Willa Cather Maria returned to the farm with a vengeance today. She slept late this morning – I brought her tea and a brownie in bed. She told me stories about microbes and bugs (she is reading and loving a book called Never Home Alone: From Microbes To Millepedes, Camel Crickets and Honey Bees,” by Rob Dunn).
I knew when I bought it for her (a blog follower recommended it to me) that she would love it and I would spent the next few months listening to early morning stories about fungi, microbes, flies and bugs and the rich world of bacteria, with which we all live every minute of our lives all around us.
The stories of these creatures, who they are, are going to be with me for a long time. I have to say most of them are surprising and interesting. (Some, not so much..)
Maria said she was tired from the Belly Dancing performance yesterday, she planned to rest today. We went to Jean’s Place for pancakes, and then to the farmer’s market for food and vegetables.
I was expecting a quiet day.
We came home, and here’s how Maria “rested.” Tarzana Maria and Garden Maria appeared, along with Willa Cather Maria. Tomorrow, the artist returns.
She dug up two gardens, dug up about 20 Irises and other plants and transplanted them. She dug a new garden by the side of her studio.
She weeded the wildflower garden and then built a new Iris garden down by the old stone wall in the back yard. She went for a walk with me and Fate (too hot for Bud and Red.)
She had this bright idea to dig up a big and deeply rooted lilac bush and move it across the front lawn. I argued this was a big plant, it was hot and she might need the help fo a tractor or some heavier equipment than a shovel.
She fought with me for a while, and then surprisingly, gave in. She even took a 15 minute nap with me.
I knew she had uncovered another project, otherwise she would never have relented. She had.
She finished off the once huge manure pile, spreading the last of it over the pastures with a wheelbarrow. It’s done. We invited all of our friends with gardens to come by and get as much of the donkey and sheep manure as they wished and we gave them several months to do it. Almost all of them did come by, stuffing plastic bags with the manure, some of which had matured over the past year. It is good stuff.
For the first time in a year, I can take a photo of the back pasture without seeing a huge mound of manure in it, although it is certainly part of our landscape. That was a huge pile of manure she scattered all over the pastures. I think our grass prospects are good.
Tonight a friend of Maria’s is coming over to ask for help in spray painting her keyboard. Maria says she has some blogging to do tonight. I’m making dinner early, we never had time for lunch.
What a nice day, she said. Fun. She dragged me out for a tour of the garden work, I knew better than to pass this offer up. It was pretty astonishing, what she had done in a day. She was pleased.
I felt smug this afternoon. I told myself that I had married a remarkable woman, someone I loved from the first, but who has evolved in surprising and remarkable ways, and is still evolving. I did good, I told myself and whenever I beat myself up over all of the mistakes and missteps in my life, I have that to lift me up.