Texas Summer

 

I woke up early for a Saturday but

 

not as early

 

as I, as a rule, do.

 

 

 

The weather today:

 

typical Texas late June,

 

90’s with high humidity.

 

This litany of weather will remain

 

more or less unchanged

 

except the final degree of heat,

 

as it ascends to the

 

century mark and beyond…

 

 

 

I slipped out in the early hours, to the garden

 

to gather anything I found

 

worth picking: 

 

a double handful of green bush beans,

 

Serrano and jalapeno peppers, abound-

 

almost thirty orange cherry tomatoes

 

glow like amber jewels to be plucked,

 

six full size tomatoes

 

that will join the

 

plentiful harvest on

 

three wooden shelves

 

in the sunny, western facing

 

window

 

Below that window rests

 

two buckets bearing more…

 

 

 

Today…

 

I make salsa

 

or spaghetti sauce.

 

 

 

The crop was good this Spring.