Let me come right to the point: So far, it has been a terrible summer. Either it has been so blindingly hot that even I can’t stand it—and I can take a lot of heat—or it has rained so much that I haven’t been able to figure out when to feed the potted plants. I keep waiting for a few sunny days in a row for the soil to dry out at least a little, but those sunny days in a row haven’t happened yet.
Instead we have rain and drizzle followed by more rain and drizzle. On the plus side—the gardens and the potted plants aren’t exactly thriving, but they are holding their own. However, the slugs and the snails positively love this weather, and in all my years of gardening at the little house in the big woods, I have never seen such a slimy onslaught. Each day, I go out with a jar of soapy water and pluck the snails and slugs from my plants. Irises seem to be their perennial of choice, and all those little munching jaws have made ribbons of many of the leaves. I have literally picked hundreds of snails and slugs in the past two weeks, and it gives me no pleasure to kill these creatures that are, after all, just trying to make a living. If only they would make their living in the woods. I would never bother them at all. But when they come into my garden and start ripping through my plants, I have no choice but to go on the offensive. Gardening is not for the faint hearted, that’s for sure.
I am hoping, perhaps vainly, that today the weather will clear at least enough to allow me to have lunch on the patio. I’m not asking for sun, mind you, just no rain. Then as I eat my pita-bread sandwich stuffed with Farmer Kev’s lettuce, raw slivers of his turnip, some of his roasted beets, and a sprinkle of feta, I will hear the whirr of the hummingbirds’ wings and watch these tiny birds come to the feeders filled with sweet water. The nuthatches, chickadees, and finches will fly to the feeder filled with sunflower seeds, and sometimes it will seem as though the forest positively flutters with little wings and darting bodies. Then I will think, how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place, rain or shine, summer, spring, fall, and even winter, when patio days are just a memory from the past season.
Scenes from the backyard on Thursday, July 11, 2013:
Notes From the Hinterland 
Same here! Not the snails or slugs, except a couple, but today is officially the 20th straight day of rain. Not every day did it rain a lot. Sometimes it was mostly sunny, but we’ve gotten at least a shower every single day.
I just thought of you. The July-August Martha Stewart Living magazine (it has beautiful grilled tomatoes on the cover) has an essay that you’ll like. In fact, when I began reading and didn’t know the writer yet, I thought it might have been you! It is toward the back of the magazine. Peanut Butter and Bonhomie by Monica Wood. I read her memoir When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine. It is just wonderful. So well written, and most evocative of the time.
Oh, and it is raining quite hard as I write this. :<(((
Nan, the rain it raineth everyday! Lord! That’s quite a compliment thinking that Monica Wood’s writing was like mine. Thank you so much! Yes, When We Were the Kennedys is a terrific book. And my father was born in Mexico, Maine.
Mary Jane, I did not have lunch on the patio. However, I think the rain has stopped enough so that Yip-Yap and I can talk a walk to the Narrows.
Well, since I just drove home from Augusta in a torrential downpour, I’m guessing that pleasant interlude in the garden will again be postponed! Dwhat a summer!