Rain, Gardens, Writing Books and Temptation

It rained last night, even though the forecast when I went to bed was for clear skies. What a pleasure to wake up about 5 a.m. to the sound of steady rain. After a cool and relatively wet July, August was very dry, so despite a heavy thunder shower a week ago, the grass on the lawns on our street look pretty sad. Leaves have started falling too—not the brilliant red and yellow ones we should see in October, but brown, almost burned looking ones. Many trees appear to have suffered along with the grass. How much good this lovely little rain will do remains to be seen, but it's a step in the right direction.

Some things have done well this summer, however. We had a lot of pears, although all were eaten by the squirrels. And the hostas in back have spread so they are taking up far too much space. The plan for today is make a trip to the nursery to see what I can find to replace at least some of them. Then I’ll dig them up, and plant something new. I may even get some daffodils planted before November which is when I usually get around to that task.

All of this means, of course, that I have plenty of other things to think about when I really should be working on the next book. This summer I’ve been reading and trying to start to write something that will be called (I think) Haussmann’s Boulevards to Jane Jacobs Street: An Unpedestrian Look at Walking in the City. I had a pretty good outline when I started and I’ve got maybe 50 pages roughed out. But writing is something that I like having done, and at this point, the “having done” won’t come for quite a while. Must get crackin’ though because Véhicule Press will bring it out in 2008, which means, working back, that I shouldn’t be spending too much more time spinning my wheels…or dreaming about gardens…or maybe writing blogs.