…I would risk getting struck by lightning just to have some.
Well…not quite but this evening when I returned home from work we were going to walk to Jones for lettuce for a salad to eat with grilled steak, but alas, the dark clouds hove into view, crowding the western and southwestern skies with their menace. I checked the weather radar on my desktop and saw the major storm headed our way. Nothing else to do but strip off my work shell, throw on a kilt and a tee-shirt while Nita picked spinach from The Lorelei and fetched a couple bags and then, vroom!, we roared away in the van, hopefully in front of the front we both saw increasingly blackening the sky, and heard, ponderously booming in the distance, each minute less of a distance, soon, downright close.
We practically skidded to a stop at the gardens, would have raised dust on a dry August day, but today, just scattered a few pebbles, then, higgledy, piggledy, whoosh!, we jumped out of the van and lickety-split were off to Jones. Another gardener calmly was filling her wheelbarrow with mulch, “My God, woman, don’t you know a storm is afoot!” I could have shouted, but no, just an odd, funny little remarklet: “Gardeners are so committed, they risk getting struck by lightning just to mulch the garden (or pick lettuce for supper!)” She politely smiled, a nice lady but not word oriented like some gardeners around here.
Then to the garden we dashed and in no time, out came a head of bibb, out came a head of red. The Speckled Trout is forming, reddish, greenish, mottled heads of romaine, lovely but not quite ready, so I just picked some of the outside leaves to add interest to the salad. All the while, my wife was busy gathering more spinach and a few radishes, then me, pulling a couple spring onions, a salad afterthought, and as the first drops began to fall, we were off again, out of the gardens, past the lady still with her mulch, through the gate, into the van and whew, we made it out of the rain and then, to home again before the storm started in earnest.
And we got our fresh salad with supper. So good, so sweet, so silky, fresh lettuce, it’s worth almost any struggle just to have some.
