Sabbath Thoughts

The Millers River on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail. My wife, Allison took this one morning while trying to tire out the dog.

It rained yesterday. What a relief!  There could have been more, though.  The clouds lasted most of the day and there was a steady drizzle, particularly as we got ready for church in the morning.  The soft and fertile soil of the raised beds seemed to have absorbed it reasonably well.  Still, when I planted some gift herbs (thanks to a friend who read of my distress a couple posts ago), I made sure to water them thoroughly.  Also, when I took the last of those plants--probably an enthusiastic but pot-locked version of marjoram--directly in the ground today, the hot, sandy soil was dry as a bone.  I soaked that plant as well.

Today is my "sabbath day"...in a sense.  It is the one day of the week when I am definitively "off" from work.  Errands get done. So does the garden.  There are always household tasks, too. This morning's first task, for example, was to make sure we could get the door off its hinges to accept delivery of a refrigerator in a couple days.  The fridge is the smallest and cheapest "full-sized" one we can find.  Our house, however, is built for a time before appliance escalation.  With the door off...maybe...we will be able to preserve our new food. 

That is all in the future, though.  The old fridge died spectacularly yesterday. It is conventional wisdom that when you move, the appliances in your new place will start to die.  Sometimes there is truth in these common beliefs.

After the door project, the dog and I took a long walk.  We back on to the M&M trail.  Our section--not surprisingly--is road but you can go on for miles.  Theoretically I could have ended up on Mount Monadnock or at the Connecticut border.  The dog is named Carrigain, after my final peak on the NH 48 4,000 footers.  We will go the distance on the M&M, but not today. It would require camping or car spots...and I didn't bring any water.  So after dipping into the woods for a moment to cool off, we turned back around.  Still, it was around 4.5 miles on a beautiful day. 

A trailhead and parking lot for the M&M at the end of our walk this morning.

Now I am back.  This afternoon--after a meal of whatever the fridge hasn't destroyed--will be about making appointments.  There is a tree removal to set up.  The dog needs me to order more pills.  I should fold some laundry and catch up with friends if I can.  It is just the simple tasks of life, right?  We need a day for that sort of thing. 

For me that day is frequently Monday.  The most "sabbath" I get--at least in the way most people think of the term--is a Sunday afternoon when I don't have anything going on.  Then I will sit in front of the TV and cheer on whichever of my many teams happens to be playing.  That​ is relaxing....even when they are losing...which can be pretty frequently.

Whatever the body is doing on this sabbath, I appreciate the freedom of letting my mind wander a bit.  Today I have actually been thinking about that rain and heat.  Climate Change is real.  As I look at my small garden and consider larger dreams for the future, I wonder about expectations.  Maybe whatever berry bushes I order for the spring should be drought-tolerant or do well in the warmer "zones" that gardeners think about.  Certainly the lawn needs a different plan.  It crunches in places where I walk.  We will see what that marjoram plant does...

I found this article in the Boston Globe helpful. It says that within my lifetime we could have the sort of climate that Virginia has now.  That means different plants.  It makes me wonder what I can put outside to replace what is already there.  The lawn is a mix of things.  Someone many years ago must have put down grass seed.  However, wind and time have diversified the ground cover, which is fine with me. These days it is mostly clover and other low plants that survive being mowed occasionally.  In my planning I have a great deal of freedom.  I just left a place where the condition of one's lawn could be the topic of neighborhood gossip, judgement, and retribution.  That isn't the way in Farley.  

Anyway, if you can get through the paywall, I recommend it.  We will continue to move from grass to gardens, bushes, and flowers.  They have some suggestions as to how...

One-third of the big doors at the front of the church. They are key to cooling the sanctuary.

Yesterday in church we had to move back to the sanctuary from the air-conditioned Parish Hall where we had been meeting this summer.  There reason was wildlife.  A bat or bats had escaped from the belfry, which must be painfully hot, and began doing loops around the room.  The low ceiling would have made their motions rather...distracting.  So we decided to give them some space.  I remember early in my career preaching a sermon while a small bird flew about the sanctuary.  No one remembers what I said.  Least of all me.  There is only one sermon on a Sunday morning.  Sometimes nature is preaching.