2006-08-05

Saturdays are special to me because I give myself permission to work on things I do not do during the work week. After Morning Offering I went downstairs to the basement to organize presents that had come in from two wonderful catalog sales at the Smithsonian and Levenger and to wrap them. This took me all day, with a delightful break at lunch where Jim and I went out and did our various errands together, the usual mix of groceries, pharmacy, health food store and Hallmark store, with a maintenance run to Louisville tractor for Jim, as one of his mowers was ready to pick up after some repairs.

Jim had cooked before lunch. Afterwards he went to the nursery to find more arbor vitae trees to block the ongoing shenanigans of our neighbors to the south. They created for themselves a two-car garage on the opposite side of their house to us, but they use the gravel path they have dumped over the grass right next to our yard instead for their parking. It is unconscionable of them to abuse our kindness like this, but we shall try the privacy hedge and see if that will reduce the noise and disturbance sufficiently so that we do not have to take legal action.

Meanwhile I went back to wrapping and by gardening time had gotten a good bit done. However I am not finished, which is not surprising, given that most of the Christmas list is filled with really nice gifts which have been ordered, thanks to these excellent sales. It’s OK not to finish yet – Christmas is still a bit of a ways off! But I promise you, I love to get that last gift wrapped, no matter how early that is. Then I know I can relax and enjoy the season without hassle when Christmas rolls around!

Out in the garden, I played tag with the sprinkler, collecting day-lily canes all over the back yard. Jim waters the whole yard a couple of times a week when it starts getting dry in August, which it normally does. Fortunately for that plan, we have unlimited water from the Ohio at an inexpensive cost. I can now say that all the lily canes that are ready to come up are harvested! I shall need to go back over the yard in a couple of weeks and pull the ones that are still holding on.

I was amazed to note just how extensive are the wild rambling rose’s and the wild grapevine’s incursions into the plantings along Little Locust and the garage lilies. Weeding those out will be my next target, since the vines are so large.

Gary and I had a planning meeting today to re-envision the placement of the Homecoming for 2006 over Labor Day. We have a dozen or so people signed up as of now, and The Executive Inn plans were for 30 to 50 people. So we made a whole new plan and moved the venue to Camelot, where we have had all previous Homecomings – Wooded Glen, last year, was our first foray out into the world.

We will be doing a lot of discussing, and so Gary and I went around the yard identifying places to meet, for we will be breaking into two groups to discuss each chakra, then getting back together to wind up the discussion of each chakra as a group. We found three nice places outside: the gazebo, the arbor and the back yard itself with chairs set out, as well as two places inside: the kitchen area and the living room.

The change of venue saves the participants the cost of the hotel and I think food will be cheaper for the group also than if we were to eat three meals a day at the hotel restaurant. And I think there is a lot of good energy here at Camelot which the participants will enjoy.

Gary said he would send out a letter to all participants on this matter by tomorrow. I think it is a good change. There’s something special about meeting in a home as opposed to a hotel. I am glad we have a small enough group to do this.

Jim finished catching up on the backlog of Amazon orders and cleaned the kitchen while I wrapped some more presents and then we had supper and the Gaia Meditation before heading upstairs for a late night snuggle, saying good night around midnight.