anniversary

today is the anniversary of my parents' wedding sixty-three years ago. i miss them both and always will. this is my mother's wedding ring, which i wear in her memory.

going home again

over the weekend, after a visit with relatives, i took a side trip through the small town where i grew up. it's still hard to believe i have no connections left to a place that leaves me with such wonderful memories.

holly

sitting in the window with a second cup of coffee, working here one last summer morning, i look out to see the holly berries, once glossy green in the june sun, now tinged with orange on their way to winter red. summer's fading. autumn looms.

too much of a good thing

many years, there are no tomatoes at all. sometimes, there have been small disappointing green ones to pick just before the first frost of september. in good years, there have been a few small red ones towards the end of august that get shared with critters and hornworms. but this year, there are tomatoes! the garden shimmers red with them as i pluck the heavy fruits from the plants. never have i canned, only served tomatoes sliced thick with basil, oil, and mozzarella or cut up in a garden salad. but this year, there's no keeping up with the crop! gazpacho, anyone?

back to school

it's the last day of summer vacation. even the sky weeps. but secretly, i am filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation at the thought of a new year. this has happened to me every year since i was in first grade. wouldn't you think it would be old hat by now?

sunflower!

after several years of fruitlessly planting the tiny seeds, finally i have a sunflower - and another one coming! i'm looking forward to finches feeding on the seed heads in a few weeks time. the little girl has measured the plant against her own height all summer long. she says it's called a sunflower because it's bigger than the sun!

à bientôt

a lovely extended weekend with friends comes to an end all too soon. it's been a quiet time of visiting, reminiscing, resting and regrouping. the end of summer stillness that my mind and soul needed. i am so thankful for this time, this place and especially, for these people.

garden tour

this place is so far north it has a very short growing season. yet some folks here have the most beautiful flowers and the most amazing vegetables. a visit to the garden at helen's yielded beans, cabbage, carrots, and a pepper. and more tiny seeds from spent poppy pods to try growing again next season.

ocean birds

bird watching on the coast can be so calming. here gulls squawk and soar and drift on the air singly or in large flocks. they stand at attention on the rocky shore, surveying their ocean domain as they wait for fishing boats to pass. last night at sunset, a never ending mass of hundreds of gulls streamed toward the west and the setting sun. and sometimes, if i'm lucky, i see other birds here, like herons or terns or this cormorant, pictured below with his gull friends.

maine moon

my final summertime hurrah, visiting a friend who lives on the coast in a northernmost part of new england. this is the view from her porch on this warm august night, with the crescent moon and venus both setting in the evening sky over the reach.

treasured

this old green cardboard strip glued with dried leaves is a bookmark the girl made for me when she was very, very small. i treasure this creation and have always used it to mark my place in whatever fictional work i'm reading.

and two weeks ago, i lost the book i've been reading - along with the bookmark. i looked everywhere for the book, retracing my steps, checking in stores and businesses, pulling up cushions and reaching under seats. tonight in desperation, i came close to sending a mass message out to all my friends to watch for it, please. but just now, just as i was readying for bed (and another book-less night) i thought where it might possibly be - and happily, there it was!

it seems a tad silly to be so elated to have found it! after all, the book is only worth $14.95 and i've already downloaded the audio version. but that bookmark - that's absolutely priceless!

famous last words

over the weekend, i saw this in a cemetery. when my time finally comes, i'd love to leave behind words like this. words that make even a stranger laugh out loud and smile days later, thinking that the deceased must have really been quite a gal.

weekend away

a lovely summer weekend spent with family at the beach just across the harbor from the city of boston. the lighthouse above is boston light, originally lit with candles in the 1700s when it was built and now powered by a windmill! below, the most unusual weathervane i saw while i was there. isn't she beautiful?

corn in the morn

on most august days, i drive by this cornfield on the way to the local farm stand to buy the day's produce. sometimes it's tomatoes or peaches or lettuce or blueberries, but always, it is corn. the season for corn is so brief here that we tend to indulge in it every day that we can. and then never again, not until the following year, in august when corn season returns once more.

not-so-quiet cricket

i have been quietly busy interacting with children's books these august days. it's solitary work and there's a certain rhythm to the task that is, at times, quite calming. so imagine how startled i was tonight when this book began to chirp at me! chirp! a tiny mechanism inside the back cover mimics the sound of the cricket depicted in the story. and i didn't even realize it was there! how delightful that books can engage small children with sound as well as story! the little girl is going to love this one!

first of august

oh no!

not yet!

it's only august first and there's still another whole month of summer!