Hellish Heat And It's Still May

I've been the teeniest bit frustrated today and, also a little bit worried. I've been just a degree or two hungrier although I couldn't eat as much as I had been eating if my life depended on it so I need to just go with it and recognize that this is a process and very, very early days. I keep giving myself the same advice I used to give my Weight Watcher classes and it is good advice but let's face it- I've known all this stuff forever and unless you absolutely take it all to heart, it does no good. 
"Oh, shut up sensible self, and make me a sandwich!" 
You know?

I've been working out in the garden and the yard today. I can only do half an hour or forty-five minutes at a time and then I start to get stupid in the heat and have to come in and cool off and rehydrate. I weeded in the garden and spread a tiny bit of mulch. I pulled up one of the squash plants that was in one of the grow-bags because that squash is not going to suddenly recover and start putting out perfect squashes again. I planted more arugula seeds in the bag, though, and hope to keep getting the stuff all throughout the summer, if possible, with repeat plantings. 
I also discovered that we are indeed growing cucumbers.

Two of those are almost too big and I do not know how we missed them. These, too, are growing in bags and we have three of them planted. Three bags full, just like Baa Baa Black Sheep except not at all like that. 
But it is very heartening to think that perhaps I will be able to make some good old pickles this year. Maybe I'll even get enough to make the kind that Glen's mama used to make which requires a crock and several weeks of soaking in a vinegar and sugar solution which must be reboiled every few days so that eventually, every cucumber molecule is replaced with a sugar molecule. They are quite tasty. I would be very happy just to be able to make some pints of dill pickles, though. 

I also worked in the yard of the old kitchen and I learned something today. I have been seeing these plants that I guess I just thought were dandelion plants that were getting WAY out of hand and I've been pulling them every where I can. There are a lot of them out in that area. I've never seen them here before that I can recall. I even had some in front of the house come up this year. So today I finally did a plant app ID on one of them. 

That thing is five feet tall and guess what? It is NOT a Three Mile Island radiated dandelion, is a plant called Tall Blue Lettuce or Wooden Lettuce and it can grow here up to seven feet. It is a native and it does make a bloom that the pollinators like. The leaves are edible but they contain a substance in them that can have narcotic effects and supposedly the native people used them in different sorts of treatments for various problems. 
Narcotic effects? Should I be pulling these up or should I be cultivating them? 
Oh hell. They're growing so fast and spreading so fast that yes, I should be pulling them up. They're not exactly the most attractive plant in the garden, are they? So I pulled up a bunch of them and a bunch of the damn stinky glory bower plants and some dewberry and some mildewy phlox and some Virginia creeper and my hands are permanently engrained with black dirt and I am tired. 

So that was another part of my frustration. There is no way I am ever, ever, EVER going to get this yard in any sort of shape that pleases me. It's all just putting out fires here and there. 

Now here's something that does please me. 

Did you know that blueberries go through red, white, AND blue phases? Aren't they pretty? 

I picked enough ripe ones today to fill a tiny bowl. They would be almost enough to make a satisfying addition to a small bowl of yogurt. I'm surprised the squirrels haven't gotten at them yet. Or the birds. 

Speaking of birds, that hawk has been back every early evening. I just saw it a minute ago, sweeping across the back yard like he owns it. Yesterday I saw it chasing a crow in a desultory way, the crow not quite ignoring it but not seemingly too worried. I really do think that this is a young hawk and not really ready for bigger prey.

I am sad to hear about Biden's cancer. I have questions though. How could a man who for the past four years was president of the United States have such an advanced form of cancer without earlier detection? Or was he diagnosed earlier and the information not released? I have to say I am enraged at how his mental and physical deterioration his last year or so in office were hidden by his family and inner circle. If he had already been diagnosed with this cancer and was in treatment, that would explain a lot about his fatigue, at least, and possibly some of his cognizance problems. 

I don't know the answer to any of these questions and I guess none of it really matters. What I am mostly thinking of is the picture I've been seeing of Joe and and his wife, Jill, taken after the news was released about his diagnosis. Her face looks beyond sad. It is stricken and drawn. Say what you will, I have no doubt about the love between those two humans. 

I guess I'll go make my beloved human some supper. Tonight's menu is going to involve a very large salad with lots of cucumbers and garden peppers and green beans, which we are eating every day. Also some arugula, two kinds of basil, oregano, chick peas and oh, something else. I don't know. Salad is a fine thing to eat on these hot summer days. Glen spent time outside today too, and I told him that we need to start scheduling regular late afternoon trips to the river so we can truly cool off in the cold miracle waters of the Wacissa. He agreed. Why the hell did he retire if we can't do things like that? Of course we can, we just have to make the time and effort to do it. 
We will. 

Love...Ms. Moon