Idle Speed

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.

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? 

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.  

La Park rose - new bud