Reflections on the Fourth Week of Summer

 

Early Friday, I drove past cows grazing in Kathy's lower field and turned onto the dirt road to fetch her for a quilter's yard sale in Franklin. We delved through piles of material and inspected housewares. After our girl's morning out, I pulled back onto Kathy's road. A car had parked at the other end of the field. “I wonder what he's doing by my cows.” I backed down the dirt road and onto the hard road so she could investigate. “He's looking at something. Is Ruby having her calf?” I drove closer. “Oh, it's a woman..” I parked. “It's Tammy.” A small black calf lay in a lump on the ground. The other cows stood fifteen feet away. Kathy's daughter Tammy walked to us and said the calf wasn't moving except to twitch its ears. Kathy said, “Maybe it was just born. The shock of birth takes awhile to wear off.” Because a weak back had put Ruby at risk in labor, Kathy tried to check her. “Here, Ruby.” Ruby looked over her shoulder but didn't come. The calf raised its head. Kathy walked along the fence to get a view of Ruby's hind quarters. The calf scrambled to its feet and ran to Ruby. The herd circled the newborn, and Ruby led them into the woods. “She's hiding the calf from us.” Saturday, Kathy emailed. “It's a girl so Tammy named her Diamond. Maybe she's a diamond in the rough.” Sunday I called to ask if Ruby was still hiding Diamond, or if I could get a picture. “Oh, you could have gotten a great picture yesterday. She got out of the fence and was walking on the grass along the road.”

Reflections on the Third Week of Summer

  The first Night Beacon Daylily bloomed this week. Dark maroon encircling a bright yellow center accented the green, green time of year when mower hums blend with chickadee twitters, robin cheer-ups, and wood thrush fluty melodies. I savored the sun-warmed sweetness of the first ripe cherry tomato. I unfastened bull clips to open row cover doors on blueberry tents. Milkweed fragrance drifted into the enclosures, bugs crawled on the ghostly white fabric, and berries plunked against the bottom of my metal bucket. Strawberries and peas put me on an every other day pick-and-weed schedule. Sunlight flashed off goldfinches zigzagging into treetops. Butterfly pairs swirled in rising circles. Unlike a friend, who's moving south so that a snowflake never lands on her head again, I relish nature's changes–the parade of treats that living in rural Western Pennsylvania brings. Delights increased this year when great niece Addy reached for sunlight filtering through leaves, listened to Deer Creek glide over its rocky bed, and watched family gathering dried grass for garden mulch.

Reflections on the Second Week of Summer

George snoozed through the beginning of the week. He stopped eating, drinking, and eliminating. I made a vet appointment. Spence petted, finger-dipped water onto George's nose, and offered cooked chicken. George nibbled a bit and peed once, but we drove his limp fur-and-bones to the vet anyway. The blood work and his temperature were fine, but he was dehydrated and had lost a pound in a week. The vet injected fluids, prescribed three medications, and said, “If he's not eating, bring him back Monday.” I squirted stool softener into his mouth, held his jaws shut, and ignored the bubbles he forced through his lips. Holding him between my legs, I pried his mouth open, dropped the appetite enhancer in, clamped his jaws shut, and stroked his throat. When he'd swallowed three times, I let him go. He scampered away and spit the pill onto the floor. After five tries, I gave up. I dissolved his stomach soother in water and squirted that down his throat. He spit it out. But he nibbled dry cat food and pooped on Independence Day. By then, Emma had stopped eating, drinking, and eliminating. She hid under wisteria vines. I gave her George's squirtable meds. Spence petted and finger-dipped water drops. In vain, he offered beer, broth, chicken, and trout. Sunday morning, she peed and drank water from a flooded plant tray. Ears twitching, tail swishing she monitored wildlife from the deck. We repeatedly told her she was a good girl, but she needed to eat or she'd see the vet Monday. Finally, she joined George at the food bowl and ate a few kibbles.

 

Reflections on the First Week of Summer

After a couple of hectic weeks, Wednesday was a slow-down day. In the morning, I settled into my Adirondack chair, tapped computer keys, and listened to the washing machine gurgle. A small gray moth clung to the inside of the sliding glass door. I opened the door half way and slid the screen over so the moth could fly outside. Abdomen hanging below its fluttering wings, it banged between the glass and screen. It didn't follow the fresh air out so I grabbed a pack of radish seeds off the coffee table, reached around the screen, and nudged its feet. With a couple of awkward lunges, it found the edge of the door and zoomed skyward only to be caught in the beak of a diving phoebe. Butterflies in the north garden fared better. The sweet, spicy fragrance of new milkweed flowers attracted a flock of Great Spangled Fritillaries. Bees, bugs, and one Comma butterfly gathered too. While others sipped nectar and ignored me clicking the camera, the Comma butterfly took a sunbath on a wide milkweed leaf–the third Comma sunbather I'd encountered in June. When the sun set, the quarter moon glowed over the south garden, and fireflies flashed.

Reflections - Lost Hearts

Lost Hearts

Though I bought Lost Hearts from Kathy Otten at the Pennwriters Conference, I was a bit hesitant to start reading. Her first western romance, Between the Lines, was such a great read, I was afraid Lost Hearts would be disappointing.

I was wrong. Lost Hearts was a delightful read.

Kathy makes the two main characters vivid, flawed, and likable. Johnny has been disguised as a boy since childhood to protect her from her cruel outlaw father and his gang. Kathy writes Johnny’s dialogue in Oklahoma hill dialect. That kind of spelling usually annoys me, but it works for Johnny, an intelligent character who is masterful at healing and who dreams of a home with a loving family.

The one armed lawman Richard, who Johnny calls Rab, is haunted by flashbacks from the Civil War so follows rules precisely to make up for horrors he can’t remember.

Kathy makes the journey—across Choctaw territory to take the outlaws to jail—compelling with escape attempts, a festering leg wound, flooding river, and the growing attraction between Johnny and Rab.

Historical facts are woven into the fabric of the story. Pacing and tension are fine tuned. Kathy keeps the plot realistic yet manages to get Johnny and Tab together by the end.

 

Reflections on the Twelfth Week of Spring

Tuesday, June 2, my body surprised me by screaming, “What the hell are you doing?” I'd never heard it talk and definitely didn't expect it to swear. I was slipping into the pool for the second day in a row. Determined to increase my swimming to three times a week for the aerobic exercise the rheumatologist prescribed, I ignored the body complaining, “But you did this yesterday” and swam a half mile. This past week I swam three days again. Monday's clouds and rain kept my line-dry-only suit damp for Tuesday's swim. I slipped into the cold wet garment and into the pool–no comments from my body. Hands cupped, arms pulling, and legs kicking like a frog, I swam the half mile in thirty-three minutes. Thursday, because I'd spent the morning on the computer making airline, rental car, and B&B reservations for Ellen and Chris' wedding celebration, I was too late to warm up with the laps that keep me panting through my deep water fitness class. I adapted. I moved arms and legs quickly and forcefully. Conversation about President McKinley leading a cow up the steps of Bentley Bell Tower, when he was an Allegheny College student, distracted me till someone explained a rope and tackle hoisted the cow to the ground. I resumed pushing for the aerobic benefit of preventing flare-ups. Back at Wells Wood, Spence surprised me with another benefit. “Cute legs,” he whispered.

Reflections on the Eleventh Week of Spring

Spence and I have celebrated many anniversaries walking through pounding rain on Presque Isle. Monday, our forty-seventh anniversary, brought clouds and low fifty degree weather. We celebrated on sunny, high sixty degree Tuesday instead. At the lagoon, we rented a two seater kayak. I stepped into water sloshing in the bottom–foreshadowing the extra clothes we'd brought would be needed. We passed purple iris, yellow waterlilies, swooping swifts, calling red-wing blackbirds, a guarding Canadian goose, and splashing fish. Paddling as if we were in our canoe wasn't a good idea. Water dripped down the paddles and soaked us. We learned to use shallow strokes and harmonize our rhythm. After changing clothes, we ate at the Colony Bar and Grill. A tiffany lamp hung over the table, a gray-suited man played show tunes on a piano, and our perky waitress questioned the cook to serve me a safe pasta dinner. Back at Presque Isle, we pulled on sweatshirts for a windy walk on North Pier. I took photos of sea gull acrobatics. Spence talked to Amish fishermen about their catches. We ended our day with families and dogs on Sunset Beach. At 8:48 the sun dropped into Lake Erie, and Spence said, “You'd think there'd be a big sizzle.” On the drive back to Wells Wood, Spence listened to jazz on WQLN, I studied clouds blowing in front of the full moon, and we planned our next anniversary trip to Presque Isle.