Watching the Cats Grow.....

Watching  cats grow (metaphor) can be a full time occupation near the end of August.  The days are hot and lazy.  And the cats are smart. They find cool places and plant themselves. 

   "There is something deep within us that sobs: Why does all nature grow old? Why do spring and summer have to go?" 

-Joe Wheeler(1836-1906 Military commander and politician)

 Oh yes, why does everything have to start dying off in August? After rain, wind, cold, hot, everything is confused.  Its confusing. Its why so many of my pots met their end a couple of weeks ago.

Because of that , I started  gathering  geraniums, stuffing them into pots to save over the winter.

 Last year I think I saved about 14, this year I am going for double that.  So far there are about 18 geraniums in these pots. They don't need a lot of room, since they will be drastically cut back. In January they will get fertilizer. They will like that.

 Some still live in the greenhouse. The neighbours' cats hang out by the door. They seem to grow well there, under the smoke bush. Guarding  the greenhouse.Watching for slugs. Watching for snakes.

 The cats like to grow in multiple places. Often they sit on the gate and stare in the kitchen window. Daring one to stare back. It's no use. Spencer wins every time.

 Sweet peas. Yes. Did very well. Knee Hi's and Vines. Even they are withering out. But they're supposed to do that. I'm waiting till they shrivel completely.

 Grapes thrived. Valerian thrived.

 Roses bloomed. Could have bloomed more if I had less sunflowers blocking their view in the front . Next year, no sunflowers taking up room in the front. Just on the hill where they can  spread out.

 Sweet peas are about ready to yank out. I'm still picking pods at will. Hoping that more will fatten up. Every year I save pods in an ice cream pail. Dry them out, then snap out the black seeds. They sit and wait for next spring and add to other seeds, since I never have enough .

 Rhodochiton yes....definitely plant again next year Takes no care except water. At this moment in time the two hanging baskets are starting to turn rusty...a little early, and they have been fabulous all summer. 

"The sun tires of summer and turns itself into autumn....." -Terri Guillemets (1973-quote anthologist)

 And the Cats  plunk themselves  watching the watchers watch.

"In summer the song sings itself...."
                             -William Carlos Williams (1883-1963 poet)

 Rain hits the Lady's mantle, and it starts to grey.

 Daisies fold and bend. Rot back into the earth.

 But by contrast Japanese Anenome  flourishes from now till frost. I think the one I have is called 'Hadspen Abundance'. Easy peasy to care for. Spreads here and there in the rock wall. Just takes water. And a cat or two to watch it.

 Cosmos also seems to be easy to grow and lasts a long time. Sometimes till the end of September; fluffy mounds that are about 5 ft in height. Takes no extra care to make it last. Just dead head once in a while. And water. Then sit on the grass and watch the cats grow.........

 "The summer night is like a perfection of thought..." Wallace Stevens (1879-1955 American modernist poet)

We Knew it Would Rain.....

                              End of the day, yesterday, no rain in sight.  Everything parched. Yellowing.
                                                        Have never seen it like this. But I knew it would rain.....

 Then overnight, it started to pour. By morning , bees were hanging upside down. Snoozing.I wonder if they had started to sleep before the rain.

                                          BEFORE THE RAIN ( T. B. Aldrich 1836-1907)
"We knew it would rain, for all the morn a spirit on slender ropes of mist was lowering its golden buckets down into the vapory amethyst."

             "Of marshes and swamps and dismal fens, scooping the dew that lay in the flowers."

                 By late morning it was still raining.

                        "Dipping the jewels out of the sea, to sprinkle them over the land in showers."

                                                And the bees kept snoring.

                                                  And snoring.

           While the Inula leaned.               And Smokey wondered what he should do.....

            "We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed.The white of their leaves, the amber grain, shrunk in the wind, and the lightning now, is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain."

         With Spencer on the porch. His own snoozefest interupted by splooshing rain on cement.

         Spencer dislikes the rain. He hates getting his paws wet. And he  still had to get home to his house on the hill. Through the puddles and the slugs.

                            So I picked sweet peas in the rain.

           The anenome raised up off the dry ground.

                    And it started looking like Christmas  in July.
 
                    When the rain came. And the drought ended.

       

   And Spencer high tailed it to the greenhouse. To wait out the rain. Before heading for home. In the rain  that he so does not like. But I could have sworn I saw him flick his paws and do a little dance, when the rain came.
(Poem "Before the Rain" (by Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836-1907) Poet, novelist, travel writer and editor. His novel "Story of a Bad Boy" apparently paved the way for other novelists.)