high grass, toddler in the house, water issues, a frog and a flower

You might remember that my neighbor on the east side sold his house in January 2025. Montreal had an acre, the house on one half and a fenced backyard. When he owned it he kept it tidy and mowed and the low tree branches trimmed and kept the wild space on the south border in check and I had a clear view across the property to the crop field on the other side of the county road. It is a corner property bordered by my street and the county road it ends at. I thought the new owner, who lives in a different small town, was going to live there after they did some renovation and fixing up of the house but no, they rented it out. The people that live in the house only mow around the house and the fenced backyard. The rest of the property should be maintained by the owner and yet they don’t. It has only been mowed twice in the last 19 months. One of the native pecan trees now has branches grazing the ground, all kinds of small and large branches hidden by the various grasses which are waist to chest high on me, the wild space continues to creep across the property line unchecked, and my view from where I sit in the mornings of the corn or cotton field is blocked. I’ve taken pictures but they just don’t really convey how high the grasses are. It does have some goldenrod growing in it so at least something will be blooming this fall unless it gets mowed between now and then. I don’t really mind it being overgrown though since it’s providing habitat.

Friday night was my night to fix dinner and I had been planning on making butternut/sweet potato/cashew soup. I know, summer and hot outside, but I had a butternut squash from the garden and I had bought two sweet potatoes previously with this in mind since the one butternut I had wasn’t enough for the recipe. So, of course I started a little late and cut the butternut in half lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, and put it in the oven to roast while I peeled and cut up the sweet potatoes and put them on to boil when I was looking over the recipe and realized I didn’t have any coconut milk. Poot. I usually review any recipe I’m considering for my two nights before I go to the grocery store on Tuesdays to add whatever ingredients to the list. Apparently I failed to see the coconut milk. So turn off the stove, jump in the car and get the coconut milk. Back home I’m ready to add the spices and realize I don’t have any coriander. Well, double poot. Called my neighbor at the other end of the street who I thought would have some because I know she’s a good cook, turn the stove off again and rush down to her house. Anyway, I got the soup made and dinner was only an hour later than we usually eat. I had originally planned to make a small salad to go with it but by that time I was all, yeah, no; soup and naan will have to do. It was really good.

Sarah came Saturday with Paisleigh and 18 month old Harrison. Paisleigh, who will be 5 in October, starts preschool on the 11th, has already met her teacher and classmates. The teacher would not allow the parents in the room for the two hours or so they were there. Six year old Carlie from the other end of the street came down to play and then soon they ran down to her house because…toys, which Great Grandma doesn’t have much of. Harrison had the house to himself to explore. Pics...Harrison with his Granny, in the kitchen, sleepy boy.

The rain we hoped would come this weekend did not so I’ve been moving the sprinkler around once again. Sunday late morning it was 88˚, real feel 108˚, predicted high 100˚ and who knows what the real feel was. Read a headline the other day, farmers are already sounding the alarm, crops are failing or doing poorly. The planet is poised to tip over into the uninhabitable region for humans heatwise. Rivers are drying up, too hot, too damn hot and they are building water guzzling data centers in regions that already barely have enough water. People’s wells will dry up but hey, the surveillance state needs a place to store all our movements and social media posts. Speaking of water, Txxxx and Hxxxxxx bombed water infrastructure sites in Iran and all signs point to Iran being behind the cyber attacks on US water supplies in Michigan, Minnesota, and five other states (why would they not retaliate in kind?) Guess who Txxxx blames, Iran? No, of course not, he blames democrat Governor Walz for the attacks in Minnesota. 

When I was watering in the front yesterday I spotted this tree frog hanging out in this birdhouse. Once the birds are through nesting tree frogs often take up residence.

This bearded iris surprised me yesterday. They are supposed to bloom in the spring and they do but now this and another one I saw earlier in the summer long after they would usually bloom.

Still not motivated to start a new drawing or shadow box, reading instead, halfway through Artemis by Andy Weir.