I returned home with some wildflowers that, to me, perfectly capture the scenery here at the end of summer. They may look like weeds to some (especially to my hosts of this past week, from whose property I cut them), but I don’t own property or weeds, and they are beautiful to me.
I had this awesome spot set up that would perfectly toast the marshmallows. Like a little kiln in the fire pit. I’m usually to impatient to toast them, and I plunge them straight into the flames until they are charred and molten balls of goo. I love the burnt marshmallow taste, but I can also appreciate the subtlety of a perfectly golden toasting.
The phone rang–an important call from the doctor. Then the looming rain finally started coming down and took out the coals.
Oh well, smores for lunch wasn’t the best idea anyway.
Summer is indeed just about over.
Who put a pizza oven in the attic?
I was going to say how much I like goldenrod and that it’s the birth flower for the month of August. I’m glad I fact-checked myself because turns out August’s flower is gladiolus. I suppose in my mind, goldenrod symbolizes August because that’s when it blooms, adding bright swaths of yellow to the landscape.
And here’s a very dusty bee on a thistle.
I was happy to pick my first okra pod! The seeds were an experiment this year, and a happy surprise because I didn’t think they would do well in a container.
I also picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes (which are actually the size of blueberries) and some green zebras.
The okra flower was very pretty, but only lasted a day.
This was the growth the next day.
I missed photos of days 2 and 3, and I picked it on day 4.
There are always ups and downs in gardening, and this one of this year’s high points for sure.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. Picked blackberries in the morning and made jam in the afternoon. I don’t like blackberry jam, but I know several people who love it, so this will make nice gifts for them.
This is in response to this week’s theme: Today was a good day. The challenge asked us to create a Mesh gallery using their new app. I thought about trying it, but I just feel to busy right now to download and try something new. I’ve been neglecting my blog as it is. I don’t want to download and neglect something else. If they could integrate it into the WordPress interface I might use it.
The inscription at the bottom reads:
Friends and parents as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now you so must be
Prepare for death and follow me
That shocked me when I first read it. Gave me the creeps. I said, “No, I won’t follow you! Not ever! You don’t tell me! I’m not going to die!”
Then I calmed down a little, stopped being mad at someone who’s been dead for 101 years, and thought about why a person would want that on her tombstone.
Had she been sick? Did she know she would die soon and felt bitter about it? Or did she write that into her will, to have that inscribed no matter when she died, or under what circumstances? Why did she want to basically give the finger to anyone who stopped to read her tombstone? Did she want to freak them out, or is this a preachy sort of sentiment? Or did she just have a weird sense of humor?
I found some information about the verse on this blog, which says it was pretty popular at that point in history. The usual verse starts out with “Remember me as you pass by.” So I wondered about the phrasing of this stone. Why “friends and parents?” I assume she didn’t have any kids, otherwise wouldn’t they have been mentioned? Why not simply, “Friends and family as you pass by?”
Was it a deliberate dig to her parents? Did she want to call out to her parents each time they visited her grave to remind them that she was dead? Sometimes when I think about this woman, I imagine her as someone who still has the personality of a rebellious teenager at age 39, wanting to torment her parents one final time.
Or did they have a bad relationship, and she knew they wouldn’t visit anyway. Maybe the whole town knew that she wasn’t on good terms with her parents, and this was her way of publicly saying so.
I’ve thought about this tombstone a lot, and clearly have even invented some family drama in the life of young Mary, who died 101 years ago. Maybe that’s the point of anything written on a tombstone. To be remembered by people; to be thought of by the living.
In the comments section of the blog I linked to, many people said they remembered the first time they had read this verse on a tombstone. It certainly had an emotional effect on me.
I did think about it, Mary, may you rest in peace.
And just for creepy’s sake, here are a couple more images.
I think I’m a little annoyed that all the stores already have all of their Halloween candy and merchandise out already. Halloween is still on October 31, in case you were wondering if it had been moved this year.
Stores, school hasn’t even started yet, could you just continue to push the school supplies a little longer before you shove the next holiday down our throats? Shelves lined with Halloween crap in mid-August? That’s just creepy.
In response to the challenge called Creepy.
They can’t all be 3-egg days, but when you get one, savor it.
We didn’t know if it was going to rain.
It got dark. Clouds blew by.
The wind picked up. Sometimes it rained a little.
Other times it drifted past us.
The sky just couldn’t make up its mind.
It got mad.
But then felt a little bad about it.
Finally, it apologized for all that it put us through. It feels much better now.
Cynthia M Voss 