Bulletin Board

Today marks the close of the second week of school.  It’s Friday the 13th and a full moon, so someone in charge has a sense of humor.  By the end of next week, I’ll start to secretly wonder if I’ve contracted a serious medical condition.  Then I’ll realize it’s just my annual start-of-school exhaustion.  I’ll sleep a few extra hours and come October I’ll emerge on the other side, having built up some stamina for the school year.

Right now, my office is a wreck of lost sweatshirts and pencil cases; missing books and nameless folders.  Next week, I’ll get the mess in hand.  In the meantime, I come to school each day and admire my newly designed bulletin board.  It has pictures of things and people I love, examples of craft projects, a few inspirational words, and samples from my collection of buttons and stickers.  All year long, I collect the items that will make up the next year’s bulletin board.  I put it together just before school starts and it always makes me smile.

This year is no exception and that’s very happy.

Bookish

I start every summer with a pile of books to be read.  For the most part, I make steady progress through that pile, picking up a new read every week or so.  Books get added to the pile when the mood strikes; others are set aside for a different time.  The existence of a list of to-be-read books is a source of enduring happiness for me; a way of looking forward with ease in my heart.  I see it as a comfort; as a way of looking after myself.

Books are that way for me: comfortable friends who make life richer and happier.  Summer’s relaxed pace and long, warm days ensures that I have plenty of time to sit on the front porch and read.  Come September, mornings on the front porch are too dark to read.  If there is time when I get home, I will steal it on the porch with my current book.  But it’s not as dependable as it is in the Summer. and now it feels like a treat  In the busy days at the start of school, there’s no time to mourn the seasonal transition.  That waits for Winter, when I cozy under a blanket on the sofa and look out the front door to the porch, marveling at the hours I spent out there just a few months back and sometimes longing for the ease of days when I can step outside in flip flops without fear of frostbite.

Seasons change; my habits do not.  I read whenever I have the time.. There is less time when school is in session but I travel everywhere I can with my book. I grab the time that is available.  I maintain a list of books to be read and eagerly look forward to my next read.

That’s happy!

Jam Making

This past weekend, T and I decided to stir up some jam.  Usually, we make jam at the peak of strawberry season.  This year, that peak blew past us.  But there are still strawberries around and the prospect of cold weather without the consolation of fresh-tasting homemade summer jam was unthinkable, so we got to work.  Homemade jam is one of those projects that is always worth the effort.  We canned 7 pints this weekend and will make some more before the cool weather sets in for good.

That’s happy!

Warning!

Last week, I had cause to open a new bag of flour when I saw this warning.

What?

Seriously...what? Has it really come to this?  Since this is the case, we likely deserve our fate.

Leaves of Three I, Apparently, Did Not Let Be

My backyard is awash in volumes of poison ivy.  I know what it looks like and I take care.  Not always perfect care, because every summer I get a touch of poison ivy rash.  Usually, it itches uncomfortably but within a week, the rash has dried and I am feeling much better.  

Emphasis on usually.

Sometimes, it doesn’t get better and I need a few days of prednisone to clean things up.

And then there is my most recent exposure.  I knew my ankle had been brushed by poison ivy on Sunday, August 25th when I cut the grass and did some trimming of bushes in the yard.  I washed the spot and moved on.  Four days later, a rash emerged on my left arm.  And then all along my waistline.

A spot emerged on my face and neck.  

And then my chest.  

My ankle was a mess.

By Labor Day weekend, I was a walking itchy and scratchy advert.  And new breakouts kept appearing.  I took myself to the doctor and got some prednisone, first a shot and then six days worth of pills that would gradually taper off.  I also got a steroid cream to use.  At once, my symptoms began to ease.

But now, here at the end of the taper off, I am still getting new outbreaks.  Clearly the exposure was more than my ankle.  In fact, T saw a patch in the front yard where I had been trimming that I didn’t see at the time.  In all fairness to me, we’ve never had poison ivy in the front yard.  In all fairness to poison ivy, I have sometimes taken a cavalier attitude toward its presence.  

My last prednisone pill will be taken tomorrow.  At this rate, I’ve the notion that by Tuesday I am going to remain a very unwilling poison ivy subscriber, this time headed for round 2 of steroids.  Will I ever learn?

That’s a rhetorical question.

Close of the First Week

The first week of school is always a whirlwind of busy halls and energetic students; exciting competing with anxiety to determine who will rule the day.  At my school, the faculty are nearly as excited and that makes for happy and hopeful hallways.  A new school year always feels fresh and full of promise and in this way, I always welcome its arrival.  I am ready for something new.

Right on schedule, Mother Nature brought signs of Fall change.  On Monday, I sat on the back deck and when I looked up at the sky, I saw that old man tree has already begun to change his leaf colors.

Seasonal change is always pretty in my corner of New Jersey and this year is no exception.  Changing colors will help me to embrace the transition to school (and the need to wear shoes!).  Classes started on Tuesday; last night was Back to School Night, and today is Friday.  Sweet, blissful Friday.  That the weekend will be followed by more school is good news.  We’re back and that’s happy!

September Front Porch

September's front porch is a last cheer for summer’s beauty.  There is a sunflower flag because sunflowers always stand tall and cheerful as the summer comes to a close.

Most of the impatiens have grown weary of flowering but their leaves remain pretty and they cheer on the houseplants that set out here in the summer.  Soon, those plants will file inside to set in sunny windowsills near warm radiators.  But for now, they are in their glory, soaking up the last of the sunny, warm days, while my wooden village tucks around them.

I moved the ruffled pot of ivy to sit by the shefflura and the rocker.  This blue pot has been in my plant world since 1995, when I took it with me to Nebraska.  It’s crumbling apart and will likely return when it’s time for the plants to come inside.  It’s held many plants over the years and I’ll miss it when the cracks finally give way.

The front door impatiens continue to show off, issuing a happy greeting at the front door.  Whenever possible, I’ll find time to sit out here and enjoy the porch.  Cool mornings haven’t yet given way to cold days so there is still plenty of front porch sitting to be had.

This porch is a nice welcome home at the end of the day.  That’s happy!

Back to School 2019

For the last three nights, I’ve dreamt either that I was late to the first day of school or that I got to school only to that it was the first day but I had no plans for the classes I teach.  Last night, I had both dreams.  That can only mean one thing.

My school bag was packed up last night.  This morning, I’m wearing shoes and made an extra effort by putting on mascara and eyeliner.

That can only mean one thing: school is back in session.

I’ll welcome familiar and new middle schoolers this morning.  This year’s 7th grade will get their assigned seat and their first homework assignment.  There are familiar lessons and newly designed lessons on the horizon for them; I’m excited to think and talk about history with them. Even after all these years of teaching, the first day still feels like an exciting fresh start.  That's happy!

Here we go…….

Some Labor Day Thoughts

Ever since T named the smallest backyard bunny Herbert, I’ve been thinking about my grandfather, whose name was Herbert but who always went by the nickname “Bud.”  Bud was a lifelong democrat and Union man and today, Labor Day, it seems fitting to pause and think of him.

He was a mechanic who could fix nearly anything and helped teach me to drive a stick shift car (and parallel park virtually anything).  He liked a cold beer (or two or three) but never drank Coors, because Joseph Coors was a Union-busting, Republican-supporting millionaire and Bud was not a forgiving man on that front.  He despised Republicans, and I have an ever-lasting memory of him laughing when Nancy Reagan fell at the 1984 GOP convention.  He’d been recording the convention (!) and later on enjoyed rewinding to drop Nancy a few more times.

My Uncle David liked to harass Bud about politics and it could get heated when Dave would claim to be a Reagan-loving Republican man.  Such notions received little tolerance in Bud’s house and much like his wife would quiz newcomers to the family about their stance on the death penalty (she was opposed), he judged your intelligence and virtue based on your party registration.

These days, as Trump exploits the working man and our nations widening tolerance for racism, I think of my grandparents a great deal.  They would have been horrified by the rise of such politics and I suppose that says a lot about me and my family.  Our blood runs Democratic blue all the way and on this Labor Day I am grateful for that inheritance.  

September 1: Fairy Garden

The weeds along the line of the fairy garden fence never lost their access to abundant rain this summer and they’ve rather taken over.  There’s green everywhere in the yard; enough that it’s hard to believe Fall and September are at hand.

And yet, here we are.  There’ve been enough cool mornings to get the dogwood tree to think of the coming season.

The same is true for the peach tree.

Though the hostas don’t look bedraggled by the heat as they usually appear in August, they do look a bit tired.

Summer flew by and I can’t quite believe that Fall is at hand.  I’m never ready to say goodbye to flip flops; this year is no exception.  But tomorrow is Labor Day and Tuesday is the first day of school and just like that, I’m wearing shoes again and we’re off and running.  By this time next month, the fairies and I will be planning for their slumber season.  I’ve already stacked up some garden bulb catalogs to enjoy as a treat this back-to-school week and as September closes out, I will have ordered some bulbs for next Spring.  At least a few will be planted in this fairy patch.  Gardening always rewards advance planning and I like that.  

I especially love the seasons as they are changing and nothing is more lovely than the cooler mornings that signal Fall on the horizon.  The fairies and I are ready for the change.