Summer Continues

Day Six: Sunday, 12 May, 2013

After Mass, we drove up to my grandparents’ place and picked them up and drove into Boston.  We tried to get to the Arnold Arboretum but it was Mother’s Day weekend and Lilac Sunday so the place was super crowded.  Plus there were parades and traffic….  We quit and went to an Irish pub for lunch.  It was pretty good – and the weather was nice.  And overall it was a good day.

We went back to my grandparents’ place and kinda… napped.  Then I mentioned I wanted a Frisbee and my Papa went and got me one out of his garage.  So I went out into their front yard with my siblings and we tossed it around for a while.  My baby sister (who is actually 12 now) was really good, but I had to relearn everything.  Took me just a couple minutes really.  Now I’ve got the hang of it again and I just have to perfect my technique.

Day Seven: Monday, 13 May, 2013

I went to the barn with my sister and we started work.  The owner walked with us through the first two hours and then left us to fill hay bags.  At the end of three hours, she paid us and we went home to warm showers – because, of course, the cold front came through just in time for us to start our job.  The rest of the day was rather slow since I was a little tired and cold.

I had to bring the tomato plant in because it was so cold, and that night, my dad helped me put tarps down over my vegetables to keep them safe from frost.

Day Eight: Tuesday, 14 May, 2013

I got up and went to work like the day before.  We were a few minutes late but that didn’t matter.  We fetched the Ranger and trailer, and we went through our paces.  She joined us at the end of the first two hours and had us shovel another paddock while she raked up the leaves.  This was another cold day but the wind wasn’t as cool.  Once home, I ate and played Badminton and Frisbee a bit before I showered.

My vegetables survived the night but the tomato stayed inside for the time being, and the tarp was off for only about half an hour.  My mother and I went to the nursery but someone had left the door open to the greenhouse and they lost most of their peas and beans crop.  We bought potting soil and a trellis and some seeds.

Day Nine: Wednesday, 15 May, 2013

Worked again.

This day got quite away from me.  I worked in my vegetable garden, but I feel like not very much was completed.  I dug moats around my vegetable plants to minimize runoff when I watered.  The tarps came off and the tomato went back.

Day Ten: Thursday, 16 May, 2013

Worked.

My dad stayed home today so that he could go to my sister’s horse-back-riding lesson.  I worked in and around the vegetable garden most of the afternoon (got the trellises figured out and transplanted a wild rose that is sulking and probably will not come back to life) and then doused myself in a shower.  My mom, dad, and sister had left; my other sister and my brother had no interest in leaving the house.  I braided my wet hair (because it was already after 4 o’clock in the afternoon) and drove about 40 minutes to Target.  I bought mascara and nail polish, and also a new pair of flip-flops (my old pair was getting really flimsy).

I don’t normally bother with nail polish because I’m bad at applying it, it seems like it would take up an unnecessary load of time, and I’d hate to have to keep reapplying it.  But my best friend painted my nails for the formal and….  Well, I don’t have the prettiest fingers.  They get beat up working in the dirt and washing dishes… and so on.  Then I tend to pick at the skin or whatever and they just never really look… very nice.  But the nail polish hides that somehow (to an extent).  Now that it’s summer, I’ll be working bare-handed in the dirt all the time, and it’s nail polish season anyway.  So nail polish it is!  And it lasts a pretty good time anyway, and I’ve learned it doesn’t have to be perfect!

Day Eleven: Friday, 17 May, 2013

Worked again.  The owner must have left to go riding (without mentioning it to us) because her husband came up to pay us (in a rather flustered and confused manner) and she was nowhere to be seen when we quit for the day.  Her dogs were wandering around aimlessly so we assumed she wasn’t on the property.

I worked in the garden again.  But this time, the focus was on the flower garden.  Raking things out always takes more time than you would think.  Didn’t really get a whole lot of that done, but one side of the front flowerbeds looks quite nice and one of the side gardens is starting to come together.  I also pulled jerked the border rocks out of place, pulled the weeds growing there, prettied up the dirt piling up, and rolled the rocks back into place.  My little sister was really helpful – I learned that if you give her a specific task, she can do anything; but you can’t just yell at her to “help” or she’ll be lost to you.

Then I took a good shower and chatted with a friend on Facebook (miss you, my friend!) until some friends of ours came over.  The younger two were very happy to see me and clung to me for the most part all evening.  We had beef lasagna with homemade bread, and then chocolate cake.  Then we went outside for a campfire in the improved fire pit that my mom built where the filter for the pool used to be.  My god brother – three now – was adorable.  I wish I had a transcript of everything he said that evening.  It was getting late (after ten) and we were sitting on a blanket on the sand in front of the fire.  He was sitting in my lap, and then he ended up curled up between my legs with his head on my thigh.  And in two seconds, he was out like a light.

It was just me and him.  The nightlife was chirping half-heartedly and the stars were out.  The coals were breathing and a hot flame waved up in the center of the charred logs.  I was shivering a little but he was warm and he was breathing deeply, his long eyelashes pressed against his soft cheek.  Just the two of us, on the cold sand.

~Meggy