So, how has your summer been going so far? I hope everyone is staying safe and doing as well as possible during these scary (and not in a good way!) times. It's been awhile since Burt and Ivy made an appearance here but they will be around more often now that Halloween is only 92 days away!
Currently, the lilies are in bloom, everything has been a little later than usual. The Phlox are also flowering but they don't count because they just seed themselves everywhere!!!
Our weather has been particularly crazy this year. Bouts of heavy rain and sweltering heat have produced a sea of mud and mosquitoes in my backyard. So naturally, everything has been growing like crazy, especially the plants that I don't want getting any bigger! Somewhere at the end of this overgrown path, where the weeds are so high they partially hide the garden hose, is our house.
Apart from the lilies, the garden is not looking its best these days, basically it's a jungle out there. Mother Nature, without any intervention, can really get out of hand! Luckily, I had decided not to make any significant changes to it this year because of a couple (now postponed) vacations we had planned. However, just when the weather was finally getting nice there were suddenly all these people at our next door neighbors. I was hearing a lot of really loud, sexist, racist and extremely right-winged talk coming from these people and they were not shy about staring at HM and I as if we were animals in the zoo. Since our neighbors driveway is only about twenty feet from our house and the shrub that usually gave us some privacy had died over the winter, I decided to make myself scarce whenever there were too many of them around.
It was during the end of May, when I first noticed a lot of people visiting next door. The retired couple who lived there weren't exactly friendly and had managed to threaten or alienate most of the residents on our block at one time or another, so we could only speculate about the situation. The couple in question mostly kept to themselves and always lived somewhere else during the summer. Rumor was that they spent those days antagonizing the residents of some lakeside community "up north". At least that left the rest us in peace, until this spring. One of our nice neighbors asked me if I liked living next to "that continuous frat party"! I had to laugh at his apt description; a lot of people constantly coming and going, no one wearing a mask and no social distancing. Sounds like a bunch of college kids, right? Except this lot was mostly senior citizens. (No offense to college students, I was one myself back in the previous century and that's how I acted.)
With all the huge issues going on in the country, the total lack of national leadership during the pandemic, the tragic death of George Floyd and the subsequent demonstrations that followed, it was easy to ignore the neighbors. Around the Fourth of July things did quiet down and it seemed like they might have left for the summer. Then early one morning, HM saw a gurney being loaded into a large black vehicle in their driveway. Four days later, with the help of the internet, we finally found an obituary. I do feel very sorry for his family but I rarely spoke to him or his wife except to be cordial. Shortly after we moved here, two men from the animal shelter came to my door to inform me that he had threatened to shoot our cat if he walked through his yard again. Other people on our block have had similar experiences. So, how to respond to our neighbors death has been complicated. Even making a donation in his memory is difficult because the organizations I support, like Black Lives Matter and Planned Parenthood might help me feel better about this sad situation but are definitely not organizations he would have wanted any association with. This clash of ideals is bewildering and I also feel like I should have confronted his bully friends instead of hiding from them. Fortunately, there are lots of medical research facilities that need donations and that should bring some closure between HM and I and his family. I'll continue to make donations to all the organization I care about and I think the next one will be to the animal shelter in memory of my cat McKinley. Not only did he avoid being shot by Mr. R but he kept being an irritation to him for eighteen years.
So now we are finally getting back into the swing of things, safely at home of course. Even if there's only a month of summer left it's never too late to party and there's no place we have to be! What's better during these strange times than some silliness?
The basement plants have even made it outside.
The party lights are going up!
Its Hedge Week, featuring His Madness versus the Angry Privet.
Looks like the privet is going down!
HM was victorious once again but suffered some scrapes and bruises in the process. He does take his hedge craft very seriously. In reality, his wounds aren't as bad as they look (he says so himself) however, that is a pretty silly farmer tan on his feet.
Finally, the first Halloween catalog has arrived! The hunt begins, if I can get it away from Ivy!
Have a safe weekend everyone and thanks for stopping by!
