still life with ranunculus
Yesterday, I was grouchy, crabby, melancholy, in a funk.
I kind of felt like this:
So, I decided to take my own advice and run it out. I hadn’t been in a while and I figured that was probably the main cause of my problem.
On my way out the door, I looked again at the tall grasses in my garden that really, really, really need to be cut down… but I always put that off as long as possible because I hate doing it I always get a blister it is such a pain but I can’t clean anything else in my garden until I do that because if there is any wind at all it will just be another total mess and (pause for breath) okay. I went running.
Well, I tried, but my allergies are terrible right now so I couldn’t breathe and then I was grumpier grouchier and mad and frustrated but hey wait the sun it is shining it is 80 degrees 80! in April and I just passed this guy walking along the same trail as me and reading a book. Reading a book! while he walked (pause for breath).
And then I smiled.
I passed him on the way up and the way back, which meant he covered about two miles, book held up in front of him, paying no attention whatsoever to people passing him, the beautiful day, the sunshine. Paying no attention to anything at all, except his book.
And the sun was out and the frogs in the pond I was passing were peeping louder than the Counting Crows song I had playing in my ear. At first I thought it was part of the song I had never noticed. But then I stopped and turned the music off. And listened. It was frogs, peeping their little hearts out. And that made me smile, again.
So I went home and I tackled that grass, yes, tackled it, and there was cursing, and there was a blister and there was mud up to my ankles when I was done. And I was sweaty and the sun was shining and it was 80 degrees, 80! and all of a sudden, I felt like this:
Then I took a shower and I realized that for the first time since last October I was walking around the house barefoot, and I went outside and had a glass of wine in my garden. Aaahhhh.
And the moral of the story is:
Ranunculus.
Isn’t that the best word, ever?
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 am
i keep reading how many of us were in kind of funk yesterday….i wonder what that’s all about….and what you wrote fit me perfectly.
it was 80 degrees here and i should have been dancing and instead i was a tough cookie to be around…..
but with a walk around my favorite pond, photographing birds and ducks and then feeling totally at peace when i saw that our sandhill cranes had returned and that they stood unbothered as i kept getting closer to them…well then all was good again in my little world.
and yes….i was barefoot all day, too 🙂
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:24 am
I love how you write!
Book while walking? Crazy…but not as crazy as reading while driving…saw it yesterday. Made me want to follow him and give him a piece of my mind!
Barefoot in the garden is the best. Glad you got to enjoy it. 🙂
Liz
Loving This Mom Stuff
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
Thanks! I saw someone reading a book while driving just the other day, too. And felt the same way as you.
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
You are a better woman than I. I would’ve walked it, but not while reading a book – what is THAT about? 🙂 Today feels like spring at last, though it’s been warm here all week, and will probably rain later, and that is such a mood lifter. We are part of nature after all, animals, and it’s cellular, we hear the call of moving, and sing our own birdsong, and we do it in bare feet. Enjoy!!!!!
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Barefoot in the garden. Y-E-S-S!!! And – I do love that word!!!
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I officially declare myself Mrs. Mediocrity’s biggest fan.
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
smarty pants.
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Ranunculus IS the best word ever! I used it in a floral design today; hot pink papery petals make me swoon. I’m bringing some home for the weekend and watching them unfurl.
Here too, 80. Way too hot too soon for me. But that is not a complaint. 🙂
Your writing is the bees knees. xo
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:46 pm
oh thank you, you are too kind! I know what you mean, too hot to soon, not a complaint but it is a bit weird, I think this happened last year too, no spring, right from winter to summer!
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I also declare myself your biggest fan! (Sorry Quinn – you’ll have to share!)
Wow… yesterday I was in a funk too. Thank goodness G. managed to deal with my poor articulation of how I felt and what I needed – so the winding down at an outside cafe with a jazz quartet playing on the street was a welcome oasis moment in my grumbly funk.
Awesome blog post, Mrs. M.! You really captured the Ranunculus rambling of a moody mind!
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I have scratches from pruning rose bushes…all 20 of them! I found a wonderful way to cut down those grasses…a chain saw…yep…worked like a charm. Had them all down in less than an hour. No blisters! Love your blog.
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Thank you! I have heard of that but ours is broken so I haven’t tried it…someone also once told me to burn them down, bad idea. (wooden lattice close by). But next year…time for a new chain saw!
April 4th, 2010 at 2:30 am
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