PORCH PONDERINGS

Flag Day

Flag Day on the porch in Roundup, Montana is a cool cloudy day. Sunday is quiet usually and today is no exception. All churches are back in service, except the Methodist. Not sure why they are still not gathering, but it's a shame. They were down in numbers before the pandemic hit and to still be out of order now, well, it's too bad.

I worship on Saturday, the Sabbath as ordered by the Ten Commandments. I go to the Seventh Day Adventist church here in town. My first husband was a pastor in the denomination, but my current husband is not a member. He chooses to go to a different church on Sunday. We choose to not let this be a stumbling block, most of the time. I pray for him, he prays for me. God understands.

So today I do chores as dictated by habit. Today is laundry day for towels. Bed sheets as well if the day is bright and sunny. Today may not be the day for that. It's supposed to rain. It's been 95 on Friday and Saturday, today is to be about 70. Whatever. We do need the rain. The grass is starting to get a little crispy. And we don't usually water the grass.

We may have a visit from the handyman today to do more remodeling. He came Friday and hung some drywall. So our room is taking shape. Hubby informed me, "Oh, by the way. We're switching ceiling fans. The one from the current bedroom is going to the new bedroom." Blindsided. I liked the one in the room we're remodeling. "What? When did you decide that?" I swear, sometimes I must be out of the room when these conversations happen. Either that or he has those conversations in his head. We'll see which fan goes where. It's a small item. Not worth a big blowout.

I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo that starts July 1. Now I am thinking 'What in the world will I write?' I have absolutely no ideas about this. Nada. Nothing at all comes to mind. The muse has given me nothing. When I did NaNoWriMo in November, I did OctoPrep and came up with a pretty decent outline and story that melded into a half-way readable book. But now, who knows.

We have a curious situation in our back garden area. This really amused me. For three years in a row, we had tree swallows that nested in a birdhouse posted above my garden, which has an 8 foot fence around it. So this year they started nesting again. But this spring we also put a small birdhouse behind the garden, back by the alley, by the compost pile, about 4 feet off the ground. This birdhouse was claimed by house wrens. The swallows stayed around for several weeks, and then suddenly disappeared. The wrens are still here.

Hmmm.... I can only think that
1. The birdhouses are too close
2. The wrens are too territorial

Sad to see the swallows go, but I sure do love to hear the wrens. Their little gurgling song always makes me smile.

The garden is going well. The corn is growing inches each day, the potatoes are coming up, tomatoes are blooming, kale is doing well, beets are doing well, carrots doing well. My only disappointment is the melon seeds. They never did sprout. And now it's too late to plant. Our growing season is too short - only about 80-90 days.

Well, that's all from the Porch in Roundup. Happy Flag Day everyone. Wave it proudly. No matter what is happening, we still live in the best country in the world. Amen and Hallelujah. God is in control. He's got this.




Queen Norma Jean