Gardening Around the Weather

Wow. That's quite a feat these days, isn't it? We went from severe thunderstorm warnings and tons of rain each day to severe heat warnings and no rain each day. We put things in the ground as we could, thinking that something was better than nothing. I went out at 6:00 this morning to water before the heat really set in. I have to water at the roots because if there is water on the plant when the hot sun hits it, it will scorch the plant. So, I drag the hose around from plant to plant trying to give everything a good drink. This morning I had a ground hornet that kept coming in for an attack. Normally if I wave my hands around a little I can chase them away. Not this morning. If anyone was watching it must have been quite the sight. I would start out by waving my hand a little and telling it to go away. It would volley around me with intensive buzzing so I would step up the waving. When that didn't work I would take off the hat I was wearing and wave it around. He would start darting around me faster and the buzzing would increase. (Was it really louder or was my now-flowing adrenaline making my sense of hearing keener?) Not having any success I would start waving the hand holding the hose. He seemed to enjoy that challenge and stepped up his maneuvering. Now I am in an all-out attack mode. In order to save my life I now know the only thing I have left is to deftly aim a stream of water at him hoping (and praying) for a direct hit. It worked! He's gone! Hooray! Sweet victory!

Unfortunately, I had to repeat that scenario four times. I decided to add some vocabulary to what turned out to be my final counter-attack and just as things were really getting heated up my husband came around the corner of the house and asked what was wrong. "Don't worry," he said, "I'll get him." My hero.

Apparently, after seeing that the reinforcements had arrived, the little kamikaze rethought things, realized he was outdone, and didn't show up again. (Figures, doesn't it?)

Nancy