>when we left for istanbul a couple of weeks ago, it began to rain, and i had the sense that we were leaving summer behind. when we returned, it was as i had suspected — fall was upon us. it had rained for three days straight prior to our return, which was lucky because ali and i were both sick. i had been fighting off a cough/flu that had been going around for weeks, and once the whole istanbul trip, with its doctor visits and visa obstacles, i just fell apart and was literally flat on my back for a couple of days. thanks to umckaloabo, a marvelous geranium extract that everyone should get a hold of to have in their arsenal, it was only for that couple of days.
ali has walking pneumonia, and is still tired out, but no tuberculosis, thank goodness. i took baki to the doctor too, and we had a chest x-ray and ppd test done. he is fine. however, he was struck down by food poisoning, so for a day all three of us were ill and it was a sort of low point of the year, really. it is ten times worse being sick when baki is sick too, because at least when he is running circles around us, we get a sort of vicarious buzz from him. anyway, that is over and we are all back on our feet, although ali is still tired and has to take it easy.
so this morning we took up the shade netting off the vegetable beds and what did we find but… caterpillars! i saw a few on the artichokes a few days ago and fed them to the chickens, but thought it was an isolated incident. not so. it must be caterpillar season, or something, because the cabbages were covered in juicy little bodies, chewing on skeletal leaves and leaving heaps of green poo behind them. baki and i went out with chopsticks and picked them off.
the rain continues and the garden, in response, is busily growing. it is like spring, there is so much new growth everywhere. it really is as if the garden is waking up again.