If we were having coffee: First Friday edition

Perfectly imperfect.

One of the strangest things about life is that it will chug on, blind and oblivious, even as your private world – your little carved-out sphere – is twisting and morphing, even breaking apart. One day you have parents; the next day you’re an orphan. One day you have a place and a path. The next day you’re lost in the wilderness.

And still the sun rises and clouds mass and drift and people shop for groceries and toilets flush and blinds go up and down. That’s when you realize that most of it – life, the relentless mechanism of existing – isn’t about you. It doesn’t include you at all. It will thrust onward even after you’ve jumped the edge.

~ Lauren Oliver

Rosy.

If we were having coffee, tea, water, soda, or some other beverage, I would be delighted to see you again.  Hugs if you’re amenable to them.  Come on in!  Let’s grab our drinks and something to nosh on, and take them out to the deck.  The weather has been amazing the past few days, and I think you’ll enjoy the breeze and the cooler temperatures.  The air is fresh, clear, and dry.  Things will start heating up again tomorrow with highs in the 90’s expected.  Let’s sit outside while we can.

Bouncing light. (Editing in PicMonkey.)

How are you?  What have you been up to since our last chat?  Have you traveled anywhere?  Seen anything new?  Spent time with family or friends?  Met anyone new?  Have you gone on any good walks or hikes?  Read any good books or seen any good movies?

Centered.

I have nothing new to report on the book or movie front this week.  I’m still reading Nemesis by Isaac Asimov.  It might take me another week or so to finish because I haven’t had a lot of time for reading lately, and when I do find the time, usually in the evening just before bed, I tend to start drifting to sleep after reading a page or two.  I need a rainy day so I can get caught up on my reading, writing, and a million other things.

Snuggled in.

The gardens wouldn’t mind a rainy day or two, either.  Although there were dire predictions about storms and lots of rain at the beginning of this week, most of it missed us and went Elsewhere.  Even so, everything seems to be doing well in both the vegetable garden and the scrounger’s garden.  I keep waffling between expanding the scrounger’s garden and leaving it as it is.  I spend a minimum of twenty minutes every day weeding, and still the weeds manage to stay ahead of me.

Togetherness.

If we were having coffee, I would suggest we walk out to the gardens if you’re feeling up to it.  The wind ought to keep the bugs away for a while, and I think you might enjoy the scents coming from the scrounger’s garden.  The grand old dames of the garden (the pink roses) are still in bloom and have a strong, heavenly perfume that they send forth to greet you when you get near them.  There is some kind of flowering tree in the woods behind the flower garden that is emitting a lovely scent, too.  One of these days I’ll remember what the trees are.  I’ve asked M, our resident tree expert, a few times.  Somehow I keep forgetting their names.  I never have been good with names.  The lavender and mint add to the mix of fragrances, and when they all come together, it works.  You might think all those scents would be overwhelming, but they’re not.  The breeze, I think, acts as an alchemist, transmuting all those scents into one, ambrosial bouquet in which you can detect the notes of the different flowers.

Hard to resist.

As you already noticed, the daylilies behind the greenhouse are blooming.  That was a surprise!  The buds appeared last weekend, and given the cooler weather we were experiencing, I thought it might be a couple of weeks before they bloomed.  Imagine my delight when I rounded the corner of the greenhouse to find a couple of blooms.  By the end of the week, there was a riot of daylilies blossoming.

Behind the greenhouse.

If we were having coffee, tea, or something else to drink, I would tell you that I am loving some of the benefits of modern technology.  Thanks to my new-ish smart phone, I’ve been able to see my new grandson nearly every day.  His parents have been generous enough to send me a picture almost daily.  Some days it’s a video which is always a delight.  And on weekends we Skype.  Skype doesn’t work great, especially with our slow satellite connection, but it gives us a chance to wave hello, and Little Wookie has the opportunity to see our mugs and hear our voices so maybe he’ll recognize us when we see him again (which isn’t too far off although the exact dates have not been established yet).

Lavender.

Having a smart phone has meant seeing a little more of my granddaughters, too, in much the same ways.  It makes me wish I’d made the switch a while ago.  My only complaint at this time is that my phone keeps running out of storage space.  Do you happen to have an Android?  The reason I ask is because mine came loaded with apps, many of which I don’t want.  However, when I go to uninstall them, I get warnings about how the other apps might misbehave if I remove, say, Facebook.  Misbehave.  Ha.  You might think the apps are children.  What I’m wondering is, if you do have an Android and it came with apps, have you removed any?  Were there any dire consequences such as Instagram throwing temper tantrums, or Waze bullying Uber, or the photo gallery refusing to share with Shutterfly?  I strongly suspect that the “misbehaving” would be more in line with Instagram being unwilling to share with Facebook if I uninstalled Facebook, and things of that nature.  I have no problem with that because…

Raspberries.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’m thinking about giving up Facebook.  Oh, I know.  I’ve said that several times in the past and never followed through.  I’m not going to delete my account or anything drastic.  It’s just that I don’t visit Facebook too much, especially since I fell in love with Instagram.  Sorry, Facebook.  I’ve never been comfortable with you.  Instagram and I have much more in common.

Resting on the rosemary.

If we were having coffee or something else to drink, I would tell you that I find it interesting the way some things flourish one year, and don’t do well the next.  This year, the rabbits are flourishing.  I wondered where they were last year.  This year, the Virginia creeper and poison ivy are having a field day, but some of the other vines are not.  This year, we have been bombarded with dragonflies.  It’s hard to walk outside without moving through a glimmer of them.  (Some folks call a group of dragonflies a “glimmer,” but a “flight” and/or “cluster” are the correct terms.)  The bumble bees, on the other hand, seem to be having difficulties and we have been occasionally finding one or more of them dead on the deck.

Skink on the boardwalk.

The snakes and turtles have been out and about, crossing roads.  We stop for them, but others do not so I’ve seen a few dead ones here and there.  There is a skink living on the boardwalk that leads from the back door to the driveway.  He scurries across the boardwalk and somersaults under it whenever I go out the door.  Toads are everywhere.  Be sure to watch where you walk although they do a pretty good job of staying out from under foot.

One more just because.

If we were having coffee, tea, or some other beverage, it would be time to turn things over to you.  Thank you so much for stopping by.  I always enjoy our coffee chats.  Our sunsets have been spectacular lately.  Hang around for a bit, and we’ll go down to the Point to watch from the beach.  Sunset is at 8:25 this evening.  Oh, and the fireflies are out!  They showed up early, too.  We spotted them about two weeks or so ago.  We can watch them from the deck after sunset.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

A Thursday sunset.

This post is in response to Part Time Monster’s #WeekendCoffeeShare.  Thank you to Diana for hosting it.  Also, a big congratulations for the #WeekendCoffeeShare being featured on WordPress’s Daily Post.  So glad to see it being shared among the rest of the community!  Put the kettle on, start the coffee maker, open a bottle of wine, or whatever your preference is, and join us.  I’d love to hear all about what you were up to this week.