100 words: Spring- after long hiatus

It is May:  the tomatoes are planted and look shell-shocked from the rainy week in their starter pots. It’s amazing how hard it is to kneel to plant them, and the marigolds. The marigolds accompany the tomatoes for color and to help (I heard) keep the pests at bay. We’re trying landscaping fabric this year to keep the weeds down (although my husband dislikes it); and a trellis (although I’ve heard that certain types of tomatoes should not be pruned and trellised). We still need to plant herbs and lettuces. The rainy weather has produced a bumper crop of weeds!

100 words: The one I love

It’s all too easy to lose sight of important things in the day-to-day hustle and bustle. The little kindnesses that he does, without expectation of gratitude. The gentle warm hand on my side as we spoon asleep. I smile at his consideration for the sunflowers, such that no fire can be lit in the firepit they’ve grown around. The care he takes of cats and household. Exasperated acceptance of a pet name, originally bestowed upon the cats, which somehow also labeled him. His willingness to try any culinary experiment. His love suffuses my life and I am enriched by him.

100 words: Patience

The tomatoes have started to ripen and we had the first tomato-basil-mozzarella salad of the summer. Later, we cooked down about 20 tomatoes and garlic over 4 hours to reduce into a sauce, which I was so much looking forward to having on Sunday night. However, that was not to be, as our friend and his son came over to visit. And then, my husband reminded me we have a wine tasting dinner at Eros on Monday night… so Tuesday. Growing tomatoes this summer has been one long experience in waiting; and now the weather has started to turn cool…

100 words: Warmth

There is a welcome break in the heat and humidity of summer today, and maybe for a couple days. This change is reflected in the cats’ behavior. When it is too warm they want nothing to do with us. When it becomes the slightest bit cooler, they become like little heat seeking missiles and zero in on their targets. Laps are preferred, but also the more inconvenient locations: between and on legs in bed, trapping the sleeping humans in one posture for hours on end. Sure, certain morning aches are due to age but some definitely have a feline origin.

100 words: Sniff

The summer smells are here. Long ago gone are the aromas of lilacs. Fresh mowed grass now dominates. I love tomatoes but not the alkaloid smell of the plants. Horse manure in all its forms, wet, dried, composted. The particular moist and organic odor of a freshwater beach. Greasy-feeling sunscreen, lightly scented. The bug repellent has, itself, a repellent reek. Windows open all the time so the musty house smells are dissipated. Hot plastic smell of a closed-up auto in the sun. And the season’s fresh abundance: strawberries, zucchini, oysters, cherries, corn, and herbs- oh! Basil, parsley, chives, and more.

100 words: Education

There are two new tumbling grizzled kittens in the house. He has a three-quarters length tail; she, a small little nubbin. Without the tail’s disparity they can be hard to tell apart. They play very hard and explore the house fearlessly. They also nap hard; together; alone; and with their adopted “mother,” an older three-legged orange male. This unrelated, no resemblance tabby offers instruction on the fine points of licking oneself clean, reinforced by a pinioning paw, while emitting a diesel-engine quality purr. These good habits are so-so-necessary to learn; but not some of his more adult, post-adolescent bad habits.

100 words: Dreams

In the early morning, when the sky lightens in the east bedroom window, is when I find I have the most intense dreams. There may be wild adventures; there can be prosaic going-ons. Interestingly enough I find most these dreams take place inside a building, usually a house. Sometimes the house is one I’ve been in before, typically morphed out of recognition. Sometimes it’s a new place full of dark corners and clanking hulking machinery. Is the outside too strange, too uncommon to make its way into my dreams except in nightmares where I am plunging from a collapsing bridge?