L'aura del Campo

Muddy but not in Montana

          SUMMER: 18 Nur (22 June)          

I got muddy today. Took off my shoes and socks and got down dirty planting tomatoes after the rain. They are all in! I put the last under some compost in the bin (layed horizontal, soil to the center, growing end sticking out from the wire). We'll see if that works out . There are already potatoes growing there; but, it could be too hot.

Yesterday I had two very important appointments and couldn't get to the garden. The peppers were weeping a bit. Someone had forgotten to turn off the water and the corn was flooded. And the last of the tomatoes were drying out (not watered). But I fixed all that.

Now for the beans and squash seeds. The early beans need picking, but I needed to focus on planting. The lettuce is doing well in spite of the heat. The corn is waist high and getting ready to tassle.

Weather where I am: 83º
Weather in Muscogee, Oklahoma: 72º
Weather in Accra, Ghana: 79º and happy.

IMAGES

In front of Watson

A hairy black and white spider with green jaws hunting among the lichen on the stone rails of the entry; Green and withered grass; the ginkgo tree; red roses; curled sycamore leaves, shed bark; jet trails among the wispy clouds; hot sun beating down; the missing terra cotta tiles (from the March storm); students going in and out; orange trumpet flowers hanging from the pine.

Well, I was thinking about Montana again and quickly sketched this:

About a place I've never been

A bite out of Idaho,
a shaggy bison's head.
What roams wild now?
The elk, the moose,
bikers and a hunter.
Beneath Orion's star-cold breath,
the winter's sky runs clear,
and one can see the blink
of Aldebaron's red, but not
beyond the Bitterroots,
pine clad, snow-spired.
It is here, open, wide
and nowhere that one makes peace
with one's inner self. There are so few
to war against. Huge blocks
cling like lichen to the slopes,
the soil slumbers, and we
who are them, who bleed like us,
seek shelter among the rocks. [163.204]