It's been a mostly rainy, humid day as our wonderful neighbors at Blue Cliff Monastery finish packing up and straightening out from the six day retreat just completed, led by Master on his North American tour. It was incredible how so many people, cars, tents, and accoutrements could come in for almost a week with virtually no impact on the quiet, or anything else. Missing all this time was Three Leg, the doe I first spotted months ago with her fawns and husband/friend/visiting buck. But today, with most of the equipment and people gone, she was out by herself at one of her usual haunts, the forest abutting the monastery's compost pile. Too bad I didn't have my camera, it's so surprising to see Three with a front leg missing from the shoulder down, hopping carefully and otherwise looking perfectly healthy. And while I'm not sure of the status of the very handsome buck that accompanies her and the fawns sometimes, he certainly is a good looking guy - also completely unafraid of humans. Must be that they think we are all as gentle and understanding and respectful as the brothers and sisters.
We had a really nice visit from the Dotson clan this weekend, took them over to the play area at Blue Cliff where Hyla and Ayro tried everything that was there, and made us all smile with their antics. Pretty soon Baby Calder will join them, I'm sure - just as soon as that walking thing kicks in. Right now she mostly scoots around in froggie mode - very quickly!
Then Hyla and Ayro spent some quality computer time with me looking at - what else - dancing dog videos. I think I find this a bit more riveting than they do, but they indulged me. And surprisingly, when Hyla asked me to search for both "dancing sharks" and "dancing bricks", of course we found stuff. The internet is infinite...
Before dinner (which Hyla helped Brian make) we got a few things from the garden. As for the garden, there is not much to report thus far. Things are very late this year, on September 1 I picked my first and possibly only big sweet chili. We've gotten a few of the cherry tomatoes the girls picked, a handful of cucumbers, some peas and quite a few beans, plus a decent batch of basil leaves. But the full sized tomatoes are still a work in progress. I think the very hot July and cooler August confused them (it certainly did me).
On the other hand, the sunflowers and pumpkins are growing apace. For some reason, my photos of the attack of the giant pumpkin vines on the back porch door, where tendrils had wound themselves around the door handle and were about to pull it over, completely disappeared from both camera and computer. I guess they were camera shy, as I've shot them several different times and never seem to be able to retrieve the shots. Never having grown pumpkins before, I made the tactical error of threading the vines through the fence mesh - and have learned that lesson. I've put a sling under one of the errant pumpkins, but am not sure it will work. At least the first, biggest one had the sense to touch the ground early on.
And here's a selection of sunflowers for your viewing pleasure...
So that's the wrap up this Labor Day night. And as Rosh HaShonah and Yom Kippur rapidly approach for some of us, here's one of Brian's latest paintings that is right on subject.
