those tender seedlings in early May, the North wind came with a vengeance, bringing with it freezing temperatures, blasting out the life from my little sweetpeas, and laying them on the ground. Most of them succumbed, but I left them alone, not believing that they'd come back, but I just didn't have the heart to turn them under. It's now the middle of June, and I'm astonished that something so fragile as a sweetpea can turn its nose up at the North wind, and with a little sunshine, plenty of rain, and some lovely muggy warmth, pick itself up by the bootstraps and start again from the ground up! That is precisely what has happened to about half the row. The roots were unscathed by Jack Frost's kiss, and they simply formed 'tillers', an Old English term meaning by-shoots, forming a stronger plant by way of a rotten trick of fate carried on the wings of the wind.

It can be that way, too, for humankind. Fate's ugly hand can come knocking at your door, and before you know it, there you are, lying alongside the fallen sweetpeas. Some really do succumb, like the little seedlings, too weakened by the blow to form 'tillers'; but many, even if they lie there for a while, will be brought back to health by the warm love of friends, the encouragement of those who have been there before, and by the grace of God find new life, stronger life, in this far friendlier environment. It's very important to make sure that this new strength is not choked out by even the tiniest, tenderest baby 'crab grass' of life; it must be kept clear and clean. Before too long, that poor devastated life has branched out, reached out, and has become far stronger than it could ever have imagined. Now that life is an encouragement to others, rather than the victim of circumstance, and people draw from that well and are nourished.

In the same way, in a month or so, I shall draw in my breath deeply, as I take in the delightful aroma of the beautiful sweetpeas, and be nourished. A scent full of memories of my childhood, so long ago, yet so present in this dear, tendrilled flower.

Latina Est Gaudium - really!

The long-awaited Latin Barbecue has come and gone! Oh we had a time! 7th and 8th Graders certainly know how to have fun. We played croquet, we chatted and laughed, we ate, we blasted each other with the Aqua-Blasters, we went down to the river with the dogs and swam and swam, we laughed, we heartily encouraged Anna the Viking Opera Singer but without a great deal of success, we bid "Vale!' to Libby who's moving to Arizona, we had awards, there were balloons, there were presents, and there were hugs!

Valete discipuli mei! Aestas beatas!

Feeling Sad and Empty

Have just finished my final class for the year, and have this strange, empty feeling in my spirit. It was different in Kindergarten. We had an end of the year party. We had graduation, of which I made a huge deal. We had parents coming to praise your accomplishments of the year. We had hugs (which 5-year old doesn't hug?). We even had presents! But today there was none of that. Why should there be? Most Junior High students don't have the capacity to adore their teacher as Kindergarteners do. They just wanted to get out of there. Someone called back over their shoulder, 'Bye, Mrs. Wall! See ya tonight!' I wanted to call back, 'Hey, wait, you guys! Are you really just going?' Grow up, Mrs. Wall! Don't forget that next Friday (the 13th!) you're hosting an end of the year celebration barbeque for all your Latin students, and they are all excited about that! We'll say our proper goodbyes then, won't we?...I doubt it!