The Dog Days

Most bloggers seem to take a hiatus around this time of the year. Too hot for much of anything, most people are sprawled out on their sofas watching TV and letting the air conditioning soak into their bones. At least, that's how it is in the South. I'm honestly amazed that anything can survive the heat of summer, and yet my yard is till green, the trees are still clinging to their leaves, and my new baby vegetables are establishing the root system that will support them until the first freeze.

The term "Dog Days" dates back to pre-Roman times and is generally thought to be between the months of July and August. It refers to the time Sirius, the Dog Star, was in closest proximity to the sun, causing the Ancient Romans to believe that the heat they felt was the will of Sirius. This is the period in which there is the least amount of rainfall. The days become a maze of sultry slow breezes and piercing hot sun. Not a cloud in the sky. The essence of Spring has officially left, and the hot hand of Sirius has placed itself upon the land.

Recently, my new tomato plants were under attack. Every night, an unknown assailant slipped into the vegetable bed and disposed of a handful of baby tomato leaves. It was quite shocking really to see this perfectly healthy tomato plant practically bald. I couldn't figure it out. The leaves weren't falling off because there were no leaves on the ground below the plant. The birds don't come near the beds as my resident stray keeps them in check. It was a conundrum that had to be solved. After some time on the Internet, I thought I might have found the silent thief; the tomato hornworm (aka the five spotted hawkmoth).

While the website I surfed maintained that this creature could hide in plain sight as its green color matches the tomato plant itself, my plant was only a few inches tall, and there was not a worm in sight. So, how do you prove a hornworm is eating your plant when it is nowhere in sight? How do you prove it is windy outside? You look for the rustling of leaves. The hornworms droppings are oddly shaped hexagonal looking sections that are found below any plant they have been feasting upon. I went out to my tomato beds for another look, and sure enough, there was the proof. I sprayed some insecticide around all my plants, but I cannot say if I killed it or not. I have never seen the hornworm so either one of three things happened: one, he was eaten by a bird, two, he was killed by the insecticide, or three, he turned into a moth and floated on his merry way. Either way, my plant is sprouting new leaves now, and I think it is going to pull through.

In my last post, I talked about my recent experience with my youngest nephew. I thought I might go back to that thought for one moment and talk about the effects of adrenaline on the body. The day after the whole emergency room fiasco, I was pretty well wiped out. Still, I had to get my weekend chores completed. I had lost an entire day helping with my nephew and grandfather, and I still needed to get to the grocery store, clean the house, etc etc. However, while out on my first errand at Target, I started feeling bad. Really bad. I came home with a bad headache and a seriously hurting back. Alieve couldn't touch this stiff pain. After a while I started wondering how I got to feeling so bad. The only thing I could think of was the excitement of the previous day. That's when I started to research the effect of adrenaline on the body.

Adrenaline is an interesting hormone. We have all heard of those stories where a mother miraculously lifts a car of her child, but what is it about adrenaline that allows us to do this? The long and the short of it is this: adrenaline causes the body to preform at it's highest possible capacity. Okay, so you already knew that? Well, how about this: adrenaline changes the beating of your heart and constricts or dilates blood vessels, diverting oxygen-rich blood to where it is most needed in the body. The body stops any process of digestion, and your visions is ultra-tuned (tunnel vision, or panoramic vision). And, while you may be faster than a speeding bullet, trying to do anything involving fine motor skills, like twirling a basket ball. The hands often start shaking during an adrenaline rush, but it's not fear, it's the body constricting blood flow to the areas deemed nonessential. Post adrenaline rush is not much better. You see, adrenaline is not excreted from the body after it has been released; it's reabsorbed. However, the process of reabsorption can take up to two days, leaving you with pounding headaches, places where you feel like you have been hit (a result from the adrenaline tensing various muscle groups), nausea, exhaustion, and disrupted sleep. It's amazing what are bodies are capable of, even when they are in less than ideal condition.

If you're wondering about my cross stitching updates, you will be happy to know I am still working on my floral project. However, I have made so few stitches in the past few weeks, I decided not to take another photo of my "progress". Wishing you a smooth, time-flying week!

A Universal Truth

I haven't blogged much lately. It's the dog days of summer, and I'll admit, most nights are spent lounging on the sofa under the sweet sweet hum of my air conditioner. Memorable moments are not created on the sofa, and even a pensive blog post feels like a struggle when the heat overcomes you. Heck, I'm lucky anything is coming out the kitchen these days. Some nights, I seriously consider cold Pop-Tarts for dinner. What with all the hum drum dullness that has been lurking about Pershing Cottage, well, let's just say I should have known something big was around the corner. 


Helen Fielding wrote, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.” I'll save you the time you might spend pondering this quote, and tell you that it is indeed true. While perhaps my life didn't fall to pieces, I was having a blissfully dull summer until I got a Saturday morning call telling me that my grandfather was in emergency surgery. Let me explain.


Last Saturday began with a wake-up call from my father who happened to be out of town on vacation. He was brisk over the phone and within a few sentences had hung up, promising to call me back soon. Seeing as it was already past eight, I got up and started my morning ritual. Feed the cats, make tea, watch news, sip tea, breakfast. I had just sat down with breakfast when the phone rang again. This time it was my mother. After a short exchange, I learned that my grandfather was in emergency surgery, and had been hospitalized the previous night after a few weeks of serious lower back pain. In record time I was out of the house, leaving behind everything that needed to be done. At that time, we knew very little, but wanted to get to the hospital to stay with my grandmother. 


Once there we learned that a stint near my grandfathers heart was malfunctioning. I wont bore you with the details, but it was severe enough that the doctors warned us he may loose both of his legs, or his life. We waited for several hours as the surgeons slowly made their way through his body. In the end, there was good news. He wouldn't loose his legs after all, and the complications from the stint had been corrected. 


However, that was not the end of my day… not by a long shot. Almost as soon as we were told my grandfather was in the clear, my sister called in a panic. She was on her way to the children's hospital (just across the street from where we were), with her two children in tow. Having just fed her youngest cashew butter (like peanut butter, but made with cashews), she noticed he was starting to have breathing problems. She was obviously scared out of her mind. By the time she reached the hospital, she thought the worst was over and almost decided to turn around and go home. After some coaxing from mom, she decided to pull into the hospital. Mom told me to jump out of the car to help my sister with getting her children inside, but when I got out, she was even more hysterical. He had started vomiting in his car seat. I cannot really tell you what she was doing at this time. All I know is I was looking at this crying, sick baby, and I had a choice. I hesitated, but in the end I dove in there. I never thought I would ever stick my hands in someone's vomit, but her I was, covered from shoulder to knee. Because the car seat reclines, I was worried he would start chocking, and with my sister neither in sight nor in action, it was up to me. 


Once I had him, I wasn't quite sure what to do. It was the fear, I guess. It wasn't until Mom shouted, "Take that baby inside!", that I started running for the emergency doors. It was… surreal. I didn't even wait for my sister to follow me in. All I knew was that this baby needed help, and while I couldn't fix him, the people inside could. Once in the doors, we were seen almost immediately, and taking back to an emergency wing. After he was safely in the doctor's hands, I handed the reigns over to Mom. She sat with my sister, while I took my oldest nephew back to Mom's house. Unfortunately, the only car with car seats was… the vomit car. We drove back home with the windows down, but I can't really say it helped much. Once my older nephew was safely with my maternal grandmother (not the one who's husband was in surgery that morning) at my mother's house, I started working on cleaning my sisters car. In 107° heat I cleaned vomit out of a my sister's car. I then left and headed back to the hospital, stopping at Target on the way to purchase another car seat. Sweaty and covered with vomit, I stood in line to make my purchase. No one actually said anything, but I cannot think they didn't notice. 


Once back at the hospital, my mother and I began the long process of trying to install a car seat. You know how some people say, "Give teens a baby to care for, and it will be the best form of abstinence you can teach"? Well, I disagree. Just give them a m@th*rf&ck!ng car seat and tell them to install it in the middle of a Texas summer. I swear, trying to put that thing in the car added at least five more years to my "no children, please" thoughts! 


After several hours at the hospital, my little nephew was released with a prescription for an EpiPen and taken back home. We still don't know exactly what caused the reaction, however, and are waiting on the results from an allergist. 


I had more that I wanted to talk about in regards to adrenaline and it's effects, but I feel this post has already become too long for interest. That post will have to wait until next time. For now, I wish you an incredibly dull, lazy summer.

Lessons Learned

This week started well and ended well, but I'll admit, it was quite a muddled mess in the middle. I learned one very important life lesson, and become more well versed in garden know-how. I've often heard the phrase, 'You learn something new everyday', but, as we get older and settle into a path of habit, discovery happens less and less often. In fact, I find that discoveries, big or small, can happen so infrequently that the slightest tidbit can seem like a revelation. Such was the case this week.

I'll start with my garden. Yesterday, Dad and I jetted off to Lowe's bright and early to buy mulch for my front beds. While my foliage was braving the heat well enough (plants that are drought resistant and heat tolerant) Dad was shocked to find my beds seemingly bone dry with little to no mulch. Now, I am well versed enough to know that mulch needs to be applied to every bed every year, but I was shocked to find that there was no enough mulch in my beds because they had just been dug, planted, and mulched this past April by a local contractor. Apparently, as so often happens, I had paid a large sum for careless work. So, Dad and I set out to do the job right. It took us three trips to the store and 30 bags of 50 pound mulch to properly cover the front beds. About half way through this ordeal I was cursing myself for having such large beds dug in the first place. What was I thinking?! However, I'm so glad we took the time to do it right. The beds look fabulous. 

This rather fascinating insect was watching me pull up my okra plants. He was none too thrilled, I assure you.

Today I started working on my vegetable beds first thing. It's so amazing humid here at the moment, that morning is about the only time you can stand to be outside. In Texas, we are both blessed and cursed with heat. The blessing comes when we can have two summer planting seasons, the curse is having to live and work in that heat as well. Right now it is time to pull up your current vegetable plants  and replace them with transplants for the fall harvest. While pulling and picking the last of my vegetables I became aware of a few things:

1. If powdery mildew hits your tomatoes, do not go out and buy some expensive "all organic" fungicide. Why? Because the fungicide you can buy in stores is just a preventative for conditions like powdery mildew. Get yourself some Lime-Sulfur spray or pull up the plants. Even though the plant will still bear fruit, I think it damages the quality of the fruit. You are better off pulling all the tomatoes you can to ripen them in a sunny window, or frying them.

2. Do not plant okra unless you have lots of space. While okra plants do produce a steady amount of vegetables, it took so long for me to get enough okra to be able to cut up and fry that what I had already picked and stored had gone bad. You will need a lot of these plants to produce enough vegetables for family consumption.

3. If you do plant okra, do not let the stem get as big as a broom handle. It was damned near impossible to pull those things out of the ground.

4. Watch out for stray cats in your garden. They are likely using some space as a litter box. Very smelly and not fun to clean…

5. If a tomato has torn skin, it needs to be eaten immediately, otherwise throw it away. What may look like a tiny black spot on the outside of the tomato is often a large ball of mold inside it. Better safe than sorry. 

The last of my red tomatoes for a while. They are in the oven as we speak, roasting away. They will be packed in olive oil afterward and stored in the fridge. 

Green tomatoes off to Mom's house for frying.

For my fall garden I will plant Opalka tomatoes, Zucchini (spineless), and Amish pie pumpkins. I've ordered all but the pumpkins, which I will grow from seed, online. I'm mostly excited, and very curious, about the pumpkins. This is the one thing I have never tried to grow before, and I am so excited. I don't know how many pumpkins I will get, but I'd be happy with just enough to bake a pie. Another fun thing is that both the tomatoes and pumpkins are heirloom varieties, meaning I can save the seeds and plant them again next year. Also, some people say that the non-hybrid vegetables taste a lot better than those that are. I'm anxious to test this theory.

Eye Spy

I spy with my little eye something that has eyes!

 This little guy was having a basil salad when I went to grab a handful of basil. 

 And…My resident Anarchist.

Yes, he looks devastated by his actions...

As to my life lesson, all I can say is that I am deeply embarrassed. I let the actions of others toward myself reflect in my own decisions. I am a better person than my actions showed this week, and I will always endeavor to remember that. I am profoundly sorry and humbled. I will do better.

Independence Day

When I was younger, my favorite holiday was by far Christmas. All those presents were truly a thing of joy that caused painfully pleasant anticipation. These days however, Christmas is on the back burner for me. I love the winter weather, but I guess it's hard to get excited or anxious when you are single. Christmas, and wintertime in general, is a time of thanksgiving and solemn inner contemplation. It is the calm before the rebirth of Spring. But, I digress.

Now I would say one of my favorite holidays is the 4th of July. I love the decoration mostly. Up my walkway I have mini American flags sticking up out of the ground. I place them in my yard for Memorial Day and take them back in after the 4th. Somehow, the yard just seems empty without them. As a kid I remember going to watch the fireworks downtown, but after we got older our 4th of Julys were spent poolside at the C's. If you're not from Texas, you may be tempted to think that everyone who lives in a very hot climate has a pool. However, I can assure you this is not the case. I know no one on my street who has a pool. If you do have a pool, you become an extremely popular person during the summer months, confirmed by the lack of residents at home on my street today as I fled to my own friend's pool. Once poolside, we all lounge about in the water, the babies splash around in their excitement, and the sun shines down on you relentlessly from a perfectly clear blue sky. Barbecue is normally the lunch of choice, and Mom always brings some wonderful homemade desserts (this year it was whoopie pies).

If you asked me why I like the 4th of July so much, I'd probably tell you it's because I am passionately American. I haven't been so all my life. Before I moved to Italy, I didn't think much more about being American than I did about being Methodist. I was born into it, and that's what I was. But, after moving to Italy and truly living a life in another country, I understood how lucky I had been all along. When I crossed the border to return home I remember the agent telling me, "Welcome back to the United States" in a polite, but automatic way. I almost cried right then and there. You can never truly understand the idea of 'home' until you leave it in a permanent way. Some people are traveling souls, at home wherever a roof is over their head. I am not that person. I love my country. I love my state. I love my hometown. I am proud to be an American; proud to support this country, every minute of every day. So, Happy Independence Day. It's a great day to be an American.

 Poolside

 Old friendships are the best friendships.

Havana Man is not impressed. 

The most fabulous plant, called a "Desert Rose", in the C's backyard.

The C's backyard.

A "Shrimp Plant" also in the C's backyard.

Havana Man and his sidekick.

Grammy, Grumpy, and the gang.