Work Proceeds Apace

Finally, it appears that the dog days of summer have decided to make their tardy appearance. We hadn't missed those too-hot days of burning sun and high humidity, not one bit. We had learned to appreciate the cooler weather, the incessant downpours. Really, we did. Those days of partial sun, partly ongoing rain did not inconvenience us one little bit. Rather, those conditions greatly benefited us. Given, one supposes, our age. And the fact that one of us has been inordinately busy, building a garden shed.

Previous to which he had been busy doing other things, happily aware that the weather was 'with him' in the sense that his physical efforts were not compounded by extreme heat. In the cooler weather, and the rain events, he was able to take down our old worn deck, and rebuild the deck entirely. He was able also to empty the underside of the deck of its acquired burden of detritus and clay-soil left over from the excavation that occurred at the front of the house years ago, when he installed the stone and brick garden retaining walls and patios.

And fill a rented dumpster that stood in our driveway for weeks, with tons of that clay and building detritus, along with more, much more. Leftovers from projects undertaken over the course of many years. From old doors to left-over stained glass shards. Everything was hauled out and into the trailer, and we were anxious to see the last of it all. Far more difficult to accomplish if summer heat and constant sun beating down on hard-working heads had to be contended with.

And the current project, clearing away a garden plot, levelling the area, and installing a sub-floor to welcome a larger new garden shed was well underway before the advent of high summer. Which just knocked, as it were, on our summer, this very day. So hot that I've had to finally begin watering the garden pots lest the plants shrivel in the heat and lose their beauty. The garden has absolutely thrived in all the rain we've had; no need had there been to water, to entice it to grow.

I picked the first of our lovely ripe plum tomatoes today. Noted that the Japanese anemones are beginning to bloom, and that the turtleheads have set their buds nicely. That the purple coneflowers are crowding out the delicate pale pink beauty of a nearby rose, and so be it for the time being. The begonias that had overwintered in our basement and which I'd planted out in the spring are glorious, their colours vibrant, the flowers huge.

I revel in capturing the essence of their beauty, in photograph after photograph. Noticed?