Little Old Lady in Training

Friday night we had a wonderful experience. Sitting on the back porch in the late evening, when the light was fading fast, the fireflies began a beautiful flickering light show. There were dozens of them in our yard. Theirs is one of the most beautiful mating rituals in the world, in my opinion. Love was in the air!

Suddenly I am noticing strangers, or they are noticing me, or both.

A few weeks ago, a woman in a parking lot cornered me to confirm that I had witnessed a confrontation she had just had, for which I had observed no evidence. It was awkward, disturbing, but not threatening.

Today, Attila and I did a run to the retail outlets to buy supplies. After emerging from the grocery store, we took our cart to the car, and were moving items from the cart to the car, when an older woman [older than me], a complete stranger, approached us, and who, in a laughing manner said, “Hurry up and get that cart emptied!”.

She then asked me if we were “heading to the cottage with all those groceries.”

” Just stocking up on sale items,” I told her.

She rightly observed that, “Not everyone has enough money to do that you know.”

I smiled and responded, “You are right, we are lucky to be able to do it.”

I enjoyed her making that point, because it reflects active social awareness, most likely based on experience.

She held out a quarter for the cart, to Attila, then pulled her hand back, and laughingly checked the cart to make sure there was a quarter in it, which there was, so she turned, and handed me the quarter.

All this time her husband stood some distance back, standing straight with his jacket over his arm, quite stiff and spiffy in his white shirt and bow tie.

Off they went with the cart, and and off we went, heading home with our bounty.

This is more attention from strangers, in the last few weeks, than I’ve experienced in years. Perhaps I am getting better looking as I slowly morph into a little old lady.

We took a flying trip out to the Camp yesterday, so that Attila could trim the weeds on the property. The grass trimmer broke down the last time we were there, and the job was not completed. Parts were ordered, a new muffler, which Attila replaced this past week, and the trimmer is working good as new. On this visit the job was completed.

The vegetation was lush, our lone tomato plant was surviving, but the wetland is almost dry, and the creek is no longer running. There are no signs of drought-like conditions, so the rain must be intermittent enough so that it soaks into the ground, with no resulting runoff, as it is runoff that would fill our wetland.

The day was hot, and humid, and windy. There are fewer mosquitoes at our Camp than at Mist Cottage, so we spent a lovely few hours just sitting in the shade and enjoying being in the bush. While we were there we went for a walk around the property to look for Sumac fruit, but found none. Too bad, I love Sumac jelly!

I am happy to report the mouse trap was empty, and there were no signs of mice in Grace the Trailer.

Since the first heat wave hit, baking bread has been a less-than-appealing activity. I’ve missed the homemade bread for three reasons. One is the taste. The second is the nutrition of home ground whole wheat. The third is the very low sodium content of my homemade bread. Commercial bread leaves me struggling to keep my daily sodium intake low. So today, despite the heat, I got out the grain mill, ground 11 cups of whole wheat flour, and baked five loaves of homemade bread. I turned on the air conditioning to cool the house down as the oven baked the bread, a bit of a luxury. I cannot bake the bread in the portable oven on the back porch, there are too many loaves for that oven to handle.

Today the garden has already provided a mid-day meal of sauteed zucchini, spinach, garlic, and basil. Fresh from the garden green beans were enjoyed at supper. Mostly we are eating everything fresh out of the garden, although some of the bounty has been preserved: canned Dandelion Jelly; canned Rhubarb (ours) Strawberry (pick-your-own) Pie filling; Pesto for the freezer. I am thinking of attempting low-sodium pickles, as Attila brought in two pounds of cucumbers for me this evening, and a pound of zucchini.

It was a quiet weekend, and as usual, we have been busy here at Mist Cottage, busy with the little things.

Worldly

Weather

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH
26°C
Date: 4:00 PM EDT Sunday 28 July 2019
Condition: Lighting Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 26.1°C
Dew point: 22.3°C
Humidity: 79%
Wind: WSW 30 gust 45 km/h
Humidex: 36
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“All general statements are false.”
Unknown

How Escsheresque!



17 Comments
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Nora

I absolutely love your life!

NORA

The little things mean a lot. I am adjusting to aging and seriously do not like it. Otherwise everything is just peachy! x0x0x

Nora

Thanks Maggie. I guess the 70s can be rough on some of us. I need to reinvent myself…ha, ha, ha!

Bex Crowell

Is there a secret to being able to comment here without having to fill in all the boxes (Name/Email/Website) every single time? What is the secret? I get your notifications ok but when I fill in those boxes, the info never stays! Anyone else having this problem here?
I wanted to say a Shout Out to Nora up there… HI NORA. I was thinking of you the other day and wondered what you were up to?

Anonymous

I’m going to slip this in here….HI BEX! Think of you as well. Wonder if you are still working the needles? Good to touch bases with you and Maggie again. “Things” ok.

Joan Lansberry

I’m glad all is well in your world. Few mosquitoes and no mice! And good food!

Bex Crowell

Trying again with blank boxes to see if my info stays here. It’s Tuesday morning at around 7:23 am EST.

BEx Crowell

Nope again. My info does not hang around for more than one comment. Sorry! I had to type it in twice here.

BexCrowell

Here for the 3rd time in 2 minutes this morning. Still blank boxes. I just “signed up” for email here again, so maybe that will be the charm? I don’t get it. This always worked for me before!

Anonymous

I am ready to pull out my hair! I unsubscribed by mistake just now. Oh Maggie, I am sorry about all of this. It’s just that I can’t type well anymore and it takes me forever to do anything on the keyboard.

Teri

Lol! We noticed fireflies at the house for the first time the other week when we had thunderstorms and our power went out. We opened the curtains so we could see if any neighbor’s lights came on, and lo and behold we saw tiny twinkles among the trees. So wrapped up in our little world when it’s dark out that we never saw the magic.

I wish I could say we have no mosquitoes, it would be great to be able to sit outside without developing red welts ghat sometimes balloon into large allergic reactions. But we have had some success with a butane bug repellent we bought the other week. We turn it on in the early evening, place it outside our front door, and leave it burning until after the dogs are walked the last time. It’s done quite well,as over this last weekend we had zero mosquitoes come into the house.

Oh, and based on your comments about the dogs, Maggie, DH now ruffles their coats before they get to the door to dislodge any mosquitoes that try to hitchhike on them. I just need to use the repellent a bit smarter, though. I still ended up with 3 welts when I sat on the front deck for half an hour Saturday afternoon.

Sumac jelly sounds interesting. What does it taste like and how does one make it?