Journal: August 8. Mushroom control

White mushrooms growing on bench

Quiet and delicious Sunday. It is still hot and muggy, but there are already glimmers of the end of summer. Yellowed leaves are drifting down from the walnut tree in the back yard. Surprising amid all the lushness. Due to inadequacy of memory and lack of weather imagination, the shifts of season will perpetually surprise me.

The car which I'd lent Logan the night before was back in its spot by 8am--turned out his father had called as he was heading out the driveway, so he just turned around and was picked up. Spent the morning hours organizing and filing the old papers and documents that have been emerging from old drawers, folders, etc. Perhaps because thesmells of general mustiness infused with old bat aromas have been dissipating, I was struck with the moldy stale smell of these old photographs and documents. Should I set them out in the sun to air out?

Finished kitchen cleaning (well, finished is an exageration), but cleaned enough to get around to making corn salad from the corn that never got grilled on Friday night

At noon, George arrived to meet with Johnny--the man who will do the grading--the plan is to change some of the slopes and grades around the house so water doesn't flow in quite so happily. There are many points where water runs up to the edge of the walls and occasionally seeps right on through. Towards this same end, we're getting rid of the chimney and fireplace in the den--and the concrete steps and patio outside of the master bedroom.

At this very moment, due to the splendid rain we had last Sunday and the resultant accumulation of moisture, there are now some lovely little mushrooms growing on the wooden bench in the den.

The work for the coming week is to tear down the porch and re-build it. Once that is done, the re-grading will begin.

I set out to mow the backyard in the late afternoon. Again, due to inadequacies of memory, couldn't quite manage to lower the blades, so although I mowed, the blades were set so high--that although I cut down the sumac and the tallest grasses, the lawn scarcely looks mowed. I'll get a mowing lesson in the morrow--and will eventually rectify all errors. Now onto the new week...