I had my kayak out today, for the first time in 2019,
sadly. The spring has been very wet and
unpredictable. What with me working full
time until the end of May, the weather, and my procrastination about getting a
new battery for my minivan (only vehicle for hauling my beloved kayak), today
was really the first opportunity.
Put-in time was around 9 AM.
We had a splendid morning – cool, slightly breezy, and mostly
sunny. With all the rain we’ve had lately,
the trees and bushes are lush and all the leaves are shiny. One could not ask for a more perfect morning
for doing anything outside. I paddled
all the way to the back of the lake, to the backwaters of the dam. It was there that I found the peace and quiet
I was hoping for. Nine o’clock is too
late because there were already many people fishing, kayakers, and canoers all
over the lake (on a Wednesday morning – don’t these people work)?? To make matters even worse, three pontoon boats
loaded with little boys sped past me – definitely NOT idle speed as directed by
signs posted around the lake. They were
whooping and shouting at each other across the water *sigh*, but I will not be
one to put a damper on their fun. Most
likely they were a Cub Scout troop, but perhaps they were a Boys Club or a similar
organization that takes under-privileged children out for a good time (so as to
take their weary little minds off their unfortunate situations). We have way too many children like that in
this part of Kentucky, but our economy is improving over the past two to three years...and
if we can just get a handle on the heroin crisis that would help. I’ve
digressed.
The kayak adventure was marvelous. In my quiet place at the far back of the
lake, the only sounds were wind in the trees and water running over the
spillway. At some point, a hawk was
shrieking from somewhere high in the sky, but I couldn’t spot it. It must have been over the hill tops somewhere. The horizon is very limited when you are
surrounded by hills.
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| Greenbo Lake |
Someone and I played golf yesterday afternoon – my first
round of golf in 2019 and only Someone’s second. Someone has a job where he can take afternoons
off when he wants to (most of the time).
Usually by now, I’ve at least gone to the driving range a few times and
played a few rounds of golf. Not this
year. In fact, the driving range we
usually go to didn’t open this season, so now the closest one is about 25
minutes’ drive. I expected to play dreadfully,
but it really wasn’t too bad. I managed
a birdie and five pars...and the rest doesn’t matter. Someone had good holes and bad holes as
well...such is golf.
This afternoon, I will spray down with Deet, put on my straw
hat, and go work in the garden. We have
a few more plants to set out, and then it should be all done but for the routine
weeding, pest control, and harvesting.
These few extra plants were after-thoughts; Someone noticed that we had
leftover space (only because he made the corn rows shorter, I pointed out to
him). So now we have some extra pepper,
tomato, and cucumber plants. We spray Deet
on ourselves because it seems to work best to repel the nasty biting mites in
our garden. Without Deet, you can’t
stand in the garden for long without feeling them biting you. You can’t see them, but they’re there.
I cut flowers earlier this week (between cloudbursts). I love cut flowers, but I hate cutting my
flowers – it’s a conundrum. It’s
important to cut them early in the summer so that they develop multiple stems
and produce more blooms. I thinned the
lettuce, another job I hate. Who am I to
play God and decide which little plants get to live and which must die?
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| Flowers from my garden |
My new little rose bush is thriving and has sent out a new
branch and a bud. It’s exciting (as you
might imagine if you’re a plant lover).
I’ve been spraying it with Seven every time I spray the cabbage and Brussel
Sprouts growing only a few feet away from it.
Bugs are eating the hell out of them – I can only hope they don’t discover
my rose.
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| La Park rose - new bud |
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