Friday's Poem

Midsummer Night
by Elizabeth Gould

The sun goes down,
The stars peep out,
And long slim shadows
Flit about.

In velvet shoes
The quiet dark
Comes stepping soft
O'er wood and park.

And now the world
Is fast asleep;
And fays and elves
Their revels keep.

They fly on the backs of the grey-winged moths,
They skim on the dragonflies green and gold
On shimmering dew-wet grass they alight,
Tiny petal-skirts whirl, gauzy wings unfold.

The fairies are dancing beneath the moon
Hush! See the shimmer of their twinkling shoon!

Winged Book Passage

The chorus of bird song diminishes now, and Hal Borland says the bird parents are too busy to spend time singing. But my song sparrow still begins at dawn outside my bedroom window and is caroling away after sunset. And the quail keep up an endless bobwhite at the yard's edge.
A special sound now comes at night when the lights are on. I never draw the curtains, since the moonlight view of Mill pond through the picture windows is like poetry remembered. A soft tapping begins first on the glass and suddenly it looks like a tapestry with the embroidery of moth-wings pressed on the darkling panes. I stop everything to watch, for this is a rare sight. I would not try to guess how many shapes and sizes of maoths are there from big bumbling ones to tiny heart-shaped creatures.

- Gladys Taber, My Own Cape Cod

So cool Coolibar

Have you heard of Coolibar brand protective sunwear? It's the best, and right now they're having a big end-of-summer sale. I always buy several of their sunhats for the whole family, as we are all ghastly pale, fry easily, and need all the protection we can get. Coolibar seems like a very nice company with quality products, and I've had nothing but excellent customer service. The site is coolibar.com, if you're interested.

Happy Birthday, Cat Stevens

Just heard on NPR that it's Cat Steven's (Yusuf Islam) birthday today. I'll be playing his Greatest Hits cd tonight and since it's a clear night and the moon's just shy of full, I'll be watching for a moonshadow of my own.

I'm being followed by a moonshadow,
moonshadow,
moonshadow!

foggy little bonfire night

Around 4:00 yesterday the wind shifted and we experienced a rapid drop in temperature. When this happens around here so close to the lake, a thick fog usually rolls in, and that's exactly what happened last night. Although it prevented my moon gazing, it did offer an opportunity to make a cozy bonfire - the day before the thought of a fire would have been ridiculous, it was so sweltering. It was the first time we used our new bonfire ring made from stacked lannon stones. My husband retrieved them from a recently razed farmhouse down the road - they originally encircled a little pond. We replaced our little ring of fieldstones with the stacked lannons, and besides looking nicer I feel the height is a little safer when kids (or imbibing adults) are around.

It was dinner time when we started the fire, and laziness rolled over me like the fog, and I sure as heck didn't feel like leaving my chair to cook. We considered ordering a pizza, but I was worried about the limited visibility and didn't want some poor kid driving it out to us or my husband on the roads. The kids were whining for smores, which I really didn't want to serve as supper and didn't have the makings for anyway. Then I remembered I had a couple cans of biscuit dough in the fridge and some apples in the crisper, so we got some roasting sticks and made....

Brown Bears
Stretch biscuit dough and wrap around your stick. Roast over fire until brown. Carefully remove biscuit from stick, spray with spray butter or margarine, and roll in a cinnamon/sugar mixture.

AND

Singing Apples
Spear an apple (we used Macintosh) on your stick. Cook over hot coals until skin is burned and the apple "sings." Remove from fire and carefully peel off the cooked skin. Roll apple in cinnamon sugar and eat - careful, it stays quite hot.

The kids loved both of these recipes, but I'm the one who's really wishing we could have the same exact thing tonight!

eBay surprise

Through the years, I've bought many, many things on eBay - jackets for the kids, one-of-a-kind handmade windchimes, antique ice skates, etc. plus probably way too many books. Most recently I ordered a copy of Potluck at Midnight, a cookbook featuring recipes of Martha's Vineyard. Today I received it and planned on sitting down with it later tonight with my pack of post-it notes. As I unwrapped the book from it's packaging, out fell the most beautiful bookmark I've ever seen. It was handmade with bits of pressed violets, ferns, and other white lacey flowers and had a rich, smooth ribbon attached. With it was a note from the friendly eBayer telling me to enjoy the book and to try the "Blue Moon Granola" recipe. The bookmark and personal note were such a nice surprise and made my day. I plan to do the same the next time I sell a book!

What I'm reading, watching, listening to

Reading:
Summertime by Raffaella Barker (recommended by dear Nan of Letters from a Hillfarm) . Love it, love it, LOVE IT and don't want it to end.
Also in the on-deck reading basket: the latest issue of Living the Country Life magazine (a very nice little magazine that's absolutely free - visit livingthecountrylife.com to sign up), and Vineyard Seasons by Susan Branch, which I've owned for years but is due for a revisit.

Watching:
Flight of the Conchords Season 1 - a somewhat unsavory but hilarious series I was introduced to over the weekend by my very hip brother-in-law, who couldn't believe I hadn't seen it, let alone heard of it.

Listening:
Trouble by Ray LaMontange, Catch the Moon by Lisa Loeb & Elizabeth Mitchell, Wyndam Hill's Summer Solstice, Neil Young Unplugged

How I'd Love to be a Wilderness Guide

Here's a little passage I found in a magazine that's from a book I hope to get my hands on soon - Ely Echoes:The Portages Grow Longer by wilderness guide Bob Cary.

My thoughts go back to summers spent at the river cottage owned by my maiden aunt, Nell Patterson...What glorious summers those were. There was kindling to split on a wood block in the shade of huge elms. Countless gallons of icy cold, clear water had to be pumped by hand from the well. A fresh layer of green enamel was applied to the flat-bottom rowboat and to the sleek eighteen-foot Old Town canoe, a watercraft that did as much to shape my life as the nine months spent at school.

I just love this!

Belated Friday's Quote

I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
-Henry David Thoreau

Gone for a bit

I've been away from the computer for awhile because my daughter has been having an awful time with her asthma. The doctor said there's just something in the air right now that is triggering it, and we've had to stay inside with the air conditioning on. No car rides with the window down, no golf-cart rides in the woods, no bonfires at dusk. The same thing happened around this time last year, so at least we know it will pass in a week or so after the mystery culprit finishes blooming. In the meantime, it's been all about inhalers, books, and boardgames around here, and lots of extra attention to my little dear to ease her sadness as big brother goes out to catch frogs.

Thoughts on a Screen Porch - Book Passage

"My idea of bliss is a screen-in porch from which you can watch the sun go down, or come up. You can sit in temperate shade and not fry your brains while you eat. You are protected from flying critters, sandstorms and rain and you can still enjoy a nice cool breeze.
One year my husband and I rented a lake cottage - a rustic cabin set in a pine grove just a stroll from a weed-choked lake. With it came a war canoe and a screened-in porch. The motto of the owners seemed to have been: "It's broken! Let's take it to the lake!"
We ate on the screened-in porch all the time and with great success. Friends with beautiful houses came to our broken-down lake cottage to eat on that crummy porch and watch the sun set over the lake."
- Laurie Colwin in Home Cooking


This sounds heavenly to me! Wish I had a screen porch.

Independent America

I'm hoping to make it to a free screening tomorrow of a documentary called "Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop." Have any of you seen it? It sounds interesting to me - it's about a husband and wife reporter team who set out to find towns where small, local retailers are winning the fight against the big chains of the world. During their journey, they stick to state highways and secondary roads - no interstates - which I'm sure makes for very interesting characters and stories along the way. My town, which despite it's small population has a Target, Walmart, and Home Depot nearby, still has a local hardware store, butcher, pharmacy, florist, and appliance store, but I always worry that at some point we are going to lose them. I always wonder: What if all of us townsfolk were a little more careful with our purchases - for example, if besides going to the hardware store just for that chainsaw part we need and are grateful they carry, we also bought our garbage bags, paper towel, and other day-to-day needs instead of automatically throwing that stuff in our cart at Walmart? Or if we didn't use the pharmacy only for prescriptions, but also our vitamins and shampoo, on a regular basis? These little changes in shopping habits just might help keep the Mom & Pop stores we love around. :)

Friday's Quote

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.
~Erma Bombeck

Floating Flowers

Early this morning I took a walk around the yard in search of blooms to make a little arrangement in my favorite vase for the kitchen table. I don't have much to choose from yet - the coneflowers, beebalm etc. are on the brink of bloom but not quite there. My blanket flowers have started, but were covered with too many busy bees for me to dare reach in and pluck even one. I had to turn to my containers of annuals, and cut a few scarlet zinnias while under attack of wretched mosquitoes. My daughter insisted on "helping" by bringing them to the house in her bike basket, and I didn't notice when she folded, actually more like snapped, the stems to make them fit inside for transport. I exchanged my tall vase for a glass bowl filled with water, snipped the flower heads from their fractured bodies, and let my daughter set them afloat. Lovely!

"Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning
can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day."
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Song of the Screen Door

I must have told the kids to "either go out or stay in" 20 times today. This poem came to mind!

Song of the Screen Door

The screen door sings a homey song
Of cozy creaks and crangs
That kids just love to punctuate
With nerve exploding bangs...
They wait until you're nodding off...
(As grownups often do)
Or better, 'til your coffee cup
Is full of scalding brew.
And then, just as if shot from guns
At deadly point blank range...
Wham! They're in!... Or, slam! They're out!
And splash!...
You have to change.

by Tom Hegg from "Up to the Lake"

Luau Music?

My brother and sister-in-law are having a luau-themed party at their farm next week, and they have asked me to supply the music. I'm pleased that they view me as having an eclectic music collection, but unfortunately I don't own any Hawaiian music. Unless you count my dear Jack Johnson, which I was told was not "luau-ish" enough. Do any of you have any suggestions?