Nearly the End of July, Really?

I'm taking stock. This early morning air s light.  It's going to be close to 90 degrees today.  I need to continue working in the gardens. Yes, weeding.   I have four rows done in North garden.

On Monday, I harvested beans: Blue lake, Tenderettes, Romas and purple.  Made a delicious cold salad for dinner.  Have to put by the box of Tenderettes, which are gorgeous beans.

I also collected burpless cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini-- all of which we have plenty of.  The supersized yellow squash and zucchini have been picked and cut up for our always hungry chickens and turkeys. They love, love, love it.

I plan on working another 4 hours weeding, then a swim. I have  been swimming 17 times.  I'm hoping to break 30 by end of summer.  It's great therapy for my muscles, especially after all those hours bent over in the repetition of weeding. Hoping to take a ride out West in search of apricots.  The blueberries we found on Saturday were so delicious, so sweet, and are all gone. So a few more pints of those, too.

Started a few watercolors this week.  I'm so rusty. Long ago, I met a woman at Writers & Books who was first an artist and second a writer, who advised me to pick a subject and draw that subject for 100 days consecutively.  She said to plan on 15 minutes, per drawing.  Much like morning pages, this practice loosens up the soil, so to speak, acting as a bridge between dreams and awareness.  I have been drawing flowers.
First drawing went the way of too much enthusiasm.  For a still life, it didn't look airy but cartoonish. It really puzzled me.  Next  drawings were far more successful. Zinnias.  I do love them.So I may do a series of painting.  I imagine they would become a catalog of summer.

Summer, I don't want it to end. I'm finally settling in to its rhythms. I am grateful for the solitude.  I've been made keenly aware of time.  Nothing is accomplished quickly. Well, maybe doing the dishes, or making the bed, but everything else takes time. Hurry has been making me anxious.  I keep asking myself, what happens if you don't hurry?  And the answer is something will be bumped into tomorrow, because I'll run out of time or energy, or both.  So be it.

It's nearly 8 a.m. and It's time to start this day's work.