oh, what a beautiful morning

this is the tune i whistled well into the afternoon! have you noticed how the day after a storm is always spectacular? bright blue sky, clean invigorating air? the kind of day when all's right with the world? today was such a day. not much to write about - but a magnificent end to my summer. 

hurricane

squash blossom in the compost pile - through the window, through the rain, through the tropical storm winds. so far, power is holding. hope the trees do, too. 

battening down the hatches

hurricane preparedness this calm saturday morning - so serene and peaceful it's hard to believe threatening weather's even coming. you know me by now - i love a good storm! but this one has me jumpy and nervous, pacing like an animal. perhaps my latent sense of doom-and-gloom kicking in. lessons learned in all this already: text messages can still be transmitted when cell networks become bogged down. and if power goes out, a bowl of ice cubes in the freezer are an indicator of the condition of frozen food. who knew? if you're an east coast reader, be safe and keep in touch. for myself, i plan to read and sleep and, god willing, blog on monday.

color's coming

reds amongst the green. 

just in time for cool clear nights and back to school days. 

what are the chances?

barely awake this morning, sitting in my dentist's office waiting for my 7:30 a.m. appointment, i turned to part III of my current book and began to read. and was astounded to find myself reading about, of all things, snail's teeth!

...My snail possessed 2,640 teeth...the teeth point inward so as to give the snail a firm grasp on its food; with about 33 teeth per row and maybe eighty or so rows, they form a multi-toothed ribbon called a radula, which works much like a rasp.
what are the chances of reading about teeth while in a dentist's office?? so entertained was i by this bit of happenstance, i had to share the humor with the hygienist. i also left a photocopy of the pages in question with the assistant who checked me out before i left. you must give it to the dentist, i said, because he told me before he was a dentist, he was a biologist! and i left hoping she would share the pages with him. i also left really glad i was not a snail with 2,640 teeth for him to examine and the hygienist to clean!

imagine that

marching across the yard yesterday, carrying her creation, after deciding she needed to make this sign that reads stop. i have no idea where she comes up with these things. 

today she asks if i noticed any animals stopping overnight. 

these are the times i'll remember when i think back to this summer. 

the promise of poppies

well, i don't know how it happened, but apparently i've had more than just that one poor pitiful poppy i wrote about a few weeks back. here i am with four pods, each filled with seed, i trust. imagine the potential for next year's flowers! now, the question is this: should i harvest the seed and save it to scatter in spring? or just let the pods open naturally and self-seed?

august 12 of 12: tasks left undone

last night i sat down and made a list of all the chores and projects i wanted to finish this summer. suffice it to say, there is much left to do and precious little time in which to do it! here's a pictorial representation of only a dozen tasks that i really wanted to have accomplished before school kicks in again next week!

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i bought these impatiens in june because they were so unusual. i loved the yellow petals and the pinky centers and had planned to have them grace the step by the back door. they're at the back door, all right - still in their original nursery pots and looking terribly leggy.

this spring i broke down and finally bought a good scanner. i have so many photos of my own family and recently acquired many more from my childhood. best to have them in digital format, i rationalized, so they can be identified, shared and preserved. yet the only photo i've scanned so far is one of my mother that i posted as a profile picture for mother's day. perhaps it will be a better winter project...

i have to get a new cellphone. in the great cellphone scheme of things, this one does nothing. i was going to make the switch this summer, actually walked into a store to do it. but it was crowded and overwhelming and i left. that was weeks ago. i'm embarrassed to say i am two years out of contract. two. so neither my cellphone nor i is very smart. 

i love the tv show the big bang theory but came late to the party and missed the first two seasons. i so wanted to get caught up this summer. episodes are 30 minutes - only 25 without the commercials. and i still have a whole disk left to go. or maybe it's two. 

my desk is a mess. i think i'm organized and it ends up looking like this. those are all the important papers i need to save. not bills, mind you - those i have filed carefully. these are warranties and yearly notices and cds of the girl's wedding five years ago. i need to organize this space. if not, it will only get worse. much worse.

i'm pretty short for a grown-up and for years i've used this old oak school chair as a step-stool. the finish has always been ratty but now it's spattered with every color paint in the house. this was the summer i was going to paint it mustard yellow to match my decor and put it in the kitchen for the little girl to sit on - and for me to continue stepping on. if i wait another year, the little girl may be too big for it!

this is one of my five gmail accounts. i use gmail because you can archive your messages out of (your) sight but they're still searchable because they're on google's servers. all i have to do is remember to read/delete/archive on a regular basis. and i don't. i need to clean up these accounts for the same reason i need to clean up my desk (see above).

months ago, an old friend left this on my doorstep filled with my favorite flowers. i leave this on my kitchen counter to remind me to call. and i have not. of all the things i've not done this summer, this is the one that nags at  me the most.

this collection represents about a third of the baskets i own. before i buy any more, i need to find a purpose for these or give them away. but i love them all.....

and if that's not bad enough, i need to get rid of this piece of furniture. i have no room or use for it. i've shuffled it from room to room for three summers now, procrastinating because it's so near and dear to my heart. it's the first piece of furniture i ever finished, forty years ago this summer. and i love those tombstone doors as much today as i did then.

see the fading on these curtains? the others in the room are worse. i've been throwing different color and pattern dishtowels and cloth napkins over the curtain rods all summer trying to find something i like as much as what i already have. time to decide - and hope i can live with the decision!

and look. i haven't even gotten my june pedicure yet.  maybe i could get a september one instead!

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lest you think i'm a pitiful, whiny so-and-so, know that, in my own right, my summer has been quite productive. and i will keep working on this list. maybe i'll be able to complete everything by the first day of fall!

impatiens and basket.  check!

signs along the way

some people are so clever. i saw lots of signs that made me smile or laugh out loud while i was off on my end-of-summer adventure. my favorites:

and this one that's not only funny, it's true...

away time

the top ten ways you can tell a vacation is perfect: 

#10: you love the audiobook you listen to for 12 hours in the car

#9: a side trip off the beaten path yields a fabulous new shop that's just your style

#8: the sound of gulls mixes with the drone of the engines of lobster boats

#7: the red sox beat the yankees - twice!

#6: crabmeat rolls for lunch and lobster rolls for dinner

#5: you wake up in the early morning light, smile out the window at the boats and the fog, read a little bit, then go back to sleep - and dream

#4: goose grass greens and pretzel m&ms

#3: the hostess with the mostess may not understand the desire for quiet and solitude, but she sure does honor it!

#2: great finds at flea markets

and the number one way you can tell a vacation is perfect:

already, you can't wait to go back next summer!

august morning

mornings like this one, i want to wrap up and tuck away for a winter's day. bottle a day like today in a mason jar and take it out and drink it when it's cold and snowy. fold it tightly into the pages of a book so it will burst forth as i read by the woodstove in early darkness. stick it in a shaker box and put it on a shelf til january so i can take it down and marvel at its light and hold its warmth to my cheek. but the best i can do is to still my heart, and watch and listen, then breathe deeply of august before i depress the shutter release, and hope the resulting photo will capture the essence of this splendid summer morning.

line up

new this summer - i've wanted one for a long time. i love putting the laundry out in the morning, love that it dries so quickly, love the smell and feel of the clothes, and love that i'm saving money and consuming less energy. see? it doesn't take much to make me happy!

yellows

here is a fine example of the yellows and golds i was going to try to eradicate from my garden. i transplanted some, pulled a lot, gave bunches away, and tried hard to leave the cool pinks and blues and whites i'd loved in the spring. but no - the golds dominate right now and perhaps will for a while. as i sit with a second cup of coffee on the last weekend in july, i better appreciate these colors than i did back in june.

the beauty of trees

today, i've found myself thinking a lot about trees. becky, a talented blogger i follow, has relocated from the midwest to the east coast and has written about the abundance of trees in her new town and its impact on the direct sunlight that she's always loved. this really struck me and made me wonder if i might take my northeast surroundings for granted. so i've been very aware our trees today, especially the way the leaves and branches filter the sunlight and dapple the earth. it's beautiful. i can't imagine not seeing that.

later in the day, there's rain. a torrential downpour that lasts and lasts. just when i think it will never end, it lets up and the clouds begin to part. i step outside and immediately, i hear the trees, water dripping from rain-soaked leaves of oak, poplar, and maple up on the hill and from pine needles at the edge of the yard. a rapid, percussive woodland chorus, unrelenting, a song to the breaking sun. i listen hard, mesmerized, and i silently hope becky hears this sound soon. it may help her come to know and love trees as i do.

christmas in july

for all the photos i take of flowers and gardens and all things natural, i'm just awful with house plants. sunny windows at work help some and i try to have a few plants around on bookcases and windowsills, even though many don't make it. this is a poinsettia i bought in december at a fund-raiser. it was tiny but it had a variegated leaf that was really pretty. it'd be good for the christmas month, i thought. surprisingly, here it is in july, three times the size and covered in green leaves. and thriving, i'm afraid, on neglect. i wonder what will happen to it as summer turns to fall and fall to winter. might it turn back to variegated red, do you think? or with my luck, it may die yet!

ebook

due to the heat wave that's upon us, i was looking today for a quiet indoor activity for the little girl. something she could sit in front of the fan and do. out of curiosity, i downloaded my first children's ebook to my ipad, then watched the little girl interact with it. this is the first time she's used my ipad and, with very little direction, she was able to figure out the interactive features of the story and work her way through the book. she even managed to find her way back to favorite pages and the accompanying activities. as an educator, it was amazing to watch. i truly regret that this photo is not a video. she was so engaged, so exuberant. and her laughter and excitement were contagious. now, tonight, i just can't stop puzzling over the educational merits of this sort of technology with young children.

the long-awaited poppy

if i could grow only one flower, i'd want poppies. the ruffly foliage, the delicate petals, the ornate pods, the minuscule seeds, the colors. even the name: poppies. there's nothing about poppies that i don't love! 

i've tried to grow poppies and have failed more times than i can count. seeds, plants, seed pods from friends' gardens - nothing works. i thought i finally had a winner here, just one plant, and have been watching it closely all summer. last evening i photographed it beginning to unfurl. then i left the camera and lens on the table so i could run out first thing this morning to catch it wide open and in all its splendor. and here it is. beautiful still, but obviously, sadly, gone by. 

poppy: last evening :-)

poppy: this morning :-(

herbed butter

this weekend, while buying vegetables and bread at the local farm stand, i inquired about the availability of corn. next weekend, they said. seven more days. time to make dill butter. 

it's easy. softened butter, mixed with lots of snipped dill leaves from the garden. the dill butter is packed into tiny ramekins wrapped in foil. after a day in the freezer, the foil is removed, and the inverted ramekins are run under hot water. in a moment, out slides the frozen molded butter. quickly, it is wrapped back in the same foil and popped back into the freezer. 

until the corn arrives. next weekend. my mouth waters already, thinking of the herbed butter melting on fresh-picked, steaming ears of corn. seven more days!

glorious morning

a single morning glory, greeting the early sun. shot from the front...

and from the back. 

i like them both. 

relief

thunder, lightning, then rain tonight, with the promise of cooler weather tomorrow. intriguing the way this open sign looks through my rainy windshield as i wait in the dark for an order.

july 12 of 12: how to beat the heat

i love summer. lazy warm days, starry cool nights, refreshing air, light clothes, color everywhere i look. but it's days like today when summer is tough to take. it's hot, and for the third consecutive day. i can't sleep. i can't work. all i can do is think about how hot it is. today, i spring into action to try to beat the humidity. this month's 12 of 12 shows my attempts!

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fans, strategically placed everywhere. they were on all night, blowing cooler air into the rooms. when i wake up too early all clammy and sticky, i breathe in the morning air. and i can tell it's going to be hot again. 

it hasn't rained in days and the gardens and pots need daily watering. it's easier and better for the plants to do it in the morning before the sun gets too high. i make sure i'm barefoot when i water so i can drag my toes through the wet grass. 

a shower, the first of three i take today.  i keep the water tepid at best. nothing hot for me today - not even water.

minimal clothes. today's outfit - a t-shirt and the necessary undergarments. bare feet. i'm not going anywhere. i have shorts handy in case someone comes to the door. 

combs and barrettes and headbands. i let my hair air dry and it takes a good long time. i don't bother with curling or styling or spraying. there's no way my hair would do anything but frizz up in this humidity. may as well keep it as contained as i possibly can. besides, there will be more showers, remember?

quiet, stay-put work. no housework today, nothing strenuous. i set up in the living room on the couch, directly in front of the fan. the speed of the fan increases as the morning goes on.

lots of water. i love my britta water filter, especially when it's warm. i empty its chilled contents into another container in the morning and refill it. by midday, the water's cold again. some cracked ice, a little crystal lite, and i'm good for the heat of the afternoon. 

hand-washed laundry. just a few items. hey, it's an opportunity to play in water! with bubbles!

another fan, the old fashioned, non-electric kind. the day wears on and the sun comes in the windows. it's hot in the house, hotter still outside. i work for a bit, then sit back and fan myself for a bit. i think i doze off for a bit, too. 

more water. my mother taught me this and i do it all the time. i run cold water over the insides of my wrists. it's instantly cooling. (as an aside, doesn't that stream of water from the faucet look just like an icicle?? i don't know why that surprises me so much, but it does.)

body sprays, cold from the refrigerator. there they are, right next to the mayonaise. a spritz in the middle of the day takes away the sticky feeling and leaves a lingering floral scent. i'll spritz my pillow as well, later before i go to sleep.

and tonight, ice cream. on a hot july day like this one, nothing beats the heat like its creamy, cold goodness.

but note - i did not go out for it. it's not exotic chocolate chip or fruity black raspberry. it's vanilla from the freezer. because i stayed home. it was just too hot to do anything else.

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