Late August

 

Last week I spent the days in my empty classroom teaching online mostly through Zoom. A large part of each meeting was troubleshooting tech questions. I feel so lucky to have the sweet students that I do. Almost all of them show up every day and almost all of them try to do what they are assigned. I have tried to keep things very, very simple for them and have made a lot of videos about how to log in and complete assignments, etc. 

There is a feature in Zoom which allows students to annotate on the screen. A lot of teachers turn this off because kids draw penises or write bad words. I keep mine on because most of my students can't figure out how to use that feature, but the one who did wrote a lovely little message "we love you miss." 

Next Wednesday some of the students, whose parents demand it, are coming back to the building. This is scary for us teachers, but again, I am lucky because my classes are small and I don't think my students will give me troubles about keeping on their masks. I just fear for all the families in the community whose health will be threatened by students bringing home the virus.

All of this weighs heavily on my mind.

I'm going to start the sleeves on my Harebell Cardigan. It has been a relaxing sweater to knit. I just knit along and listen to Podcasts. 

The garden is showing that late summer exhaustion with tomato plants going yellow and hydrangea blossoms fading. Most cone flowers have lost their leaves, and the day lily stems are dry and hollow and fall to the ground. Butterflies though are out full force, as are the hummingbirds. The gold finches come pluck seeds from expired echinacea. I bought some of these, which aren't expired! And planted them where a mediocre tomato was this year and last. Now that I know the yard a little better--having followed the four seasons here twice around--I know where the tomatoes are happiest. And hopefully these lovelies will be happy in this spot.