I am not a list-maker by any means, not even close (though, maybe, just maybe I should think of trying it). That said, it doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally have a mental “To-Do-List” going on in my head. For example, today, I had on my list to clean the bathrooms (blech!) and to weed the front gardens.

Of course, I still seem to be on vacation-mode so I have a little trouble “gittin’ in gear” so to speak! By the time I had written today’s post and cleaned two toilets (again, blech!) the thunder that my lovely neighbour/Global Weathergirl (woman!) Aalia had predicted decided to start. The sun hid behind the clouds and the rumbling started.

I, however, was not deterred! Even when the big raindrops started. They were few and far between and I’m not made of chocolate, last I heard, so I worked on. Zeke was NOT pleased that I asked him to remain on the front stoop under the awning. Wet woman vs wet dog just ain’t the same stink!  Sorry, Boy!

Just this morning I was reading my friend Joy’s blog at Joyfully Green where she was talking about meditating; well actually, she was more talking about clutter and cleaning and straightening out her thoughts but what it all boiled down to was this is her way of meditating.  (I am like her – sitting down in some awkward position, getting cramps in my legs and trying to empty my mind just doesn’t work – gardening, photography, cooking – DO!)  So true what she says:  that when life gets too busy and we feel we can’t think, getting something in order helps to clear the mind, ergo, meditation!

It was raining just enough to see a pattern form on the driveway and I found myself thinking of that silly commercial where the mother is gardening, flowers are blooming, sun is shining, bees are buzzing….but in reality it’s raining cats and dogs and her kids are watching her from a house window, thinking she’s crazy.  Can’t for the life of me remember what the product being peddled is but I was smiling to myself thinking of it while rain was making a pattern on my back!

I didn’t even think to get my gardening gloves as I just started pulling here and there, till next thing I knew, my bag was full!

Gardener’s hands

More thunder and I keep thinking: “That’s it, in a flash the skies will open up and drown me!” But no, it didn’t.

The sun does want to shine

Will it or won’t it?

I sat back on my heels and perused my work, feeling quite satisfied!

Front left

Front right

Before I knew it, I was looking at the sad state of the roses and decided to prune them.  The rain had come and gone and come back a bit and I could hear my neighbour working on his trailer while I pruned away.  And then, just as I finished and was sitting on my stoop going through the rosehips, the rains came – for realz.  My neighbour disappeared though I don’t know if it was the squeak of my need-to-be-greased pruning shears that drove him away or the heaviness of the rain…

And the rains came…

I was safe from the rain, sitting on my porch, cutting away the rosehips.  Seriously.  I think they will do me no good at all.  I don’t think they are ready to be turned into jelly.  Methinks I should have left them there to mature and get red… Oh well, it may be considered a waste of time but I prefer to think of it as a reason to just sit out there and enjoy the scent of petrichor (which I did not expect as the day had not been all that warm) and the sound of the rain falling.

Un-ripe rosehips

As I was squeaking away, the rain stopped completely… Mother Nature is truly confused today!

Rays of Sun

Zeke chilling (moping) by the black-eyed susans

A perfect afternoon!  Now off to prepare my salmon for the cedar plank treatment!

So all the “todays” really mean yesterday!