Murphy’s Law (no, not that Murphy)

After a couple of games of chess, we go to the community garden. Gerry drags out the hose to water while I head to the basil and start cutting. The sweet, fresh aroma wafts up—so fresh!—and a woman working in another plot calls over that she can smell it from there. I fill a large oversized reusable bag with it. It’s pesto making day.

Next, I move to the Swiss chard and cut enough for supper. I’ll stir fry it in a bit of olive oil with pumpkin seeds and top it off with a titch of feta.

I hunt around in the cucumber vines and pull the largest one I can find. We eat a cucumber a day now.

Next, I move to the beans. They’re coming in slower this year, but I find enough to freeze when we get home as the 2021 Restock the Freezer effort continues.

I survey the Black Krim tomatoes and find one that’s nearly ripe and I can almost taste the first tomato sandwich of the season. It’ll happen soon. Maybe later this week.

By the time Gerry winds up the hose and I tote three full bags of produce to the car, it’s heating up. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Man, I appreciate it this year not only because it’s hot and dry, but also because we can’t open the windows most days due to the smoke.

At home, Gerry gets to work finishing up a project on the deck and I water the backyard garden and flower pots. Next, I set to work in the kitchen washing, chopping, and blanching. By the time lunch (and another chess game) rolls around, we’ve both done a productive morning’s work.

After lunch, Gerry heads out to run some errands. I plan to settle in with my book but, instead, have a short chat with Laurinda and tend to other things here and there and never find an opportunity. The afternoon goes quickly, and Gerry arrives home in time for a webinar we signed up for on macro photography—something I love.

I set my camera aside when I was focusing on writing and birthing The Presence of Absence, and haven’t picked it up again. The webinar inspires me, making me hungry to make photographic art again.

And now, this morning, on a day in which I planned to dust off my camera and macro lens and spend some time in the yard photographing flowers, it’s windy. Very windy. This isn’t good news for the fires or the photographer. Macro photography + wind = blurry images.

Murphy’s law, yes?

So, perhaps I’ll pick a blossom or two and work in my woman cave instead. Or maybe the wind will die down enough to make taking photographs outside possible. Either way, I’m going to shoot flowers today. At last.