Friday

What a glorious evening this turned out to be!

I am sure there are places in the world that enjoy these beautiful hours every day, maybe year-round, but I am here to tell you - rural Kansans count their many blessings. This is one of them, to be sure. What started out (at 4:00 am) as thunderstorms, carried on through the morning and part of the afternoon as cool and really, really dark. And cloudy and dark, I am OK with: no sunscreen to deal with, and no sweat. And the 4:00 am t'storms? Kind and gentle rumbles, the kind during which you can doze off and on, listening to the pattering rain and the distant clashes and rumbles. Certainly not the typical Kansas springtime thunderstorms of Holy Tornado, Batman! Get in the basement NOW!!!

This evening saw that Spouse o' Mine and I, parallel gardening (because we discerned decades ago that we are not compatible in the gardening arena). He in a front bed, Bloodhound-proofing it (so he thinks), and I, in a front shade garden, re-thinking some perennial plans...maybe put in a water feature? As that Spouse o' Mine moved limestone and tilled the soil in the front bed, who should come and lay his 120-lb canine body in the cool soil? Ha! I laughed, and after a few moments, so did the Toiler.

He moved on to moving dirt and limestone, and I adjourned into my grotto. I love it already! And there is little to be excited about, just in mid-April. I have four banana trees out, and there are a couple of salvia and dianthus which manage to winter over each year. I have the pond pump going as well. The bamboo is spreading; that's a good thing for this year. The next few years, I anticipate overgrowth. Tonight, sitting outside with a cat in my lap and a glass of wine in hand, I heard a frog, no doubt waiting for me to leave his 'hood, and also a female cardinal up in the tree above. What was she saying, I wonder?