Day 21 (7/5/12): Fireworks, Take 2

This morning I treated myself to a blueberry Fage greek yogurt, something I had treated myself to while at Hannaford’s yesterday with Kenya.  This morning I spent my time hoe-weeding the footpaths of the herb garden and suckering and wrapping the tomatoes.  The tomatoes have gotten to a point in their growth where I now had to break off all the branches below the branch cradling the bottom set of tomatoes.   The branches below the cradling branch are no longer needed, for tomatoes will only start growing at the top of the tomato plant, so these bottom branches are only wasting the plant’s energy.   

I was especially eager for this lunch time, not only because there were delicious leftovers from the picnic the day before (vegetable lasagna, barbecue chicken, dill potato salad, cole slaw, sauerkraut, aioli), but also because I’ve been feeling a splinter in the ball of my left foot all day.  This is weird because I can’t be barefoot for my plantar fasciitis, although I do remember being barefoot for 5 minutes the night before (just my luck!).  The splinter wasn’t visible, so it must have been really stuck in my foot, but I still sterilized a needle and tweezers with a match and gauged out a chunk of my foot in hopes to grab that splinter while I was at it.  I guess something happened because although my foot hurt the rest of the day from my surgery, I couldn’t feel anymore splinters.  

Jillian and I would be hoe-weeding field 7 for the rest of the day, the field I call ‘the jungle’ because of its densely weedy footpaths.  Mary said to just go wild on them – little does she know that that’s always my motto, but a girl only has so much energy in sunny 90 degree weather.  Thankfully Jillian was with me, and we talked a lot about Carleton and Williams, their similarites/differences, and why we go to college in general.  What would our society be like without residential post-secondary education?  Amidst our discussions, I noticed that ‘the boys’ had gotten loose.  One of Gil’s steer was munching on weeds next to Field 7 while the other was munching on soybeans and corn plants in Field 6.  I sprung into action, remembering only parts of what Kenya had taught me about the steer, and grabbed 2 sticks for steering the boys for Jillian and myself.  I gave Jillian rather incoherent instructions to bring the steer closest to us up to the barn and to find Gil, while I dashed to the other steer, Red, hoping to save some crops.  Mission accomplished.  Although quite a few crops had been eaten, we got the steer to safety despite our little knowledge of how to steer them.  

Uphill from Field 7 are some older neighbors who have a grand backyard full of flora, themselves.  I often see the couple tending to their plants throughout the day, but I’ve never said a word to them.  Today, the woman greeted Jillian and me.  Now that we’re friends, I dream of nice Mrs. Shapoo (fun name, huh?) bringing out lemonade for us in the blistering heat like the kind neighbors do in the movies.  A girl can dream…

I sent Jillian up at 5:15, since it’s still only her 3^rd day of work, but I stayed out until 6.  After pumping my bike tires with air (finally), Jillian and I prepared dinner for the family and we awaited Kenya and Katie’s return from the Waterville Farmer’s Market.  

The fireworks had been rescheduled for tonight!  We headed down early to get good seating, but mainly to go bridge jumping.  The town of Belgrade Lakes is centered around a dam where Long Pond and Great Pond connect to each other.  Next to this dam is a small bridge, about 4-6 ft up from the water.  Every year the kids look forward to bridge jumping, followed by watching the fireworks.  However much fun I had swimming as a kid, I share little of that excitement for the water now.  I simply don’t enjoy being dunked into cold water.  Thankfully the water was on the warmer side, and we had so much fun.  We all did cannonballs and we jumped off the bridge holding hands.  However, Gil refused to jump off holding my hand, even though I gave him a beautiful rock for a present, and I wouldn’t let Kenya dive in, we couldn’t see to the bottom of the pond.  After we’d had our fill of frolicking in the water, we were walking back to our seats to watch the fireworks when Jillian found a chunk of money on the ground.  We each got $1.  What a find!  

And, oh, the fireworks.  They’re one of my most favorite things in the world.  My favorite I call the princess fireworks.  They blew up the largest of them all, falling like a golden willow with deep fuscia lights at the end of each ‘branch.’  I felt like a kid again, sitting with my friends on the rocks right next to the water.  I could feel the pound of each burst in my chest and I listened to the roaring echoes of the booms down the pond and between the hills.  

What a lovely night.