Scavenging and scouring.

Though I didn’t get to bed in time last night, I’m early getting up this morning, because when the summer comes we intend to have a routine of one two hours earlier than usual. It will be necessary what with the electricity being so expensive, and the air-conditioner needing way too much of it.

I am a tad tired after such a short night, but I’m also determined to get in a workout today, so I hurry on down to the house to get to it.
After almost a month without the familiar routines, it takes some getting used to but in the end, I get into swing and go through today’s workout without too much effort.

It’s actually quite invigorating, and the punches, kicks, steps and jumps get me properly sweaty in the hour that passes.

Once done, I have a quick shower, eat breakfast and then get to work on the day’s edit. We get quite a bit done today. A total of seventeen pages get treated during the hours that pass until it is time to head out. Admittedly we take an hour longer on the edit, but since we’re not intending to build today anyway, it doesn’t really matter.

It is the plan that we’ll head out to the same location as yesterday, instead, taking mom with us, and perhaps even have a little picnic while we’re looking for rocks and more plants that we can use for the garden.

We spend more than two hours roaming through the woods, climbing up the mountains and down into gullies and valleys that appeared to have been rivers at some point. Scampering across the rocky trails, we find little treasures everywhere we go and crisscross our way back and forth to the car.

We’ve got at least twenty plants and several handfuls of rocks by the time we decide that it’s time to end our little outing. There’s wild thyme, rosemary, and a tiny Carob. Some stone oaks, virgin palms…which is what grandpa calls them anyway…they don’t look like palms at all, but that’s what he calls them. They look more like vines with lovely delicate little blue flowers. They are definitely the prizes of today’s outing.

We also manage to unearth this tiny little palm, a sprout that will actually look like one once it grows, and two finger sized spruces along with a slightly bigger one. I managed to pry it from between a crack in a huge rock, and if it makes the transition, it’ll be beautiful, I’m sure.

We get quite a bit of exercise today, basically running up and down rocky slopes, fully invigorated by the fresh and sunny spring air that is filled with the scents of wild herbs, pines and rich clay dirt that is still wet from the recent rain.

With most of our collection in the car, little sister and I decide to walk ahead already. She’s enjoying the trip in the “wild” and while we cross at a mile or so, just strolling over the path, enjoying the quiet and heavily scented air, I tell her of when we traveled through India, which was before her time.

Gawd, sometimes it is hard to believe that more than twenty years have passed since we went there. The memories are often so very clear. I’m going to have to post the story over here some day. I did write it down and it would be a shame not to share it. Maybe sometime this week. We’ll see.

By the time we get home and lay out our eclectic collection in the back of the truck, all the small bushes look a little like bonsai trees to me, which is cute to say the least.
It’s already dark by the time we finish potting our finds and store them in an old bathtub so the dogs won’t barge over them.

While we were gone, little brother decided to make my vegetable bread for dinner, and when I enter the house, the scent of it makes my mouth water. The dogs are insane, of course. They always are even if we’ve been gone for only five minutes, and an orchestra of howls greets me when I arrive in the kitchen, more than ready for a meal. Before I can sit down and enjoy dinner, however, I need to tackle the laundry. The dry needs to be taken down and the new needs to be hung.

Rather than do dinner first, I stuff a slice of the bread in my mouth, adding some cheese for the sheer pleasure of it, and then head out into the courtyard to get the chore over and done with. While I’m folding the dry clothes and sheets, I’ve got two sandwiches of the bread covered with cheese and they are baking on the stove. Once I’m done I dig in and then set up my computer.

On TV an episode of “CSI” plays, but I hardly pay it any attention while I do some more proofreading. The evening comes to a ridiculously fast end, sending me up to my cabin yawning like mad and more than eager to get some sleep.

I’m officially bushed. Hah.