Random Thoughts for August 10th
It's dreary, cool, and overcast today. Usually these types of days make me happy, but today I am really down. Would have been worse if it were sunny though.
My friend Amy (one of the nicest and coolest people one would ever hope to meet) just wrote and said her father died.
What a terrible year this has been.
Commence random thoughts:
I am incredibly bored with my job. Granted, we are in a slow period right now, but I have been doing the same thing every year for the past 5 years. I need something different.
And yet I am behind. It seems like the day Maddy turned 1, working at home became more difficult. She wants more attention, is only interested in her toys for short stretches, and has been spending a lot of time hanging onto my leg as I work at the computer. She spent at least half an hour yesterday sucking on my thigh. Mean ole baby. I am wearing jeans today as an anti-baby tongue device.
Also, since I have been trying to steer her to more finger foods, I have to actually take breaks to feed her (before I just gave her a bottle and she could feed herself). Now I have to actually take her downstairs and give her food, watch her to make sure she doesn't choke, and then clean it up.
Not complaining (how could I?) just explaining. All of these little breaks add up to work that I need to make up.
And all I have wanted to do the past few days is sleep. I feel incredibly run down. Not good with September and school starting soon.
I had to dispose of two squash plants because they were rotting at the root. Trying to find the cause. I did get an acorn squash out of one before I tossed it. My tomatoes are slowly but surely ripening and I have eight (!) pumpkins now. (btw-Michael and I read the other night that one pumpkin plant requires 2500 sq ft of space. I have 6 plants in not more than 300 sq ft. Oops.)
But I can tell the season is ending-the yields are coming down, the light is different in the sky and some of the leaves on the trees are turning.
You have to understand-these observations are amazing to me. I feel that once you are out of school and start working, you no longer notice the variations in the seasons. At least, that is what happened to me. I spent five years in a temperature controlled office-it could have been 95 degrees in the middle of January and I wouldn't have known unless I checked weather.com.
This is horrible to me. The years go by faster and become a blur unless you are able to recognize the passage of time by a means other than turning the page on your dayplanner. Now I understand that in some locales, the seasons barely change-trust me, I lived in Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida. But to me, fall isn't fall unless the leaves are turning and winter should be cold.
However, the seasons have always seem off to me-culturally, because of industrialization (re: school calendar), we have been trained to consider August a summer month. Scientifically, I know that meterological seasons are determined by the positioning of the Earth. But historically, August 1st, Lammas Day, is traditionally the first day of the harvest. The next harvest festival is in mid-September and the last is Samhain, or Halloween, which marks the end of the harvest and the "death," in a sense, of the earth. At least, this is according to the old Celtic calendar. To me, this makes the most sense and having a vegetable garden makes this even more clear.
What I am truly trying to say is that I have found a way to justify my habit of starting Halloween preparations in August. I have been scouring my various Halloween books, reading up on lore and looking for new recipes. Meanwhile, others are hitting the beaches, grilling, and eating salads. I am looking forward to pumpkin cookies, stews, and casseroles.
My friend Amy (one of the nicest and coolest people one would ever hope to meet) just wrote and said her father died.
What a terrible year this has been.
Commence random thoughts:
I am incredibly bored with my job. Granted, we are in a slow period right now, but I have been doing the same thing every year for the past 5 years. I need something different.
And yet I am behind. It seems like the day Maddy turned 1, working at home became more difficult. She wants more attention, is only interested in her toys for short stretches, and has been spending a lot of time hanging onto my leg as I work at the computer. She spent at least half an hour yesterday sucking on my thigh. Mean ole baby. I am wearing jeans today as an anti-baby tongue device.
Also, since I have been trying to steer her to more finger foods, I have to actually take breaks to feed her (before I just gave her a bottle and she could feed herself). Now I have to actually take her downstairs and give her food, watch her to make sure she doesn't choke, and then clean it up.
Not complaining (how could I?) just explaining. All of these little breaks add up to work that I need to make up.
And all I have wanted to do the past few days is sleep. I feel incredibly run down. Not good with September and school starting soon.
I had to dispose of two squash plants because they were rotting at the root. Trying to find the cause. I did get an acorn squash out of one before I tossed it. My tomatoes are slowly but surely ripening and I have eight (!) pumpkins now. (btw-Michael and I read the other night that one pumpkin plant requires 2500 sq ft of space. I have 6 plants in not more than 300 sq ft. Oops.)
But I can tell the season is ending-the yields are coming down, the light is different in the sky and some of the leaves on the trees are turning.
You have to understand-these observations are amazing to me. I feel that once you are out of school and start working, you no longer notice the variations in the seasons. At least, that is what happened to me. I spent five years in a temperature controlled office-it could have been 95 degrees in the middle of January and I wouldn't have known unless I checked weather.com.
This is horrible to me. The years go by faster and become a blur unless you are able to recognize the passage of time by a means other than turning the page on your dayplanner. Now I understand that in some locales, the seasons barely change-trust me, I lived in Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida. But to me, fall isn't fall unless the leaves are turning and winter should be cold.
However, the seasons have always seem off to me-culturally, because of industrialization (re: school calendar), we have been trained to consider August a summer month. Scientifically, I know that meterological seasons are determined by the positioning of the Earth. But historically, August 1st, Lammas Day, is traditionally the first day of the harvest. The next harvest festival is in mid-September and the last is Samhain, or Halloween, which marks the end of the harvest and the "death," in a sense, of the earth. At least, this is according to the old Celtic calendar. To me, this makes the most sense and having a vegetable garden makes this even more clear.
What I am truly trying to say is that I have found a way to justify my habit of starting Halloween preparations in August. I have been scouring my various Halloween books, reading up on lore and looking for new recipes. Meanwhile, others are hitting the beaches, grilling, and eating salads. I am looking forward to pumpkin cookies, stews, and casseroles.
posted by waltzingmathilda @ 9:24 AM
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