Contour sheets are mischievous.  In the dyer, they store socks, face cloths, and other small laundry items in their elastic corners, like "Chippy" scurrying around under the bird feeder pocketing seeds in his expansive cheeks.  It's only after you've tightly fitted the fourth corner onto the mattress, run your hands across the fitted sheet to smooth it out, that lumps appear revealing the stored socks.  Contour sheets are not fun to fold if you have OCD.  I don't have OCD but we also don't fold contours either.  On strip-the-bed wash-day, the sheets go into the washer, straight to the dryer and quickly back onto the mattress eliminating wrinkles and contour folding.

In 1959 Bertha Berman patented a design for fitted sheets.  Why she didn't call them "Bertha sheets" or the "Berman Bottoms" is beyond me.  She could have been a household name.  Folding contours brings to mind an image of my father trying to help my mother by removing the dry sheets from the clothesline and folding a contour before she arrived home from work at the A & P store.  There weren't many incidences that my brother and sister and I could remember my father grinning, let alone a full smile.  Anyway, my sister and I tried to help him by tucking the two opposite corners into the corners he was holding, folding the winged outer edges over, and attempting to smooth the sheet into a fold.  We knew it wasn't going to lay as flat or smooth as he hoped when a grin appeared on his face and he comically rolled the sheet over his forearms into a tube. 

Garden Update...........................



I surrendered to Mother Nature!
The vole invasion may be under control, but there are no vegetables left to harvest.  Could be why the voles are gone.  Between CO forced into the tunnels and bits of Juicy Fruit gum placed in tunnels and holes, we hope we've gained on the problem.

Tropical storm Alberto brought days and days of torrential downpours and thick cloud cover.

Weeds flourished, over-taking the garden, running wildly, knowing I couldn't pull them during the rains.

                     Rhubarb and Swiss chard after a pelting hail storm.
The woods are a tropical rain forest.  Trees, shrubs, and bushes are thick and lush, while gardens are suffering.   Rivers banks spilled over into cow pastures and many areas have flash flooding. Potted plants look sad due to lack of sun and soggy soil, but there is also beauty and newness to be found.  The garden soil has never looked so healthy as it does this spring.  Voles have aerated and loosened the clay and hundreds of industrious worms are busy constructing and recycling their organic waste.  Late summer may be an opportune time to plant for fall vegetables.  Will have to keep the Juicy Fruit gum and CO converter available for the first sign of new holes.

Delicate lacy edged mushrooms pop up through decayed leaves.

We potted a few tomatoes in oak barrels where voles can't chew the roots.  Now we just need sunshine to develop flowers.

Our Saturday farmers market runs in rain and sunshine.  On the rainy Saturdays, produce farmers have to sell their vegetables that were harvested the previous day or the vegetables will rot so tents are set up for drive-up orders.  This year's vole invasion allows me to support my local farmer weekly with fresh green purchases.