GumBalls, Storm Clouds and Black-Eyed Peas
Sometime in my past and echoed repeatedly annually is the idea of carefully selecting activities on New Year’s Day as that influences the year’s events. Along with making resolutions or choosing a word to focus on for the year, it holds a nugget of inspiration or truth. Some of those adages were passed on by my German fore-bears who also gifted me with the idea of persistence—perhaps to my detriment at times
But that is neither here or there—and it is time to describe the day.
We have had unseasonably warm weather here on the Gulf Coast of Texas—almost 90 on many days. We are promised freezing temps on Sunday night—and that means covering up my English peas and our jasmine. The narcissus are on their own–already nearly a foot tall but no buds in sight.
We decided to take a walk in a nearby city park; as rain was promised/threatened/suggested we wanted something close enough to the car we could retreat quickly if needed.
Wuthering Heights is located near the private school two of our boys attended. I walked the path multiple mornings on the days I drove car-pool. It is a lovely piece of wooded land flanked by a strip mall, single family homes, apartment complex, and backs up to the private school’s greatly expanded campus. It was purchased and donated to the city by a woman who was fond of Wuthering Heights instead of development into an industrial complex.
Pathways abound now, with fancifully painted benches.
Several other people were out enjoying the day, some with dogs, some not. The sun peeked out from time to time.
Of course the dogs had to stop and sniff things–so many wonderful new smells. And people who dared to ride a bicycle on the street.
A few drops of rain suggested we might want to return home—-
it was time to start the black-eyed peas and sweet/sour stir-fried cabbage.
Sylvia Weir Art 