Saturday, March 3, 2012

Can't Fight The Weather

Oh my, y'all. You're so sweet. I'm not especially sad today at all although I suppose it is a logical assumption to make from my talk of tears.
I think I just have the willy-nillys, the shiver-shakeys, the loony-toonies, the bozo-ramas.

Or something. Medical terms can be tricky and diagnosis even more so.

It's actually been a good day so far. We got a lot done here at La Casa Luna (do you sort of hate it when I call it that? I do but sometimes I just have to, so sorry- I do promise never to use the word "hearty" unless in an ironic fashion, okay?)

I planted potatoes and onions and cucumber seeds and Mr. Moon planted peppers and tomatoes and squash and peas which is all sort of mixed up. The potatoes and peas should have been in last month, the tomatoes and peppers, etc. mostly don't go in until late March, if then. But here we are with spring making its presence known not just by the the leaves and blossoms but by the fact that the ants are making their summer homes up above the surface of the ground and every fucking time I stand still long enough to slap a mosquito (which we also have already) the ants swarm up my feet and bite their way along as if their mouths were some sort of mountain climbing equipment like Jaw Crampons. Isn't crampon just the silliest word?

But we got all of that in the garden before the rains came and then the rains sort of slacked and Mr. Moon put out all of the potted plants which had been spending the winter in Chez Mud Room and I put all the front porch plants back in their proper positions and am washing the sheets I used to cover them for frosts this year. I swept the porch and it looks so nice, although the plants are somewhat the worse for winter's wear.

I also planted a few things I'd had rooting all winter. A split-leaf philodendron, some firespike. Then I transplanted some baby phlox shootlings to various places and as soon as I was done with all of that, the rain came pouring down as if in response to a call for watering and it is still raining nicely, such a beautiful sound, sleepy-making and slap-happy as it hits the ground.

There is more to do but it's good to have the rain tell me to come in and wash off and take a rest, not that I've really been busting my ass or anything. It's been real gentle work. Maybe we'll find some old movie on the TV and watch it, me and Mr. Moon. If there's not some sporting event already on in which case I'll just go read and probably fall asleep even though I slept for about ten hours last night. I did get up in the middle of the night and went to the guest room and read for about an hour, telling myself that no, I did not have insomnia, it was just the pause between my first and second sleeps and it was very lovely.

Ah. It is a beautiful afternoon and this rain is everything we need. It smells good, it is making a coolness which we already appreciate. It is a sustaining rain and a nurturing rain. The chickens don't even seem to notice it. I think if anything, they like it.

But then again, I just looked at the weather and we may be about to get a storm with fifty or sixty mph winds.

What?

That would not be so slap happy. That would pick up a chicken and sling her into tomorrow.

I'll let you know if I see any chickens being slung. I surely will.

Stay tuned.

13 comments:

  1. The ants all surfaced at my house last week too.

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  2. Yes! Crampon is a silly word.

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  3. The image of a chicken getting flung into tomorrow made me laugh. Not because I endorse cruelty to chickens. Because your words were so unexpected and vivid and Southern somehow. xox

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  4. I've been sleeping all day. This rain is just impossible to fight.

    Hope your evening is good.
    xo

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  5. Crampon always kind of sounded like cramps and tampons smooshed together to me so they made sense for only that. We have sun but it is still much too cold to plant anything.
    xo

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  6. You have been so productive. I wouldn't have the first clue how to plant a vegetable garden.

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  7. Ellen Abbott- I respect ants and their place in our ecosystem but damn those fuckers! I wish they wouldn't bite me!

    Jo- It always makes me giggle.

    Amna- We in the south do use some colorful language. I like that!

    Ms. Fleur- It is the most sleepy-making day I can remember.

    Madame King- Well, it is a very, very odd spring here.
    You will plant. It will be beautiful.

    Jeannie- Sometimes (mostly) I feel as if I have no idea how either and yet, I've been doing it for over thirty years. One would never know by the results of my garden.

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  8. I think I just saw a rolypoly chicken skoot by my window up side down and tumbling and screaming... I bet that was one of yours!
    All the planting sounds just lovely... I love the smell of earth on my hands after planting! Not that I ever do it of course. I buy groceries... grin

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  9. Just rainy here and not so much wind. But there are bad storms to the west. Take care.

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  10. photocat- I am genetically required to go plant stuff in the dirt in spring. I can't help it. It must be done.

    Syd- You too, Brother Syd!

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  11. We got rain all night. nothing today yet. it's supposed to go down to 39 after rising to 79 yesterday. hope your chickens didn't blow away.

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  12. In our house, we call it the ookie-pookies or the mullygrubs. Some medical terms are as silly as crampon.

    First and second sleep is correct -- from what i understand, all humans used to sleep a while, get up for an hour in the night, then have a second sleep. It's actually supposed to be normal.

    Hooray for cooperative rain, but go away chicken slapping wind!

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  13. At the island it was a little rain but mostly crazy wind. It blew all day Saturday and through most of Sunday, too.

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