Life is good with fresh food

It is the height of the gardening season.
Cucumbers are multiplying like bunnies. Carrots are getting big enough to pull. I have realized that my kohlrabi has given up the fight to the beans and cucumbers planted on either side of them. The tomatoes are starting to show some color. Peppers are coming along nicely. Even the snow peas have a few straggly pods left. The onions have heaved themselves out of the ground and are waiting to be sliced and perhaps diced. Somebody has been feeding the evil squirrels so they have stopped eating from my garden, now they leave corncobs lying around.
Farmers’ markets are bursting with the bounty of the season. The corn I bought last week was sweeter than any that I have ever found in the grocery store. The weeds have mercifully slowed their growth. Life is good and fresh food is plentiful. Things taste better if you grow them yourself.
August is a busy month. If produce isn’t picked frequently two things happen. One, the fruit will either rot on the vine or else it will grow to mammoth size. Two, the plant will heave a sigh of relief and stop producing. So a daily trip to the garden is required, even if it has been raining all day.
August is a busy month for other reasons, also. My mother’s birthday is at the end of the month. I want to plan a get together for her. I have to figure out what kind of present to buy or make. She insists she doesn’t need anything. What she does want, I can’t give her. I can’t restore her health, nor can I make new friends for her. It’s hard when most of her friends have already died and she is left alone. It’s hard when she doesn’t understand that doctors can’t fix everything. It’s frustrating for me to realize that I can’t fix her life, I can only plan a party that will keep her busy for a few hours.
I remember August as being a sweltering, lazy time of year. This year is different. We have been spared the boiling temperatures that plague other parts of the country. What a relief. Unfortunately, the cooler weather has been a boon for the fungus that settles in the black-eyed susans that are blooming so much earlier this year. Luckily, the fungus doesn’t hurt the plants, it just looks unsightly.
I looked at my calendar and discovered that I have something written in almost every square this month. Most days the to-do list is short, but it is always there. I am far busier in retirement than I ever was when I had to go to work every day. I have heard other people say the same thing.
Fall is just around the corner. There are so many projects that need to be completed. I wish we could finish everything as quickly and easily as they do on the home improvement shows on television. I want to go play in the garden, not deal with things on my calendar.
The house demands even more attention than the garden. There is the ever present worry about my mom. My daughter deals with juggling work and family. I get frustrated that I can’t do anything to make either of their lives easier.
For now, I will go out to the garden and pull the few weeds that are there. I will check to see if anything needs to be picked. Mostly, I will enjoy the quiet pleasure of watching that small patch of ground change from barren nothingness to a lush summer vegetable patch.