Blessed Bee

Click image to enlarge it.

This is mint from my neighbor's garden - the one that has the corn and squash. I didn't do much in my garden this year; I'm still trying to figure out how to plant with the seasons. This year was so wet in June and then July sort of flew by. Now it's August, there is Hallowe'en and Autumn stuff at Marshalls (!) and I still have some donated perennials from my sister, Jane, in their temporary pots; same with some of my culinary herbs! I certainly was NOT busy like the bee in the picture. Oh, well - next year I hope to be a bit more involved with my herbs and plants.

It is so oppressively humid again today - the cicadas are singing loudly this morning. We managed to get our long walk in before 9 am, but still, both Kylie and I are wrung out from the humidity. The woods are loving it - everything is impossibly green and moist. It's beautiful to look at, but it is uncomfortable being outside for any length of time. I used to think I could live in the tropics - not any more!

Over the last few days, I've run into people I went to school with in NJ - that's a long time ago. I've only minimally kept up with one high school friend and very few other people from this small town. I met my neighbor's mother on Friday and after talking, we discovered that we graduated from the same high school one year apart. It brought home to me that I could have a daughter the same age as my neighbor, something I cannot even imagine! And today, I saw the woman who grows the beautiful hibiscus plants and found out she lived a few doors down from me when I was growing up here!

Weird. It feels so weird.

So much of my life growing up in this small town seems like a past life memory; California is much more real to me. I wonder if that will change anytime soon?