Long Walks On Leafy Streets

7/28/2013 Boulevar Luis Ferre, Ponce, Puerto Rico.
The past week the weather has been markedly cooler in Washington, DC. Highs mostly in the 80’s with cool breezes and occasional rain. Wonder if we brought the Puerto Rico weather home with us! It is the most pleasant in the mornings, sometimes getting down into the 60’s. Although at first it was a bit of a surprise and it appeared that I might even catch a cold, now the body has gotten used to it and I am actually enjoying it.
As I write I can hear the sound of the metro train making its familiar rat-a-tat sound as it hurries past on its tracks not far from our house. It is something that I love about this house. My grandmother’s house in Ernakulam, Kerala was also near the tracks. We used to enjoy watching the trains pass by, waving to the passengers. I also enjoyed walking on the tracks. Perhaps because of that I enjoy listening to the trains. Now and then the deep rumble of a freight train or an Amtrak train could be heard.
Trains have a romantic feeling attached to them, perhaps because they were one of the earliest travel machines. Maybe it is the combination of that aura of history along with the image of them arriving gradually from the distance, like an enchanting stranger on horseback arriving from a far away land.
Except for the sound of the trains this is a generally quiet Sunday morning. The warehouses behind our home are not humming with the usual beeping and revving of the loading trucks. Because of the rains from last night I don’t have to water the plants. The plants and the grass must be enjoying the moisture in the soil and the air on this cloudy day. In the backyard there was a rosebush when we moved in. We added blueberries, a cranberry bush, hibiscus plant, and late this summer I sowed some zucchini and pepper seeds. In the front yard we planted a coreopsis and an aster plant, both native to this area (as are the berry plants). All the plants except the berries are flowering and small zucchini fruits are coming out. The cranberry and the rosebush have been attacked by insects but are surviving. The pepper seeds never sprouted for reasons I do not understand.
It is nice to be able to wake up and have a relaxed day without any chores to do. I finished mowing the lawn yesterday, just as the rains arrived. I like to do the mowing when the grass is dry. Wet grass is harder to cut, I think, especially with a push-mower that is not powered by gas or electricity. As I started walking back and forth pushing the mower the clouds were getting darker and darker. Fortunately I was able to hurry up and finish it before it started pouring. A sudden and jolting bolt of thunder told me it was time to stop. I rushed to put the mower back in its place and scurry back inside the house.
Earlier in the week I had cut the grass where it was hard to reach with a mower and also removed some weeds. Although at this time in the summer a lush green carpet of grass has taken over the yards there are still some weeds that pop up obstinately, such as the buckhorn plantain. At first it seems like a chore and hard to remove them all by hand. In fact I have had several kind neighbors offer help by lending their mower or providing advice on using weed-killers. I had to politely refuse their offer, telling them that I prefer cutting by hand and not burning gas or using electricity, and that I do not like to use harmful chemicals on the soil. But it really takes only a half an hour or an hour at the most, four or five days a month. It gives me an opportunity to exercise my hands and also breathe in the fresh air and be with the soil and the plants. Also once I settle down it gives me an opportunity to calm down and focus my mind. I can feel a certain peacefulness enter into my mind after working on the weeds and the plants for some time.

Directory Previous