Summer Rhythm

The rhythm of summer means . . .

. . . having time to learn new things, like knitting cables.  The cable business isn't hard, but this is only the second hat I've knit in the round and for some reason I've caught myself twice going around inside out which is mind bending--though I think I've got it solved now.  (The pattern here Northward from tincanknits free patterns.)

 . . . having time to read.  I haven't read a book by Louise Erdrich in years.  I'm loving this one! 

. . . having time to look after plants in a garden.  

There are eggplants already and flowers promising more. 

                           I love eggplant!!  I didn't even know what eggplants were when I was a kid, and I                                don't remember when I first tried one, but now it is at the top of my vegetable list.

                           We've had trouble with rats robbing our vegetables in the past (I know, rats ew! 

                           But this is an urban place after all), and I saw a few out the window one morning, 

                           so a friend left this cat thing over at our house about a year ago, and I'm trying it 

                           out as a decoy.  ?

                               Some of these petunia's survived the winter (the magenta ones I think).  

 . . . and having time to get started on some big clean up projects.  This one is an attack on the bamboo.  Right now it is a total disaster.  Chopped down bamboo is lying all over the place.  I need to get all the cut off pieces trimmed and stacked--like made into a lean-to or something rather than jumbled up looking like brush fire and home for rats!!

I Need Some Goats

Rain, rain, rain.
As a result everything is green and growing.  My backyard jungle is coming in full force.  So much bamboo.  Too much ivy.  Somewhere there is a service that brings goats to you.  The goats eat up the ivy.  I am going to look into this.  I wonder if they would eat the bamboo.  Honestly, I wouldn't mind.
Goats! Yes, I am definitely going to investigate.

I also wonder if anyone would be willing to come and dismantle this climbing structure and take it away.  I hate that bamboo grows up through it.  I try to destroy all new shoots I see at this time of year.

The beans and peas are growing, crowding each other, but there hasn't been time to thin them or plant anything else.

Unexpected flowers have appeared.

The days rush by.

A Rainforest Place

Rain! Rain! Rain!  So much rain these little villages are sprouting up everywhere.

They remind me of beach huts--miniature palapas for gnome creatures.

Maybe it's raining so much, the little people need umbrellas.

There is also something sort of pancake like about mushrooms and lichens.

I wonder.  Each day I can stand at my window and watch squirrels nibble what they must consider the best parts and discard the rest.  Are they pancake like to squirrels?
Meanwhile, the rain goes on.
Rain, then sun, and hot steams rise up off the pavement.  Then a cloud, or not, and rain again. "The devil is beating his wife," they say when it rains while the sun shines.  Or, "The god's are crying."
My backyard has become a rainforest place with towering bamboo and incessant hungry mosquitos.