Friday, June 19, 2009

Little Things

Posting has been less-than-inspired lately, hasn't it? Well, at least I think it has been. I feel like there have hardly been any good stories at all. So, I decided to pick up my camera and seek out something interesting and I hope to make it a daily habit. Of course, in picking it up and trying to learn more about it, I was messing with my ISO settings yesterday and forgot to re-set them today. I took lots of pictures today and was disappointed to find them all rather grainy. Terribly sorry. But, still, here are some small things that made my day more interesting:

This Little Miss Spider lives at my place of employment. My friend Katelyn and I were very impressed with her eye-catching web stitchery and we have researched and determined that she must be a St. Andrew's Cross spider. I sat down with her this morning for a little chat on the sidewalk. It's a good thing nobody saw me, I guess. I don't know anybody else that talks to spiders.


Driving home from work, I got stuck behind this guy:

I suppose I shouldn't have photographed while driving, but it was so great, so perfectly indicative of the local culture that it could not be helped. I was on a mission to find interesting things and I thought this was interesting. I was actually thinking about that tire on there and how, next time I buy a watermelon, I'm going to wash it really well before I cut it. Also, I was listening to Van Morrison, which made me think of Mary, who had that most famous song of his played at her wedding. That was also great.

We spent quite a bit of time outside, trying to clean up the garden spaces. Our inexperience and yesterday's storms had left quite a mess. Our squash are being ravaged by squash bugs (they already took out my jack-be-little pumpkin and possibly my watermelon and cucumbers), which are awfully hard to get with pesticides once they have already bored into your vines, so we were hunting them manually, the kids and I, while Chris stirred the compost pile (ew!) and planted a second grouping of sweet potato slips.
After we were all itchy, all the way through, from various bugs and grasses, I sent Emma in to shower first, since she is still recovering from her fever (it's a little better, thank you). As I waited around for Chris to grab the post-hole digger, kind of toeing around in the dirt, and I found a little treasure:

Now, there is knitting ahead of me this evening, and online entertainment courtesy of a friend who heard my plea (we still haven't picked up that TV converter box...)and sent me some very nice links to some favorite shows and stuff. But before I go, I must brag a bit. One other not-so-very-small thing came my way today. A picture of my brother's table. Gaze upon it in wonder and astonishment,

for he made it himself, in all of its modern-yet-warm, sleek-yet-home-y, design-perfection glory. My middle brother made this with his own two hands. It is so very nice to know that I'm not the only one in the family that makes things. I am so impressed - I begged him to let me blog about it.
And he said yes.
So I did.

Daily Bliss: dirt under my fingernails and a few more fresh tomatoes
Wake-up Playlist: Wheat, Some Days

5 comments:

Amy Button said...

That table is *fantastic*! The watermelon truck brings back so many memories and the spider is fascinating. Don't you just hate those pesky things that love to eat what you're trying to grow? I think the heat is going to get a lot of my stuff since we'll be gone for two weeks. It hardly rains here in the summer. I'm crossing my fingers though.

Jessica said...

Ahhh! Thanks for the picture. We hadn't seen the table completed yet. It's amazing! I've had dreams where Kevin has built me things like this but it never seems to go past that. Jon is so talented! Seems like it runs in the family.

frabjouspoet said...

I have an entire series of photographs that I took while driving. Those sort of shots are most definitely interesting.

Mary said...

Love the table. I design furniture in my head all the time and wish I had the tools to make it happen. It looks fabulous. He could make some good money selling that stuff.

Your story about the squash bugs reminds me of potato bugs. I'm so thankful it was never my job, but my brother and my dad had to go out on a regular basis and pull the potato bugs off the plants. I think my brother secretly liked it as it involved dropping the bugs in a jar full of some life ending liquid.

Little things can be big conversation starters.

60ish and Glad said...

Well, I enjoyed a day working outside and we have these strange spiders that hang onto the pool cage. Guess I never thought of photographing their very large webs! You are such an intersting soul.