I came home on Friday evening just in time to see the sun set on the rabbit patch.  The sun was in its’ glory .  It lit the field up for a while before it  slipped behind the pines, and took the day with it.

 “Over the rivers and through the woods ” is a fairly accurate account of the way home, from Elizabeth City.  My car was being repaired so my dear friend Jo Dee and her son, Joehn picked me up.  I was in good company and it made leaving more bearable-still I knew I would need to  go to the quiet garden when I got home, to sort things out.  

I wanted to show Jo Dee all of the charm of Elizabeth City and the beautiful river that runs through it, so we took a drive.  As it turns out, Joehn has an uncanny sense of direction and we never got lost because of it.  He took us places that I didn’t know about!  Joehn is a well mannered young man with a beautiful heart and apparently brilliant too.  When he was a toddler, I remember he knew the names of all the tractors-and the names are complicated and numerous.  We made jokes that he may have to drive us “Miss Daisys” around in the future.  

Jo Dee had seen a roadside stand selling vegetables on the way and wanted to stop.  Joehn, did not.  He did not think it wise to buy food sold by the roadside, by total strangers!  No amount of explaining the process convinced him that it was normal and we laughed about it a lot.  We did stop but Joehn  still thought it was peculiar altogether and I wondered if he would eat the sweet corn she bought.

Cash came out to greet me when we pulled in the drive at the rabbit patch.  He is a happy and forgiving boxer, and I expected that.  Christopher Robin , in the last of his “kitten” days , is a different story.  The last time I had left, he put on airs for days !  We had just got back on good terms, when I left this time.  He came out and watched from a distance as Joehn and Christian unloaded my things.

I found the rabbit patch in good order and praised Kyle and Christian for it.  Christopher Robin had not broken anything.  The grass needed mowing and so I knew what to do on Saturday after my time at the “morning table”.

Saturday dawned and with little coolness.  When the dew dried, I got started mowing.  It takes a good part of the day to mow the rabbit patch.  I do a lot of thinking while I mow.  The rose of sharon bushes are blooming and I noticed that. My aunt Carolyn had given me those seeds when I moved in and had more work to do than imaginable.  I had hastily tossed them in a pot and hoped for the best.  Months later they were transplanted just as carelessly.  I had the house to paint and the barns too.  They grew anyway.  Aunt Carolyn passed a few years back . Her rose of sharons are doing great justice to her memory.  I am ashamed now that I planted them without ceremony, for their value is noteworthy now.

Saturdays are the eve of Sunday dinners, so I planned a good dinner  while I mowed.  I am going to cook food sold by the road.  Mama and daddy are coming and I am glad of that.  

It is getting to be “late summer” and just weeks before I go back to work.  I thought about that too.  I still have cousins to see and Rae’s little grandson-and Janet’s new house!  There are roses to be painted on a barn door!  It seems a calendar can act like a clock at times, making you feel the need to rush. Not one clock works in my house now, so I am never late for anything-but a calendar does not require batteries and keeps a record of time  whether I like it or not.  Sometimes, you  “can’t win for losing”.

I have great plans of making the last part of summer count.  There are important things I need to do, so I can be comforted  when the nights of winter fall early. Things like sitting under the mimosa tree and smelling its’ pink, feathery blossoms -and listening to  the sound of the world singing on a summer night. I will watch the rabbits stealing the fallen apples when the first star comes out and I will sit in the shade of an old tree for a good long while and write about how wonderful it is to live life on a rabbit patch.