Yesterday a bonfire, today it rains

Last night I walked Ruby just as the sun was going down.   As I started down the street, I noticed the new crescent moon sailing against the blue/gold sky.   I rushed back into the house to call Jim to come out and witness its beauty.   After a suitable pause to admire one of the newest crescents we have been witness to for several months, he went back in the house and Ruby and I continued our walk.

The whole time Ruby and I walked around our neighborhood, my eyes were drawn back to that beautiful moon as it slowly sank into the darkening twilight.   When I finally got back onto my own place, the lunar disk had limned itself faintly against the dark velvet sky, with the bright jewel of the crescent decorating its edge.   There was a planet nearby, I’m not sure whether it was Jupiter or Saturn.   By the time I went in the back door, the moon had sunk below the tree line.

During our walk, Ruby started several rabbits, and gave them their evening after-dinner exercise session.  She has slimmed down considerably since I got home from vacation, and she almost caught one of them last night.   As I listened to her footsteps drumming against the packed earth as she pelted after a running rabbit, I started thinking that maybe one of the strains of blood her mother carried included some greyhound.   I also passed a thought wondering what she would do with a rabbit if she actually caught it, and I realized that she would probably bring it to me.   After all, she is a retriever.   And she will always smile, and always be pleasant.

It seemed like a very good portent that the moon was new.   Yesterday we planted tomatoes and Jim finished the central stone path in the vegetable garden.   The day before, we dug out the skyrocket junipers in the center of the labyrinth.   They were totally infested with some sort of fungus.  I was not able to find any place that identified this particular fungus, but it was definitely making those shrubs very sick.  We do not spray poisons, and I was afraid that they were carrying a cedar/apple rust.   We cannot have that so close to the orchard, and so we dug them out.

Today I went into the center of the labyrinth.   It looks so different without the junipers, more open.  I think I like it, actually.  We are contemplating acquiring some basalt columns to mark the cardinal points of the inner circle and give it some vertical presence.   They will look neat and not harbor fungi.

We already had a good sized pile of stuff that needed to be burned piled in the bonfire circle, prunings from various trees and shrubs around the place.   So we lit it off in the beautiful sunny afternoon, in the dark of the moon, and burned the skyrocket junipers and their fungal freeloaders.   We had agreed previously that we would have to burn Mike’s cat tree.   It was “His”.   We could not imagine him sharing it with another cat; he never shared it willingly while he was alive.   So, we deconstructed MIke’s cat tree and burned the wooden framework of it.   All the shelf brackets and screws that held it together went into Jim’s workshop, awaiting the advent of a new kitten who may need her own cat tree made for her.  The tattered remnants of the carpet that covered it went into the garbage can.   I just can’t bring myself to burn that chemical stew that stainmaster carpet represents.

It was not lost on me that in the same early May (but not truly Beltane) bonfire, we were burning Mike’s cat tree and the junipers that I have always referred to in my mind as “The Pillars of my Temple.”   I had a good cry as I threw the pine 1×6s of Mike’s personal furniture on the fire.   I still miss my Big Black Warrior Cat.

So, this morning, knowing we were promised rain all day (up to 5 inches of it!), we awoke fairly early and got busy right away planting our young pepper plants.   We hoed the bed they were going into, and then Jim loosened the soil with the broad fork while I broke up clods with my hoe.   Then he smoothed the bed with the back of the rake, and we were ready to plant the peppers.   The whole process took us about 15 minutes.  Ah, the blessings of raised beds. 

It was a good thing it didn’t take long, because as we were seating the little plants, we were listening to the thunder announce the advent of the coming storm.  Jim arranged the drip irrigation around the plants, and then we quickly mulched them with straw.  The rain began falling more earnestly, but still gently, while I placed cages around the babies.

I made a circuit around the yard, preparing for the storm.   I hung up tools, put plants where they wouldn’t blow away if the wind came up.   I looked at the lines of rock I have planted under the drip lines of the sauna, and made some adjustments to them as the rain slowly increased.

Jim came out, and asked me what I was doing.   “Puttering,” was my response.   He gave me a look that clearly said, “My wife does not know enough to come in out of the rain.”  My poor dog was helping me in my puttering activities, and she looked very grateful as Jim rounded me up and escorted me towards the house.   She was pretty wet, actually.   Well, so was I for that matter.

The rain began in earnest then.   Even though there was lots of lightning and thunder, there was never any wind.   All morning, since about 9:45, the rain has fallen straight down, soaking the already saturated earth.   We will probably have flash floods all over the county this afternoon.   I looked out at the incredible green of the lawn, glowing in the rain.   If you step outside, just over the murmer of rain falling, you can hear the grass growing.

I was moved to try to write some poetry, and got sucked into prose after a few lines.   This is what I came up with:

SPRING RAIN falls straight down

Soaking the emerald meadow

Studded with flowers:  clover, bluets, violets, dandelions.

Butterflies perform a capricious series of cabrioles

In their deceptively non-random dashes from papaver to salvia.

NO WIND:  Wash of rain, Flash of lightning, Crash of thunder, Passionate birdsong.

Last night the moon was new                             May 7, 2008

Well, that’s the news from The Havens.  

 

 

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