SHELTERED BY LEAF AND SKY

The hackberry on the hill below the road is a

glorious green against a gorgeous April sky.

It's been an interesting week here along the riverbank…

The weather has been glorious, but cool—and in the mornings plain cold. Yesterday I could see my breath for more than an hour after sunrise. There were frost warnings several nights, though I never actually noticed frost anywhere. But then, I wasn't paying all that much attention when I took Moon the dog out for her hurried constitutional. Most days, the highs never made it past the upper-50s or very-low-60s. Which doesn't sound too bad except that it's already been in the 80s a few times, and upper-70s quite often before it turned cold…uhh, cool.

Not that weather has put much of a damper on spring. Or the seasonal work needing doing around the cottage and yard.

I'm still trying to put my planting beds in shape for another year—turning the soil, adding compost and other organic material, topping with mulch. Some seeds have been sown; others are still in their packets, awaiting my limited time, energy, and dereliction of fishing duties. I also have seedlings and larger plants to buy and get in, which given the rock-rich makeup of the ground, is more like mining than planting. A task worth procrastinating over, if ever there was one. And this afternoon—seeing as how it's supposed to rain for the next two or three days—I'm hoping to give the grass it first mowing…providing I don't get too distracted.

A lot of this would actually have been accomplished already (probably) if I hadn't been engaged in trying to build a pseudo-flagstone patio/walkway. The rocks aren't real flagstones, just various sized and shaped slabs of Indiana limestone, 2-4-inches thick, which—if you use a stonemason's hammer and chip out irregular chunks all along the top edge of the slab—can be fashioned to look more like a weathered stone than a smooth-sawn rock. Of course, you have to tuck the 60-pound or so slab under one arm and spin it around as you deliver the necessary whacks. (Safety glasses are a must!) And then you have to seat, level, re-level, adjust, fit, mutter suitable imprecations, and fuss with an imperturbable rock that would as soon smash your fingers as comply with your artistic maneuverings. Four-stones-per-hour is about my maximum rate…and when you add in sorting and hauling, you begin to see why the old Pharaohs started their tomb construction straight away after taking their throne.

Still, as I said, the days have been glorious and spring has continued to don her enchanting cloak of vernal green. There are times when I swear I can see the leaves growing! Every day looks greener, the view less open, my little home on the river more cloistered. Which is fine by me, as I like getting lost amid the surrounding greenery, sheltered by leaf and sky. Sounds grow ever more muffled—especially traffic and other manmade noise. The background music of my days are becoming that of birdsong and purling water, of wind stirring through velvet-soft leaves and bees humming happily over dandelion blooms.

In a few minutes I'm heading up the road to a nearby woods to check on the Jack-in-the-pulpit. A few were showing the last visit I made—which was last week. The strange little spathes are usually thick in this one area, and I want to spend time making photos. I'll probably get sidetracked for an hour or two by whatever else I find thereabouts. I'm easily distracted in the spring woods. And I may toss a fishing rod and my tackle bag in the truck…just in case.

[FYI, overshadowing the last half-dozen days has also been concerns and issues re. Myladylove's health. She became ill last Friday at work. I insisted she call her doctor, who happened to have an appointment opening within the hour. At the doctor's, she was having heart palpitations, a BP reading of 175/120, and a heartrate of 110 BPM. The doctor suspected a potassium deficiency, which was confirmed an hour later after a visit to the hospital for bloodwork. There were also some problems with her liver count. She was put on potassium and magnesium supplements and ordered to spend the weekend resting. Not easy news for a workaholic to hear or mind. Guess who got to police THAT order. We made a followup doctor's visit Tuesday, and she also had additional bloodwork—which showed a now normal liver count and much-improved potassium level. Yesterday, Myladylove had an ultrasound. It's suspected her problems were caused by the statin drug she was put on a few months back. She's still not feeling great—though much better than last week. And, of course, has been working since Monday. As you'll recall, I kicked off April with my own health issues; Myladylove was apparently not to be outdone. Like I said, it's been an interesting week (or month!) here along the riverbank…]

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