July 10, 2024
This past week we enjoyed our
first feast of green beans from our garden. That is always such a happy day for
all three of us living in the Ashbury household. It didn’t matter that the
balance of our supper was chilled salads, prepared ahead of time so as to avoid
cooking in the heat of the day.
Preparing one large pot of
green beans and then savoring their flavor was well worth the cost of the heat
added to the kitchen in doing so.
David also reported that the
beans we ate came from only one of the two dedicated-to-beans table gardens.
The other garden only had a few beans nearing prime size—but it held a bounty
of blossoms that promised future gastronomic happiness.
Of course, we pick the beans
carefully, understanding that as we do so, we are ensuring even more beans for
the season. And this is where the freezing of produce to enjoy in winter
begins. The next time beans are picked, I’ll prepare them in two batches: one
to enjoy at supper, and one to freeze.
But before we can do that,
we of course have to rearrange our large freezer so that we indeed have room
enough to add produce. I will tell you truly that having to do this task is
vexing to me. I used to have the energy to keep an eye on the taking out and
the putting in of stuff – not just where the freezer is concerned, but also the
fridge and the two free-standing “pantry” shelving units in our kitchen and the
one very large five-shelf wooden storage unit/aka pantry in my office.
Not having the energy to keep
up with the chaos means it becomes a task to be done occasionally. But while I
have regressed to the point that I really can’t keep up, I have progressed in
that I keep my mouth shut and do not lecture the other household members equipped
with opposable thumbs who have created this problem in the first place.
I think that is the very
definition of that saying, “one step forward, two steps back”. Yes, I know,
that implies that eventually I will have my behind pressed up against a wall.
But that doesn’t matter to me nearly so much as does the principle of living
each day in peace.
The heat of summer continues
to bake everyone, doesn’t it? How anyone can deny the reality of climate change
is completely beyond me. People, believe the evidence of your own eyes!
But I digress.
I am so very grateful that at
this stage of my life, I have central air. Not boasting here, but I am
recalling the years past when we didn’t, when we used to sleep upstairs, and we
relied on a window fan we nick-named “big blue”. Every summer David would hoist
that behemoth into place with a handful of screws. It covered the open window on
the north side of the house. Our bed was a few feet from the window at the
south side of the house. The area was simply one uninterrupted room in those
days. The windows were house width apart. David would haul himself upstairs as
soon as we got home to the sweatbox our that not well insulated attic/turned
bedroom became each day and he would turn on that fan.
It had a steady, tenor-toned
hum that could be heard throughout the entire house. No matter how warm the
evenings remained in the summer, “big blue” ensured that when we trudged up to
bed, we were able to sleep.
I miss that old re-purposed
industrial fan. When we became empty nesters and moved our bedroom downstairs,
that fan had already whirred its last, but we had a box fan in our bedroom. Not
at all the same thing. And so we used the water of our shower to cool our
bodies down at night just before bed, and would lay, still shower damp, in the
breeze created by that box fan. Sometimes, it was so hot in the day we would
use that same procedure but also place a plate of ice in front of the fan,
first.
We bought a single window a/c
unit about five or so years before my heart attack, and that was good enough to
cool our bedroom at night, if we closed our door and turned it on an hour
before bed. And occasionally it would cool in the daytime with the bedroom door
open and strategically placed fans, the entire lower floor of our small house benefited
from that one unit (if we sealed off the upstairs first).
Then a couple of years before David
retired, when that a/c unit had been given to our daughter who had greater need
of it and we were back to showers and the box fan, we finally got central air.
We rented a new furnace to replace our aging owned one which was nearing death
and received the a/c unit as a special promotional gift.
We may have to buy another central
air unit, eventually, and are hopefully prepared to do just that. But for now,
when it comes to the heat of summer, I simply give thanks that we are free to
stay home and enjoy the relative coolness we’ve been granted.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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