Category Archives: The Great Outdoors

Bone Chills

11 Sunday Oct 2009

Posted by in Life at Home, The Great Outdoors

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Our cold and damp weather reminds me of cold winter days in south Texas.  Because of high humidity, a  mid-forty temperature ‘down there’ feels just as cold as below freezing temperatures do here in central Oklahoma.  This holds true even when a frigid wind whips down the plain.  But no matter where, I am chilled to the bone by a cold damp day.  

Today we took Max to a veterinary emergency clinic.  Laying on the cold floor of the waiting room, Max too was chilled to the bone.  His chills sent me out to the car to retrieve a comfy old afghan for Max to lay on.  Our mild-manner poodle boy has been listless and limp for the last thirty-six hours.  Just like a baby, the health of this particular dog goes down fast and usually, bounces back just as fast.  But not so this time.

Usually it’s me that makes the call that it’s time for the vet.  Even when raising children, my husband rarely thought the kids were sick enough to take to the pediatrician.  But today,  like a good wife, I planted the seed that it might be vet time for Max.  When I gave my husband a choice to wait or make the call, he chose to wait.  An hour later, I pulled out the seed a second time, this time leaving less room for choice.  In talking it over, we discovered  my husband had misunderstood me the first time;  he thought we were waiting for a call from our regular vet.  Lord have mercy.  Will my husband and I ever communicate well? 

The scary news on Max is that after blood and urine work, the on-call vet doesn’t know the source of Max’s illness.  What they do know is that Max is dehydrated and that the blood test seems to point to kidney disease.  An ultrasound may reveal the cause, but the doctor advised us to wait until Max is hydrated before running the test.  So we left our sad poodle boy to the experts for an overnight stay, to see if they can make Max all well again.

This dog of ours has faced and overcome so many health issues in his young life.  And I wonder, as my eyes tear up, if Max can fight off another claim on his precious life.  In the quiet of the waiting room, I noticed that my husband was no longer reading his book.  When I ask him to share his thoughts, I find that he too is trying to wrap his mind around the diagnosis called kidney disease and wondering where this will take us.  And Max. 

But no matter where, I am chilled to the bone at the scary words ‘kidney disease’ and the mere thought of losing this poodle boy of ours.  On this point, my husband and I are of one mind.  No words are needed.

Off-Center Stage

06 Tuesday Oct 2009

Posted by in In the Garden, Prayer, Soul Care, The Great Outdoors

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The days are slipping through my fingers just as leaves are slipping from the trees. 

The Magnolia in the back yard is making a terrible mess right now; its yellow nitrogen-deprived leaves are dropping like flies.  As I reach down to pick up the leaf litter scattered across the yard, I notice houseflies resting on the leaf’s shiny surface.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many houseflies, even at a summer picnic.  What do they know that we don’t?  Perhaps their presence is a harbinger of winter’s too early arrival.

My week is slipping away, with a piece of my day allotted here and there.  I am sad that I’ve no signficant blocks of time to devote to gardening and I’m in a mad rush to get my gardens put to bed and the duplex gardens next door completed before winter descends.  Like the piles of leaves and army of flies, I also sense that a winter freeze  is just around the corner.   And this makes me grieve the shortness of autumn.

Tomorrow I’ll attend my graduation ceremonies at the Oklahoma County Extension office, where I will officially be certified as a master gardener.  Like a true gardener, I joked with one of my fellow graduates that I’d rather be in the gardens than at the ceremony; yet, knowing the day is as much about our faithful trainers as it is about us who are graduating, I will go to eat, drink and be merry.  Then afterwards, I’ll rush back to the gardens for the afternoon.  If all goes well, all purchased plants will be installed; and with decent weather, the duplex gardens will be finished by week-end.

Another fly in the ointment to make my week so choppy is the spiritual writing I’ve been squeezing in to the open cracks of  my day.  After three months out of the saddle, I’ve picked up the loose threads of  this curriculum and Thursday night I’ll lead a small group of faithful women in the practice of centering prayer.  That I will be offering this lesson on centering prayer in a week where I am pulled in so many directions merely shows that God does have a great sense of humor.

But as I write, I sense a rightness and order in my world, even in winters that come too early and in graduations that mark a beginning of gardening knowledge rather than an ending and in teaching a lesson in centering prayer when I feel so off-center.

To God be the glory in all my days, especially when I slip off-center stage and reveal my broken humanity. 

Ode to Fall

24 Thursday Sep 2009

Posted by in In the Garden, Life at Home, The Great Outdoors

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Just beyond my open window, fall is granting me another beautiful day for gardening pleasures.  The day sparkles on the shiny Magnolia leaves and the air is crisp and thin.  The humidity of last week is gone, and the rain has left behind its gift of softer, easier-to-dig dirt.  I love fall.

The morning  is beckoning me outside to play, just as it has our little Scottish Terrier.  Unfortunately, Cosmo enjoys the garden as much as me.  Even now, while I sit here and write, Cosmo is likely kicking up her heels for a bit of uncommisoned garden work.   No doubt about it — for this is no mere dishing of dirt  —  terriers are scary garden terrorists.  Whenever I’m not looking, Cosmo excavates some precious plant, then often decides to trim the root ball for a good chew.  When she comes inside with roots hanging out of her teeth, my husband and I know its time for damage control.   Usually, the uprooted victims survive as we are on constant lookout for plants sitting on the driveway. 

Of course, our little terrier is only living up to her name.  The word terrier derives from the Latin word terra which means  “earth”; a terrier dog equals earth dog equals garden mass destruction.  So in Cosmo’s defense, terriers were bred to pursue their quarry (especially badgers) all the way into their prey’s burrow.  I guess she’s just practicising on my plants until a stray badger happens along. 

Today I’ll be thinning the garden as well, especially all that sweet potato vine that has aggressively taken over.    What was I thinking when I invited these space hogs into my tiny cottage garden?  Next year I’ll know better.  I will not plant sweet potato vine.  And as I write these words, it reminds me of past writing of  “I will not’s…” on the school blackboard.  In many ways, the garden is a school as its teaches many lessons  — especially in those hardest-to-learn virtues  — in patience and humility.

I’ve had no need for either virtue at the fall garden close-out sales however.  I’m enjoying the best fun shopping and then buying perennials at Lowes.  Even Knock-Out Roses ($10 each!) and other shrubs are now half-price. Everything is reduced but trees and fall flowers.  What gardener can resist such a bargain?  I bought mostly for the ugly step-sister duplex next door — and today, I plan to begin excavating grass for the two new flower beds I’m installing over there.  I’m so excited about this front yard makeover and all the creative play that awaits me. 

I love all the gardening and fresh air and the good tired soreness that comes from working and playing hard outside all day.  I love fall.