Is it just me?

 Does anybody else’s brain follow the same path as mine?

I opened the curtains this morning to the sun shining from a blue sky onto green grass and colorful fallen leaves, so I mused, “huh. Beautiful.” 

I pivoted to walk to the kitchen and within three steps, I find myself singing, “it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood, won’t you be mine?”

I stopped and wondered where I’d heard that lately and then backed up my thought train to realize I was the one who cued it just by thinking, “beautiful.” 

How many times a day, I wonder, is my thought train hijacked by my own self? And this is all pre-chemo. Now I hear Argus Filch sneering gleefully in Harry Potter, “ohhhh, we aaaaaaare in trouble now, aren’t we?”

Y’all are my witnesses

Lest we get a nasty-gram from the city because our "grass" is approaching the 8" limit, this is why we aren't mowing.

It looks like the field in front of the chapel at Camp Lambec in early summer- like a mirror with grass poking out of it.

The "creek"/drainage ditch out back. Below, Amur honeysuckle have taken over what's left of our drowned pine trees. Apparently it's like candy or soda pop for birds; they love it but there's not much nutritional value to it. And it SPREADS. There's also black raspberry canes in there. Last year a smart robin built a nest in that mess and had protection AND a food source at hand. This year we have one who has built her nest on top of our deck light, so we've been scaring the bejeezus out of each other on a regular basis. She hasn't figured out that if she'd stay PUT instead of flapping away at breakneck speed when we're right beside her that everyone would be happier!

This is part of the drainage ditch we dug ourselves to get standing water from part of the swamp that borders our property to the above drainage canal. It's only a few inches deep, but I can't even tell you the satisfaction I get when I schlep out there and see water running through it and down the side of the ditch! *squelch squelch squelch*

 

*

Oops, this was supposed to go in the post farther down. Oh well, think of it as foreknowledge instead of a PS. 

Those of you who keep a weather eye on the horizon will have been aware that lots of us in Ohio and Michigan and Indiana have been spending extra time lately in our basements or bathrooms. We've had several tornado watches and a few warnings and some crazy storms after a summer of very little rain.

The grass went from sharp and stabby to lush and darn-we-gotta-mow-again (we haven't mowed since the weekend before the Christmas in July party- can't complain!) and so have the weeds! The garden isn't really complaining, either, including Damon's Revived Green Bean:

We have a tomato thicket:

And zinnias, determinedly holding on:

Lo and behold, we got a pepper:

And the eggplants are merrily producing:

And because I can't resist, here are some sky pictures after one of our storm cells:

Come on over and play in our basement with us! The kids even got to spend an entire night down there because the warning kept extending later and later in the night. Liam was kinda freaked out, Damon rolled with it the way he mostly rolls with everything, and Carrie was downright cheerful until we told her she'd be sleeping with her brothers. 

Introducing the newest member of our family

 

I love the incredible amounts of green in this first photo. If you click on it, it'll open bigger so you can get a better look at it. I think it would make a wonderfully exasperating puzzle!

 

Anyway, we bought a John Deere. We haven't named it yet, but it is a fancy big sucker that devours dandelions (or is a dandelion magnet... whatever). Dada looked completely at home and I suppose pictures with the kids posed all over it will be coming shortly.

 

 

Which way did he go?

 

There he is!

 

 

Hehe. I love that one!

 

Anyhoo, this fancy big sucker (maybe we have named it after all) is supposedly able to bucket the snow off of our nice, long driveway as well as turning our grass into smithereens. I'm sure it does other fancy stuff, too. I'm just glad the auctioning and eBaying and hunting around for sales is over and he's parked quite happily in our shed.

 

Welcome home, fancy big sucker.