Rainy Day Musings

Today I'm writing about the small things, the homey things that are going on at Jordan's Croft. The last few weeks have been pretty bumpy. I've lost a good friend, my job and a big chunk of self-worth. I keep reminding myself that the most important things: home, friends and family, are secure. So I'm celebrating Jordan's Croft with marvelous trivia.

The daily rain has been a blessing and a pain. My barn is damp, my stalls are damp, the grass, flowers and weeds are growing like crazy. I've spent every day on the lawn tractor – trying to keep the weeds in the pasture down. I've even played chicken with the rain trying to keep ahead of the weeds. I've gotten the pasture done, and half the lawn, but it is threatening rain yet again.

The five black kittens are big bold and sassy little monsters, messing in my tack room, getting under foot and demanding to be fed solid food every couple of hours. Adorable little critters – they are going to the flea market next weekend. Lucky is going to the vet on the first of the month.

The ducks, ducklings, chickens and the eleven surviving pullets are running loose, eating up the scads of bugs that have become a nuisance. I hope that keeping the weeds down and letting the poultry hunt for bugs will keep us from being eaten alive by mosquitoes, so far so good. I suspect that the county has secretly sprayed since there aren't any larva in my rain barrels. However, just to be safe, I made sure the horses were vaccinated against West Nile Virus.

Our only neighbors have finished their house and moved in. The comings and goings are a bit of a disruption, not as bad as the construction. I miss the feeling of solitude, okay I'm mourning a lot of things including the privacy that I had when I could sit on the porch and write in my pjs.

My herbs have gone crazy with all the water – the strawberries were huge and wonderful. I'm harvesting lavender and soon the mint. We have no vegetable garden this year, I need to correct that, but with three or four farmer's markets in 20 minutes drive, why bother?

There is no word back from the publisher on 'Let's Do Lunch.' No news is good news right now. The second book is still stalled as the Croft is taking up all my time.

My mom has purchased an e-reader by Sony (from Target of all places.) It is a marvelous little device; a bit slow to process, a bit heavy, but easy for her to use, and simple for me to update for her. I would love to have one. I suggested the Sony for her as it was available at Target – so we could try it out first. It also supports more document types than the Kindle, so she can access all the free books on Gutenburg.org, there are thousands.

Best of all, its half the price of the Amazon Kindle. Yes, Kindle has more features, and built in wireless, but 70 miles from the nearest city, the wireless access isn't likely to work, so that's half the features are made useless.

I close with this – a paraphrase of a prayer sent to me this morning: "May the Creator manifest in ways you have never experienced. May your joys be fulfilled, your dreams closer, and your prayers answered. I pray for peace, healing, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, true and undying love."