August Abundantly

"Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee. " Michael Montaigne

August came with a blast of heat, humidity and ABUNDANCE.

We've had corn on the cob

Tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant. All the bounty of sun, rain and HEAT.

The faucet of rain sitting over us all summer turned off this week requiring a good hour to water all of the planters. Which of course caused it to rain buckets yesterday.  The sky grew dark and ominous and then sheets of water came down.

Can you see how hard it's raining?  As quickly as the storm came it was gone. The skies cleared. I met Linda and her grand daughters for a swim,  before it grew dark again and boom, another torrential downpour.

Summer, she's fickle in her moods, warm and sunny one moment, stormy the next, suffocating with heat and humidity in her too tight embrace.

"The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness" Montaigne"

By that measure, Summer is one fine soul, even if I find her a little hard to take.

This week we are planning trips for late summer, fall and our winter escape. Such fun and exciting prospects await us.  It's especially fun for me since Prince Charming does all of the planning and makes all of the arrangements.  All I do is sit back and enjoy the expectation!

Yesterday's two sudden and powerful thunderstorms reminded me however, of the paradoxes of life.  It's wonderful to anticipate future delights.  Anticipation enhances our appreciation of future events.  But it's also important to appreciate the NOW, this moment.

P.C. and I sat on the porch last night for an extra dose of the eeriness of a big storm's sky as it clears, gray, then green, orange and finally pink as the sky cleared just as the sun set. The fountain tinkling away, crickets and tree frogs singing. We took time to savor this August moment and to look ahead. We were doing a fine job of balancing the NOW with the FUTURE all wrapped in this moment.

This morning dawned bright and clear and thankfully COOLER! I hot footed it over to Annie's garden across the street.

 Annie is one of the best gardeners I know.  Her garden inspires me every week.  She's generous in letting me nose around her garden any time  I want and she's shared so many plants and good gardening advice (life advice too) over the years.  Let's go take a look:

I love this sweet little spot in Annie's garden.  This bed of cone flowers, joe pye weed and grayfeather (the yellow flowers in the foreground) sit under a weeping willow tree.  Is there a more romantic tree in the world than a weeping willow?

In addition to her big beautiful perennial beds, Annie does amazing things with pots of annuals.  Pots, in my opinion, are a labor of love.  While I can let ignore my perennial beds, letting weeds invade and letting them dry out; pots take tons of attention.  You've got to water them almost daily, feed them, dead-head the spent flowers.  It takes love, dedication and perseverance.   You can tell a lot about what kind of person a gardener is when no one is looking.  Annie's garden speaks to an abundance of care, compassion, love and dedication.  Don't you agree?

Annie wins the gold ribbon for the trifecta of gardening.  She's got a beautiful and weed-free vegetable garden.

curly kale 

 You can't believe how hard it is to live across the street from such an amazing gardener.  I could be just the tiniest bit bitter about her above average abilities except that I'm maintaining my zen-likeness and breathing through any envy I might be feeling.  Just the tiniest bit of comparing going on, nothing worth mentioning.

LOOK at these tomatoes!  Gorgeous no?

Pretty soon this guy will be ripe for the picking.  And then Annie will flag me down and invite me to share her produce.  All my green envy disappears as the juice of  an August tomato grown by a woman I love and admire drips down my chin.

If there's a taste of abundance, I think it tastes like an August tomato.

Have a lovely, August abundance of a weekend Wonder Ones.