{"id":163511,"date":"2026-09-13T07:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T11:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/?p=163511"},"modified":"2026-09-13T07:18:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T11:18:04","slug":"what-did-i-do-my-summer-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/?p=163511","title":{"rendered":"What Did I DO? My Summer Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Unlike winter\u2019s long dreary hold, summer always seems to fly by. The end of the season no longer includes back-to-school energy with all the excitement and stress. In those days, summer break was always a mixed bag so I wasn’t always sad to see the end of it. When my daughter was young, it could be challenging to figure out affordable camps and care that covered life as a single working mom with a limited amount of time off from work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I look back on the hot months of this year where nothing and nobody but me decided on my schedule and think: what did I do again? A question I often field from others now that I no longer work is: What do you do<\/em> now? I should make notes because the days and weeks look blurry when I look back. I like to think that\u2019s because I live in the present rather than fret about the past or the future. Thinking that makes me feel more evolved rather than doddery and old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The season of summer seems to have changed a bit. Or maybe it’s me. But doesn’t the earth feel warmer and the blaze of the sun almost unbearable? I can’t imagine actually sunbathing.<\/em> Or maybe it is another sign of my age that I shy away from being out in the scorching heat. Like a farmer, I wake early and step into the garden with my tea to assess the growth or, like the other day, the damage. The joy I felt in a recently planted redbud tree seedling was swallowed by the heartbreak of finding it almost snapped in half, its heart shaped leaves and tender branches eaten by rabbit or ground hog, I suspect. Ever-the-optimist I wrapped the damage with medical tape and placed netting around it to ward off any more critters. Time will tell but it may be too late. I’ll let you know.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other garden news, I transplanted a fig tree I\u2019ve had in a pot for years with nary a fig to show for it. I celebrated every leaf because new growth was so sparse. What was I doing wrong? Along with the never blossoming pomegranate tree and all the house plants, I always moved the fig inside with the frost. This summer, I liberated fig from its beautiful but now obviously too small pot and put it into the ground. It almost said \u2018ah!\u2019 in relief. Fig is now thriving. I can no longer count the leaves and new sprouts are appearing besides the lone stem I\u2019d babied for years. It just wanted out<\/em>, to literally spread its roots. No figs yet but it’s looking more hopeful. That’s all I need – a little hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The serviceberry tree freebie I received as part of a greening program in my city has grown a few feet since it was planted last summer. I miss the shade of the oak tree I had to take down last year. My handyman split and chopped it to perfect size and burning it kept me warm all last winter. I have a bit left and will once again thank each log before loading it into the stove.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I miss the oak I welcome the serviceberry and the sunny space I now have for a perennial garden. Flowers never grew out front before but now there’s plenty of light. There was only a small patch of daylillies, iris and ivy growing around the bird bath and in winter, the bird feeder. This summer I marked out a larger space using oak branches, smothered the grass with newspaper, soil and wood chips and planted more flowering shrubs and plants. Like everything else I do, it\u2019s a little slapdash and improvised as I tackle it in sections, but it’s looking good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is some of what I did this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I did my laundry and dried it on the clothesline. Washing in summer is one of my favorite things and again, like a farmer, I watch the weather to time it right. I haul the basket of wet clothes out of the basement to the porch from where I peg each sheet and shirt to swing in the breeze and sun. With these shorter days I must start earlier to capture the heat of the day.\u00a0Yes, my electric bill is low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passing of all the seasons for me is now primarily aligned with nature so I follow the light, flowers, and plants of the season. I\u2019m sad to see summer go but glad to reclaim the mid-day hours as it cools off again. And so the planet spins and time passes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlike winter\u2019s long dreary hold, summer always seems to fly by. The end of the season no longer includes back-to-school energy with all the excitement and stress. In those days, summer break was always a mixed bag so I wasn’t always sad to see the end of it. When my daughter was young, it could … Continue reading What Did I DO? My Summer Report<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[15,12,156,19],"class_list":["post-163511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seasonal-musings","tag-garden","tag-nature","tag-summer","tag-time"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPzTS-Gxh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163513,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163511\/revisions\/163513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}