Dear Reader:

I am not a big fan of “blustery days”…on many levels.

Teachers are part-time meteorologists/astrologers when it comes to understanding the connection between the weather and their students’ behavior…or lack of….  Experienced teachers know that a blustery day produces “antsy” students…if it were windy on the way to school I just sighed…it was going to be a long day.

Of course all teachers know that the full moon brings out the werewolf in the vast majority of students….even those sweet students (you can usually count on to help pass out papers and tell the other students to “shush”) reveal their fangs when the moon is full.

So if, perchance, you get a full moon and a blustery day together… the wise teacher knows to call in sick and get a poor substitute to go where ‘no man has gone before’ and return home sane.

I will have to say, however, it was Hurricane Hugo that instilled the fear of wind in me which I have never quite gotten over….

Thursday evening when I returned from Columbia I thought I had a mystery on my hands. It was just starting to turn dark but I still had my sunglasses on. In my left hand I was holding a few packages (of course we went shopping….it’s what girls do when we get together) and with my right hand I was pulling the storm door open with the keys dangling from my teeth (cute, huh?) when I tripped over something.

“Oh no!” it was Big Red who had toppled off the white bench and my “Boo’s Blessing” sign was haphazardly lying over part of it. All the water had run out so I quickly got her picked back up…but left the “Boo Blessing” sign down…it is so light I knew it wouldn’t stay up there for long. Then I watered “Big Red” and went in to think about who or what could have done this.

It just didn’t seem possible that the wind could topple “Big Red” in her heavy container. I wondered if a cat had climbed up on the bench but haven’t seen one do that since Lucy and she never knocked over “Big Red.” It was a true mystery.

Then Friday morning I put the “Boo Blessing” sign back up and  I went to CVS to pick up my Z-Pak and Continental Corner to get my lemon chicken soup. I glanced at the porch as I pulled in and everything was right in place. I breathed a sign of relief.

But just as I began to open the storm door I heard this eerie whistle of wind and abruptly the storm door handle jerked me forcefully forward… as it flew shut, the “Boo Blessing” plaque started flying around the porch like a satellite landing partially on my head (it is very light) and since I cut off the one large stem that had broken and was dragging the porch floor….the other stems have shot up taller…so “Big Red” is now a little bit top-heavy.

Thus, its stems were, precariously, swaying, and if I hadn’t been there to grab the planter…there is no doubt it would have toppled once again….who would have thought it?

So anything that hurts “Big Red” is not a friend of mine.

Finally, as a gardener, it is frustrating to have a nice rain come and save you from watering….only to have vicious winds blow in the next few days following the rain and dry everything right back up again….leaving the gerber daisies crying out for more water.

So until tomorrow… the “Boo” is not a “Blustery Day” fan by a long shot. But I am a fan of all the other blessings in my life….so when the blustery days come  we must ride them out and appreciate the calm sunny ones  even more.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I took my Iphone out to the garden to take pictures of the trees, plants, and garden flags swaying in the windy gusts (yesterday) but I discovered something new. (Just like the day when I stopped on Highway 61 to try to capture the beautiful fall leaves cascading over my car and myself, like a snowfall, only to discover that I was unable to catch one leaf falling in the lenses…some moments in life are simply meant to be seen, felt, and enjoyed…. but never captured for posterity.

There is another lesson here….photos freeze the moment making it inaccurate on certain occasions….the only photo that infers it is windy was the garden flag flying “at half mast.” All the other photos froze the action thus deceiving the viewer from seeing the blustery day.

 If I were teaching the skill “inference” this is the only accurate photo I could use to ask the students: “What type of day (weather-wise) can you infer from this photo? ” A. rainy b. cloudy c. windy d. none of the above   Why?

These are the other photos I took in the garden but, as you can tell, with the click of the Iphone the photo was frozen… leaving the wind completely out of the accuracy of the memory of this day. Years from now…I would think it was just another beautiful day in the garden….and you know what…it was!