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

My friend Joel is full of surprises. Last Saturday morning, he called to say he would be stopping by with the latest one.  We had no idea but looked forward expectantly!!!

Well, just imagine our surprise when Joel showed up with several barrels of fresh HORSE MANURE!   It was November and six months early for summer tomatoes but we nonetheless were very grateful.

With a friend like Joel… the horse must be next!!!

copyright 2023 Christopher Donahue

Every New Englander knows, mowing the leaves is an art not a science.

I was surveilling my back yard last weekend before raking the leave and then mowing the lawn. The lawn mowing would probably for the last time for the year. But,  the first thing I noticed was that there weren’t too many bright red and yellow leaves on the lawn at all. Maybe I could forgo raking and just mow the few leaves!   Just a few leaves wouldn’t make a mess and I could put the lawn mower away for the winter.

So, I did.

The lawn looked fine and  I let the lawnmower run out of gas. After that, I put the special fuel in for the winter, and my trusty lawnmower was ready for its long winter nap.

And then I fired up the snowblower for the first time this season!

The seasonal changing of the guard!!!

copyright 2023 Christopher Donahue

September is winding down and so is this soggy summer.  The incessant rains long ago  washed away year’s tomato crop.

And apparently, the monsoons washed away all the bunnies too. Once incredibly ubiquitous, the rabbits have basically disappeared from my back yard. I’m sure the bunnies were disappointed by the sparse tomato crop too. I can’t say that’s why they left or where all the bunnies went.

But, I do expect them all back in the spring!

And we’ll do it all over again!

copyright 2023 Christopher Donahue

A wet and soggy July is steaming to a sweltering end. I have no idea if the heat has anything to do with the start of the anthroprocene era, but an ice age would feel great right about now.

Unfortunately, it’s been raining so much my tomato plants are in terrible condition. Two of them have been re-planted to pots and put on the porch. The rain really has been extraordinarily heavy and consistent.

Hopefully, we get some heat and the green tomatoes will all ripen.

Otherwise, our annual BLT festival may be in peril.

copyright 2023 Christopher Donahue

Cold and rainy June is drawing to a close. And now’s the time to face the fact I must leave my warm nest and get outside. The problem is that since the pandemic and the lock downs I’m really comfy staying home. The pandemic basically unleashed my inner cozy and it’s still on the loose. In the house, with my cat and coffee and crosswords.

But with July beckoning with the best of Summer weather, there’s no better time to ditch my inner cozy and get out there to have fun and be sociable.

If only it would only stop raining.

copyright 2023 Christopher M Donahue