Bits & Pieces

Hi, dolls!  Tom is illin’ so I’m stopping by to say hello!

Hello!

Lots and lots of nuthin’ is happening here – and it’s the most beautiful thing.  You know, it wasn’t until I was much into my majority that I truly understood that old Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times’.  In my teens and 20s I thrived on Draaaamaaaa!  The phone calls, the gossip, the tears, the sad love songs….now I am totally in Maurice Chevalier’s camp, when he sings “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore” (I would try to figure out how to insert the video but …omg.  I can barely get my new printer to work).

I thought about that song this morning, as I took a weedy little stroll through my demilune border.  A crisp little breeze was blowing and it was that marvelous grey-blue light that you only get in the early morning on a midsummer’s day, when the greens are still cool.  Later on in the day those same greens will take on a yellow hue as the sun invades that border and turns it into an oven.  But in the morning?  Bliss.

bless you Joe Pye

Right now very little is blooming, scentwise, so I was surprised to find myself sniffing the air, wondering ‘what is that honey-sweet smell’, looking for lilies (no), roses (uh, no)……me?  (nope!  nuttin’ but Dial this am)….then I remembered:  Hosta blossoms are very fragrant.  And there they were, literally right under my nose (they are kinda tall).  It’s an elusive scent, similar to lily, but much fainter – and I realized yet another thing:  I prefer elusive scents to being banged over the head with fragrance.  Viburnums, lilies, a lot of roses….all of them are better enjoyed from a bit of a distance – and not all beating up on you at the same time.  Literature seems to prefer it thus as well – consider:  every time they talk about an alluring woman’s perfume, it’s a bit elusive.  It’s the louder woman whose perfume is up close and in your face.   Humans are natural hunters and I think we enjoy more what isn’t quite so readily available.  Hunting up that hosta scent made the discovery much more delightful.   That isn’t to say that when I’m alone I won’t pile on the Carnal Flower or blast the paint off the wall with Mitsouko but out and about I’ve begun to pull it back a lot!  One spray instead of 4.  Body cream OR perfume (or maybe a teeny spritz)  I went buck-wild and bought a bunch of Orientals this year and will probably get a few more – but I will judicious with my placement in the garden. Originally I was going to plant them, en masse, in the front of the demilune but now…… I am looking forward to coming around a corner here and there and delighting in their scent.

Hey!  Do I owe any of you stuff?  I apologize but as you know June and July was the 7th Circle for me and I have completely lost track.  Dina was gracious enough to remind me I owed her stuff – and I bless her for that, else it wouldn’t ever get out of here.  If you won something from me and I haven’t sent/responded, gmail your evilauntianita and let her know what it is/from what post.  I’m mostly back amongst the living so as soon as I get your emails I can get that stuff out to you.

And since you have been so kind as to actually slog through this mess, I’ll have Chloe put a pawnail on the random button and pick someone – I’ll send out some fun stuff.  I PROMISE!  I’m BAAACK.  Sort of.  Here and there.  But I’m certainly back enough to pack up a freakin’ envelope with some goodies.  Finally!  So tell me a little story:

How is the late Summer treating you all?  Any gardening?  I haz SCORPIONS!  Check them OUT!   Freed from the tyranny of the Filderkraut (really, you’d think I would know better but even Master Gardeners do stupid stuff now and again), these peppers are going bonkers!  I hope to harvest in early September and I hope they are HOT!  I lost the bulk of my pepper crop to rain.  Lots of foliage but little fruit.  And what fruit there was, was lame.  sigh.  if it’s not one think, it’s another.

Scorpions!