Garden news - the iris have arrived! And as you can see, they are well worth waiting for (we had very little or no blooms last year on most of our transplants). The weather here remains really strange - we go from 90 to 40 and back again. I continue to be amazed at the resiliency of the plants, as they cope far better than I with the temperature swings, and still, as you can see, manage to bloom no matter what the thermometer says! We had almost two solid weeks of drenching rains last month, so much so that for the first time ever I had iris rhizomes rotting (which of course saddened me and made me fear I'd lose everyone). But in the past week of excessive heat, even though it's not great for me, the irises love it, and everyone is abloom and beautiful. Our very first lily, a Stella Doro, also bloomed yesterday, there are buds on the hydrangea (which keels over every single day it's above 80, much like me, except water revives it quicker), and the peonies are about to bloom too. So I'll have quite a collection of cut flowers for the foreseeable future.
Brian's 65th birthday last weekend was lovely. Lisa, his daughter, and her fiancee Josh came out, as did our friends the Packers, bringing salad and plants - Ken and Carol hardly ever come by without plants, we have entire terraces out back that are Packer imports! This was last Sunday; I had already made an enchilada dinner the night before, to just put in the oven. But alas, at 9:30 a.m., the power went out (again!) and we actually got to experience the joys of generator ownership. We had lights, and fans, and refrigerator, and water. So I could wash and use the bathroom as I wanted, but no stove - too electricity-intensive to run. Since Brian had to detour from his usual route to pick up Lisa and Josh at the Middletown train station, they came back the same way, via Pine Bush, and made the brilliant decision to buy veggies to grill - and, as an extra birthday present for Brian, bought the grill and tools and charcoal as well. Apparently Josh is quite a grillmaster. He assembled everything, fired it up, prepped the veggies and veggieburgers, and cooked them as well. By 3 p.m. the power was back on, so after resetting far too many clocks and gadgets with clocks, I baked the casserole and we all ate everything. Lovely day!
My other big news is that just yesterday I became an official part of the American Brittany Rescue network, and am expecting to foster a dog before another week goes by. Having just passed the year anniversary of Saul's death, I am not yet ready for another full-time, many-year commitment, but so miss having that Brittany energy around, I decided this was a good measure for now. Brian was less than enthusiastic, but has agreed we can try it out for this one particular dog (a 9 year old female whose owner just died last month at 90 - she was alone in the apartment with him for days, poor thing, and has been living temporarily with one of his relatives). "Princess" should be coming to stay with us for a week or two as soon as transport can be arranged (she's over 5 hours away and I can't make that long a drive). I'll be sure to let you know how that goes..
In the meantime, we garden, prep for Brian's upcoming shows in Cape Cod and Rochester NY, garden, check in with friends, garden, get ready for Josh Kovac's wedding at month's end, garden, get ready for Lisa and Josh's wedding in August, garden,and garden. Oh, and the old conference center near us has been sold to a Vietnamese group of monks, they are having an open house on Sunday. I am so pleased that meditators have moved in, as the area (including me) could certainly use some spiritual uplift! And that will be another post, too...
