Christopher Donahue

It was a tough growing season for tomatoes. At the start, I could not have imagined the impact of having ground hogs (a.k.a. wood chucks) decimating the plants in my and the neighbors gardens.

Basically, the first several crops of tomatoes in July and August never made to harvest because the ground hogs ate them all. As noted form previous blogs,  I plant with expectation of losing some but no tomatoes all my tomatoes.  Eventually, the ground hogs became such a pest my neighbor had them trapped. It was all unfortunate.   But that wasn’t the last of the unfortunate effect.

My old neighbor had to complain about them every morning.

Now my neighbor is a dear elderly man and a wonderful neighbor.  He lost his wife several years ago and spends lots of time in his elaborate garden.  But every morning when came out of the house in the summery morning quiet and beauty  he had to complain about the “sonsofbitches” and “bastards” who were eating his tomatoes.

“Don’t they know this is my hobby and I just spent good money on these plants,” he would ask…EVERY MORNING!!!

And the answer is , No they don’t!

So much for starting each summer day in  positive way.

But, it is all okay now.   I have a big, bag of harvested green tomatoes. And a whole winter to decide what to do for next year!

copyright Christopher Donahue 2024

The sky is clear this first Autumn evening. The wind is cool and there’s an exhilarating  hint of burning wood in the air. It’s a beautiful warm starry night. The temperature feels like summer and I’m barefoot in shorts and a t-shirt.

But I know it can’t last.

Because even in the dark, the leaves are changing colors!

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

The first few weeks of August I usually get a terrible night’s sleep. And that’s because I”m expecting the annual Perseid meteor shower. Meteor showers are best observed after midnight of course.

But this night, my wife’s screaming and a nudge woke me up.

Rustle’s got a mouse! He’s got a mouse!

Re-booting my brain from a deep slumber I groggily sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Quiet Rustle was jumping on and off the mattress.  I couldn’t find my glasses so, beside my waking brain, everything else was foggy too.

But sure enough, I saw a dark lump protruding from Rustle’s mouth.

I grabbed a paper towel and Rustle. Thanking him profusely for his fine work and gift, I gently removed the seemingly otherwise fine mouse from Rustle’s mouth and staggered outside.

Stumbling barefoot down the driveway in the dark,  I placed the mouse on the grass alongside. The terrified mouse darted off. I happened to glance up and what to my wondering eyes did appear but a stunning  conjunction of Mars and Jupiter.

I was now fully awake, standing in my underwear in the driveway looking at the stars.

On a lovely summer night no less.

In the morning, it would all seem like a dream.

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

My wife’s nephew recently traveled to Guam to work on a project for the U.S. Navy. We decided to add some extra fun to our morning routine by asking Alexa for the Guam weather report each day.

Checking daily for most of July, the Guamanian weather was uncannily similar to Boston, MA; mid-nineties with an inescapable, permeating, stultifying humidity. Now, hazy, hot and humid is standard for New England summers. That’s nothing special. But, what is strange for these parts is that the obligatory thunder shower doesn’t signal the switch to cool weather. Instead, the thunderstorms come through, there’s an epic dousing and back to the Three H’s.

Well, we’ve been meaning to take a trip. Now, all we have to do during morning coffee is close our eyes and imagine we’re in Hagatna, Guam, USA!!!

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

Everything was going tolerably well with the tomato garden this year.

Until, the Woodchuck turned up.

Over the years in our suburban  backyard, we’ve had squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, chipmunks and skunks. Since the pandemic, there has been a ridiculous amount of bunnies running around which I’ve discussed in other blogs.

But the woodchuck is something else. He or she has denuded all kinds of small plants from eggplants to peppers. And that’s way before the plants were close to harvest. I would put a plant in and the next day when I went to water the plant would be sad looking twigs.

This is a new wrinkle in my yearly gentleman farmer adventures.

I think it best that I adapt to the woodchuck.

I don’t think he or she will be adapting to me!

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

Things can change quite a bit in a year, especially with tomatoes.

The excessive rain and resulting poor harvests the past years two, made me put less plants in the ground this season. Instead of my usual twelve, I am going with ten. But this year, the plants are bursting with tomatoes even though we’ve had  a lot of rain.  The tomatoes are green,  but there’s been enough sun to promise a bountiful harvest.

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And that’s a good thing. Every year, I  plant extra tomatoes so I can give them to co-workers, the neighbor, postman etc..But, I also plant extra to cover for loss due to voracious bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels and now groundhogs who would like to taste  green tomatoes.

It’s important to have enough for everybody!

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

These past few months, I have been battling blog-block.   Though there’s always something to write about, I just haven’t been able to  find the time to sit down and actually write.

This thought came to me the other morning as I was watering my tomatoes. The birds were chirping,the bees were humming in a flowering bush, and my tomatoes were thriving in their little patch.

And then I noticed, what appeared at a distance, to be little potatoes on the lawn. It was strange sight and as I focused I  noticed the darted right into the bushes. They weren’t potatoes at all but little baby bunnies. By my estimation this has to be the third batch of bunnies this year. Then they darted off.

And I thought, someone should blog about this….

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

Memorial Day weekend is drawing to a close. And before the threatening dark clouds give way to a down-burst, I planted my last three tomato plants.  This year I am rolling with eight plants instead of ten.  I’ve mixed in a few peppers and lettuce.

With all the worrisome (understatement) stuff going on in the world it is nice to be out in the yard tending to the garden. The bunnies are back and that makes me happy too.   The adult bunnies are not very wary of me but the tiny new bunnies dart off when I approach/.  They are the cutest and they are about “big” as my hand.

Spring is definitely underway.

A happy and reflective Memorial Day to all!

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

Hey! I won honorable mention again in the Friends of the West Roxbury Library poetry contest! I’m happy.  The theme was “wonder” and I spied a bust of Shakespeare that inspired the poem. (see bottom of page)

One Hundred Year Celebration

I wonder what

the Bard is thinking

surveying the library

for lovers of verse

from his perch

placed by the West Roxbury Shakespeare Classes

in 1924

I wonder what

the Bard is thinking

hearing the joy of our contest

of our odes and sonnets and sestinas

as we work and play with words

’till poems comes forth

in 2024

Copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue

inscription      the Bard

My parents grew up in the Depression. Creature comforts were scare and probably never more so than during the Christmas season.

And that’s why it was a big deal in the 1930s when my Mom and Dad would get a box of “Clementines” tangerines and a bag of pistachios.

The years have gone by Christmastime is here again. My mom passed more than a decade ago and my Dad passed in April.

This is the first Christmas I will have without either parents. (Don’t be sad I’m old).

But it won’t be the last Christmas with Clementines and Pistachios!

copyright 2024 Christopher Donahue