sweet potato harvest in the lot

The neighbors are harvesting their sweet potatoes in our lot, where in the 1950s my parents had a garden.  A team of horses pulled a shovel beneath the row and brought to light the several varieties.  Next they pulled them to the top of the mound to dry before packing them.

mysterious hieroglyphics

Sunday night reading in bed, I heard a thunderous roar of a crowd of Amish youth,  after the singing at the next door neighbors,some walking past our house, some at a distance.  A primal scream?  A ritual of that gang's leaving after a day of volleyball and singing by gas lanterns?

Today a silvery marking on the zelkova tree caught my eye.  Youth on a rampage marking territory, or doing graffiti?  Some ancient spirit writing hieroglyphics as a warning, as a sign.  Or, a lost snail confused about which way is up in the dark. Or two snails' courtship, leaving their slime which in sunshine turns visible.

All speculation.

first corn picking

Here's the first picking of my sweet corn this week.  On May 26 I planted 4 rows of Butter and Sweet.  Maturity was supposed to be 75 later.  But I picked it 70 days later and it was a little too old.  We froze this picking here and got 8 pints of frozen.  There's nothing quite like walking down your rows of corn the first picking.  Three weeks after May 26 I planted 4 more rows, to spread out the harvest.

neighbor's house demolition begins

Sharp at 7 this morning the crew took power saws, crow bars, and hammers to the neighbor's house.  They had already moved into the new house behind the old one.