7/13/06 I suspect that gardens are contagious.
For years I'd go out of my way when walking or biking to pass flowery yards. But gradually more and more flowers appeared. Now I don't have to detour to have a garden tour.
Judy L and I took a walk yesterday. The morning was somewhat foggy, and from Atwater Bluff we could barely even see the lake. We walked down the curving path anyway. The mists disappeared to expose the sea of sumac, osier, holly hocks, blue bells, native grasses, thistle. I know everyone hates thistle, but purple thistle on the bluff, illuminated in the early morning sun, makes me forgive its prickliness. At the bottom, great blue herons swooped towards the shore on the beach to the south, ducks floated along the shoreline to the north, but we couldn't go in either direction. The newest additions to Atwater Beach are fences, no more walks south along the water's edge to the Nature Preserve, no more northerly walks till shore and water meet to block intruders. So we wound back up the path, once again enjoying the thistle.
Near the top of the bluff I once met a Russian immigrant gathering wild berries that I'd assumed were poisonous. He said they helped with his arthritis. As we passed the berries, still tiny in July, both Judy and I wished I'd probed a little deeper.
We continued our walk in the garden mode, along Lake Drive, then Summit, down Menlo past the burst of native plantings just east of Downer. I tend to like delicate flowers, seeds scattered with no particular organization, like a grab bag; Judy likes plant stands, much more orderly, yet our aesthetics overlapped as we analyzed each garden.
7/16/06 I suspect that I am contagious!
I visited our son Eli and his family yesterday but didn't want to go near my grandkids because I felt sick. I wasn't sick enough to go to the Emergency Room, and doctors don't hang out in their offices on weekends. I figured that, like Adolph last week and Gino C the week before, I had bronchitis and needed antibiotics, and I'd have to wait until Monday. My daughter-in-law Pauline said Columbia-St. Mary's has some new Urgent Care facilities, one right near the Outpost! So I went, and I do have bronchitis, have lost my voice, which has its good points, my only conversations are in mime, and I'm on antibiotics. The doctor said I could have ended up with pneumonia had I waited until Monday.
7/19/06 Yesterday evening I wasn't up to anything beyond a walk around the block. I thought. Once I was out of the house and saw the pastel sky, I decided to go in the direction of the lake, and at each corner, I chose to go one block further. Till there I was, at Atwater Bluff. I verged towards the overlook, then asked myself, why stand and gaze? I can look while I'm walking down. I glanced at the lake's striation and started along the path, the white holly hocks again, the beginnings of those berries... and suddenly I saw why I'd walked down. To the north, perhaps not visible from the top of the bluff, a scarlet cloud turned the water scarlet.
Even color is contagious.
