The Burrow

I'm having a hard time staying focused.  The Big Cuter is back in San Francisco, preparing for his first day of class.  Mr 5 started kindergarten while I was in New York 10 days ago and the Crayola kids are already playing Fall Ball.  All over the country, people are saying that summer is over..... I'm just not ready for that to be true. I attended every single meeting of the Board of Trustees of our school district in Marin.  I may never finish the sweater I tried to knit as I listened, but I always listened.  We moved to town in July, and I decided to become involved in my community.  I began with the Design Review Board meetings, but there was too much hostility over the shape of the pavers in a driveway or the exact shade of taupe which might be acceptable to the neighbors for my taste. The School Board was 5 people behind some tables in the middle school library, and 30 or so folding chairs set up between the cookies and coffee and the door.  Th...

It's raining. The lightning is 2 or 3 bolts at a time, some vertical, some horizontal, some seeming to cross one another. The irrigation system and I both watered this morning, so the ground was ready to send this new moisture deep down to where the root systems live. I wonder where the lizards and the bunnies are hiding. I'm typing during their usual dinner hour and I miss their antics. The ground squirrels have been increasing the size and number of their burrows in the front yard; I'm not worried that they'll get wet down there. I'm watching the places where the water's collecting, and deciding how to berm it once the weather cools off. If I make little aqueducts I can funnel the rainfall to the trees which lie outside the irrigation system's reach. That's xeriscape gardening -taking full advantage of nature's bounty when she deigns to share it with us. In most of the rest of the country, gardeners are making plans to put their beds to rest for th...