Summer Notes

I seem to have taken an unintentional vacation from blogging! Summer's pace has quickened. More visits from friends, truly one of the best parts of this season. More decluttering of my house--will this never end? More product planning and product making. (A friend told me just this week that with one of my lavender sachets tucked into the pillowcase, she took the most refreshing nap she had ever had. I am pleased!)

I am weathering a heat wave, not my favorite part of summer. New, strong fans help a great deal. As I type, windows are open and fans are pulling cool air into the house. Soon it will be time to put the computer to sleep for the day, shut all the windows, pull all the blinds and curtains and hunker down for the long hours of daylight. It will be hot today and the cooling dark is a long way away. I am telling myself that it will come.

I am reading another Susan Wittig Albert book, one of her Beatrix Potter series. Very different voice, style and characters from her China Bayles series, which I absolutely love.

Need to do some research into the old USDA calorie counting book. Portions commonly used or something like that. Quite a few of the brand names have changed; the culprits remain the same--too many calories from carbs and fats.

Have noticed that consumption of too much soluble fiber increases chronic lower back pain. But what is called a "low-residue" diet, according to my Internet searches, is ghastly both from the standpoint of taste and nutrition. Where is the midway point? That always is the question.

The plumbing in the house was sluggish. Neighbors suggested, after plunging for me two times in three days, that the addition of a biodegradable micro-organism product for drains put into my "clean-out" drain might help. It did! Hurrah!

So today will be a day for fans, and a wet towel around my neck. I found the ice cap last night and was pleased--now do I have ice in the freezer? A friend will bring lunch, Safeway will deliver and maybe I can take a nap this afternoon. Then there will be one more day of this particular heat-wave and it should break. When it does, the feel of the air-flow off the ocean, the Bay Area's "natural air-conditioning" will be a benediction, reminding me that what one friend said recently, "Trust in God. God does always hear our prayers", will be true.

I am grateful for the cool air, the electricity that powers my fans and for survival. Hot weather always makes me think of the pioneers and reminds me that we are not in charge of the universe.

Blooming Now, Poppies in My Garden

Poppies, pink, coral and red have been putting on a show for most of the last month. For a time they were joined by delicate, pale blue love-in-mist. The effect was quite pretty. For the last week the poppies have made me think of Flanders Field--"the poppies blow, between the crosses row on row." It is so appropriate that the bloom around the time of Memorial Day. Here are a friend took yesterday with my camera when he joined me for lunch.





According to various seed sources I have consulted, poppies come in red, pink, lavender, coral, gold, purple and even white. I would like to see the whole array of colors planted and blooming somewhere.

Summer has come. The weather is warm, highs in the seventies. The windows are open letting in the most delicious breezes as well as the sounds of suburban life--doves cooing mixed with leaf blowers. Ah, well! The house is a bit stuffy in the evenings, but fairly comfortable. The transition from winter habits to summer ones goes gently, although I fear the time is coming for ice water, wet cloths around my neck and fans going to a noise level that makes me feel I will lose my mind. I hope not and am determined to enjoy this respite of near perfection for the time it lasts.

I am grateful for the poppies, the friend who planted them, who is now sailing down the coast of Ecuador to Peru with her husband on their boat. (See the link to the blog Sea of Change, if you would like to follow this adventure.) I think of her when I watch the poppies waving in the breeze.

I am thankful too, for trees, which lend their shade and soughing sound as the wind passes through to the ambiance of gentle summer days.

Summer's Bounty

Last night I was grateful to PBS for producing and airing A Capitol Fourth. The fireworks each year with the Capitol Mall are so splendid. I would have been happier with a bit more patriotic music and less of the pop culture glitz, but I suppose that is me. It is good to remember what the Fourth of July is really all about and I can't help wishing that they would give us a little more history and maybe even read the Declaration of Independence aloud.

The celebration of the Fourth is part of the bounty of summer. More is in the photos below.



The first picture is of red spring onions from a neighbor's garden with zucchini from Planet Organics. The second is apricots, peaches and plucots, again from Planet Organics. Planet Organics is a family owned grocery delivery business in the Bay Area. I have gotten some amazing things from them recently.

Last Thursday evening it was finally cool enough in the house and I found the time to make Whole Wheat Beer Batter Bread, one of the recipes that I posted about two or so Sundays ago. It is fabulous. So good, that delicious does not do it justice. Simply fabulous. It wants a slice of Havarti with Dill or of a good cheddar--extra sharp, preferably.

That reminds me of the cheese my Grandpa would send us each Christmas when we still lived in Toledo. The cheese came from Pinconning, Michigan. I must look for it again here on the Internet.

More lemon cupcakes are in my Sunday schedule. Gratitude for the Fourth of July and for the opportunities to cook and bake is also a part of my day, this beautiful day.

Sunday Blessings

It was a gorgeous day, not nearly as hot as I feared, although more heat is predicted for later in the week. I often find myself wishing that Papa and I had been able to install full air before he died. Each summer I struggle through the heat waves, which seem to be coming closer together and happening more frequently. Or is it just a drought year?

It is good to hear that the fire in Goleta, where someone I first met when she was six and I was in my twenties lives and works is being contained. I hope that she and her house are safe tonight and will remain so. It is also good to know that the fire in Monterey County has bypassed, at least for now, the town of Big Sur. I have been to Carmel, including the Mission and to Point Lobos, but I don't remember Big Sur.

My friend who has the Gravenstein apple tree in his back yard brought me two big bags of apples today and a bag of apricots. He was on his way to Mass and it was good to see him, this Marine of the greatest generation who recently celebrated his 85th birthday. He is always kind and cheerful and has a fund of fine stories to share. It was an especial pleasure to see him today for it had been sometime.

The pots with the seeds--that I hope are germinating--are sitting in the front hall where they will be out of the sun's heat. I misted them twice today and then brought them inside.

The neighbors' sunflowers soar to their roof and are dwarfing their garage. This is a delightful thing to look out at from the vantage of my front door.

I have seen several hummingbirds, both the male and female in my backyard. They are my most favorite birds.

I am grateful for the day and hope for tomorrow that it will be good and not as hot as predicted.

Yard Sale in Progress

Day one of the yard sale is behind me and I sit here a very pooped participant, but very grateful indeed. My friend who has been doing this for eight years is a real pro. The set-up looks so attractive and professional, more like an outdoor shop than a yard sale.

My friend and her husband even have a tent, the open market kind, that is set up in part of the patio. This is so neat and so fun. I want one. (Wish list time.)

Several people bought my cards and that pleased me too. They are pretty and I wish I could get out to shops to place them. One young woman mentioned a shop in downtown Mountain View that I will contact.

I had great conversations with two neighbors, whom I had not seen in a long time and overall the experience was fun, although tiring.

Tomorrow we will open up again and see if more goodies move through. I would love to sell one Peace banner and some more cards. At least I gave away a lot of the book marks that serve as my business cards.

It has been years since I have seen this many people in one day and my brain is as tired as my body! Sometimes I am surprised at the extent to which I really have become a recluse and am not sure this is good. On the other hand, it is my reality and so I live it. Monday the return to the solitary life will probably feel very good!

Yard sales are part of the suburban landscape, as much a part of summertime ritual as swimming and sunscreen, or fourth of July picnics. I don't think that I have ever participated in one before so I feel now as though I have experienced a sort of initiation into a rite that I was missing out on.

I am grateful even though I am now behind schedule on everything that I am trying to write--there will be time for that.

Summer mornings

Today we are having a bit of a heat wave and the routine is different. Wheeling around my house to close the windows that I wheeled around opening last night, I breathe in the cool morning air and give thanks for the bits of clouds still hanging on from the night sky. There is over an hour less of daylight than there was a month ago, still the heat hung on in the house last night. I often wish I could bottle it and keep it for winter!

Then in the winter, I wonder if it will ever be warm again, knowing that it will and wishing I could bottle the cold air for the summer hot days.

Today is a catching up day and at puttering pace. I need to "destage" the living room from the place where all the overflow went during the painting and put it back into its role as living room again. Sometimes puttering pace is steadier and I get more done that way than if I tried to push a faster pace. After all the next birthday says 60 on it, so nothing gets done as quickly as it once did.

My Mary Kay products have been flying off the shelves this week and for that I am very, very grateful. Five things to be grateful for today

1. The presence of M in my life and her help to me over the last four years. She begins college today.
2. My sister, P, who is always there even though she lives 2500 miles away.
3. My friend L, who helps me out and whom I can laugh with and enjoy life with.
4. A surprise visit from my goddaughter, E and her boyfriend yesterday which was a delight.
5. The hope of having a productive day even though it is hot.

Ok, not a bad way to start the day.

Gold Finches and Sunflowers

I garden, as I do everything, with a great deal of help from my friends for as a disabled person I can enjoy the visual display of my garden, water the plants growing in pots and occasionally take pictures, but not the larger gardening tasks. Plants, planted in the ground where my wheel chair does not go depend, as I do, on the assistance of friends. Pruning would not get done at all without other willing hands (and strong backs.)

Last summer a friend hung bird feeders from tree branches that I can see from all my back windows. On Friday of last week these feeders were empty for people had been away on vacation. Two finches came and perched on the window ledge a foot or so away from where I was typing on my computer.

"No bird feeders there," they seemed to be saying as they looked all around my room. I assured them the feeders would soon be filled and wondered what my office looked like to a bird. First, the large being tapping on the strange machine, much as they peck for seed. Then everything, even the stuffed animals on the computer desk overwhelming larger than they are. What would rows of books look like to little birds? I laughed and was filled with joy.

That same morning I looked out at the sunflowers another friend planted in June. The summer's glory is reflected in their color. Yellow is not a color I have ever especially liked, but this color! It is so deep and glorious that it has made me love it. The sunflowers truly do "follow the sun" as their name implies. At different times of the day they point in different directions. The leaves are so big they could be used as dinner plates!