"You don't always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens." ~ Mandy Hale My 91-year old mother-in-law is a true staunch New Englander.............through and through. For the many years I've know her, she swore she'd never live in with her children. She believed two women under the same roof and in the same kitchen could cause a rumble. Everyone needed their space. Another statement Cliff and I had heard was that she would never ever leave Clinton. About three weeks ago Cliff's mother had her second stroke in less than a year, this one being massive leaving her right side paralyzed and a loss of speech. After administering the stroke drug, she began to recover speech and movement. With daily rehab she is almost back to her old self but can never return to her own living quarters in her elderly complex. Cliff's sister-in-law has been there for Dot for decades and has been her caretaker for many years.
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Fifty nippy degrees on the mountain this morning. Yesterday afternoon Cliff helped me removed the tomato and cucumber supports from the garden, tie them neatly, and store them for next spring. He dug the last row of potatoes which only gave us about another five pounds. I found a late yellow squash and a lonely green pepper. This is always a musing and reflective task for me as I slowly untie twine and stack bamboo poles after the harvest. Yesterday I brewed a cup of green tea and sat in my garden chair gazing over the sea of weeds that will soon turn brown and die down. It's not that I dread fall or winter, but I think I miss the excitement and energy that I get from my vegetable garden. Tiny seeds that sprout new life and watching the rate at which each plant grows, flowers, and bears its fruit....... and in another couple of weeks our hummingbirds will begin their journey south.
Went for my second acupuncture treatment this morning, last Thursday being the first one. I was expecting to have long thin bamboo skewers twirled and twisted into certain points in my body as seen in the comic strips. Cliff stayed and watched both sessions. He said the little pins are about 2.5 inches and only the tips go in. I felt them but the sensation wasn't painful or unpleasant. Also, in some treatments, a few leads are hooked up to a low-volt power supply. Last week toward the end of the session, my shoulder became very painful and my body reacted with uncontrollable shaking. The doctor said my meridians didn't like being tampered with and it sometimes happens the first time a patient experiences acupuncture. Today was a breeze. She did two different treatments, each twenty minutes long. The first was for the arthritis pain and I was hooked to the low-voltage, and the second was to release stress from my body with no leads, just seven pins. Last Sunday Cliff&
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOTHER! You taught us children to revere nature and love the crisp fall mornings, to embrace each each day and give of ourselves to others. You laughed at Marmaduke, followed Snoopy, and found life lessons in Ziggy. Our basement shelves were supplied with winter stock of your preserved peaches, grape jams, stewed tomatoes, our garden onions and potatoes. We were never without food, shelter, or abundant love. Your presence is forever felt in my kitchen as I make soup, on the back porch when snapping beans and watching birds flit to the feeder and back to the tree branches, in my sewing room as my fingers create with fabric, and this morning when I awoke to 56 cool fall degrees. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!
I didn't blog about the market last Saturday because again it was as slow as the past three have been. The humid heavy weather doesn't help either. Makes us feel groggy. I almost didn't go because my shoulder and hand hurt Friday night but after I got up and moved around Saturday morning, I figured I'd try. I enjoy chatting with the other vendors and if I had stayed home, I'd see the dust on the furniture and the film on the windows when the sun shines in. Things that I've had to let go until this RA inflammation is under control. Cliff helped me dig up about ten pounds of potatoes this week. Some of them are odd shaped and curved as they had to grow around the rocks imbedded in the clay. We're still getting a few last summer squash and one or two peppers. As soon as the weather cools down and the weeds are dead, Cliff will till the garden and it will rest until spring. Our hummingbirds are still here and should be around for about another month.