It looks like we might have received a little bit of rain last night or early this morning. Yes, Lord! Just a month or so ago we were setting rain records, well the records changing of late are heat related. Last evening was flowerbed watering time and although it takes most of the early evening to get everything taken care of, the beauty of these flowers and shrubs are worth it. The geranium spray from Thistle Farms seems to be working on repelling bugs when I spray it on me and I can see why, not too fond of the fragrance and it just adds to the sweaty fragrance of working outdoors. Reminds one of the verse in the Bible concerning Lazarus...he stinketh.
We are in the fun beginnings of the most wonderful time of the year, produce season time. Yesterday, it seemed like a good idea to eat breakfast out on the way to Strawberry Hill to pick up strawberries and whatever other fruitish offerings they had. There were several choices but when one has a Barnes and Noble coupon burning in their wallet, one makes the decision based on closeness of the bookstore. It made the choice easy, Another Broken Egg. I usually order the bananas foster pancakes because they are the bomb diggity, but constraint ruled and it was just regular pancakes with sides of eggs and bacon. Usually when one is dining alone you are seated in the back or in a corner, except yesterday, the hostess sat me in the middle of a dining section with no other breakfast consumers. They were all located in other sections of the restaurant. It was a bit daunting to be featured in the middle of the main area. It took longer than usual to order but finally someone came over and took care of that. If they had left me alone too much longer I might have stood next to the table, grabbing the back of the chair for support and sing, "the cheese stands alone, the cheese stands alone, hi ho the dairyo, the cheese stands alone." Eating alone is a regular part of life these days but yesterday was a bit of a trip. The only cure for a breakfast blip is to hasten quickly to the bookstore. In this world of Amazon Prime it feels as if Barnes and Noble is putting a good faith effort into customer service and experience. Greeted and asked several times if they could help me find anything. Nope, just a browser who has a systematic approach to going through the store. I left with three books, like I need three more books, but this is going to be the summer of reading. It is also the summer of the denim shirt cause I don't want to ponder too much on what to wear. You are so thankful when a drive south on I-26 is uneventful and the roads are clear. Yesterday's drive was a thankful drive. The past few days my heart has overflowed with a good theme...a praise to the God of my life. Ps 45:1 The whole beauty of this part of the country demonstrates majestically artistic and creativeness of God. The flowers that grow wild alongside the roads to the flowers planted by the fine folks at NCDOT, the bluest sky, and of course one cannot forget to mention the mountains silhouette against that sky. The innumerable shades of green in the trees. The creeks and rivers and streams...even the little mud holes that dot the landscapes on farms are just so marvelous in context of the landscape. With the abundance of rain early on, lots of hay is being baled so tractors are on the roads going to cut hay and trucks and trailers are filled with those big round bales. Don't mind this kind of traffic jam at all. I love seeing all of this and experiencing life so differently from any other time here on earth. The running conversations with the Lord seem more vibrant on the road than from a comfortable chair in the house or on the porch. Well, once again I digress but it was a good bunny trial. Think I will begin a new paragraph just cause this one is getting so long.
Strawberry Hill was busy but not so much as to be discouraged by so many people. The staff were putting out new buckets of strawberries when I arrived. The cucumbers looked good as well as the tomatoes. Peaches are on the scene now and the are the cling variety but I tried a new variety to me at least, of peach. It's good. All the tractors and farm equipment dotted the scene in a distance and even got to see up close and personal some of the biggest, takes almost both lanes wide farm apparatus.
On the drive home I considered a few detours but with fresh fruit and veggies, even in coolers, kept me on the straight and narrow of going home, with only a few drop offs of fruit to friends along the way. The backyard was buzzing with screen track and siding going up on the porch. Parking is a premium on the driveway... Only staying long enough to take care of the produce bounty and a little trip to the necessitarium. Then off to Weaverville for banking and grocery shopping...with a little trip to Tractor Supply thrown in to check on birdseed. They were out of the kind the birds seem to like but told me to check back in today or tomorrow. Home again where I nearly went off the side of the driveway trying to back in around the trucks. I have never seen on the backup camera the whole car outlined in red and alarms going off. Shawn, the siding guy, was kind enough to straighten his truck so I could do the safe parking in front of our truck. Whew, adventure for sure.
Here we have arrived where the post began, talking about watering plants because that was the evening activity. It was a welcomed diversion when Inez dropped by for a few minutes of sitting in lawn chairs and visiting. I love how the colors in the garden change over the weeks as flowers bloom and then step to the side for the next round of color from other plants. At the front bird feeder I have seen gold finch, house wrens, blue birds (meal worms in the seed mix,) cardinals, indigo blue, mockingbirds and doves...oh yes and all the little birds, wrens and chickadees. Butterflies are showing up too especially since there are several new plants added this year to attract them. Yep, thankful, grateful and blessed...but now I needs to be about preparing a Sunday School lesson...just need to get it in written form.
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