An August Visit

August 5, 2016 Laurie Graves 22 Comments

Tomorrow, my daughter Dee will coming from New York to spend a week with us. Is there any better time to visit Maine than August? Some would say September or October, but nothing can beat August for time spent on the patio, where we can drink wine, eat grilled food, listen to the crickets, and watch the birds. Dee looks forward to this, and when she came in July for the Maine International Film Festival, she was sorry that she didn’t get any patio time.

Dee’s visit will be filled with all sorts of simple but fun activities—an appetizer night at a friend’s house; a pizza and movie night here; plays at the Theater at Monmouth, just down the road from us; a couple of movies at the cinema; and most likely a trip to an art museum or two. It will be a lovely interlude from our usual routine. No matter how satisfying a life might be, it is always good to take a break from time to time.

Readers will be happy to know that last night I made my decision about which book to read. The choice was between Barkskins by Annie Proulx and White Trash by Nancy Isenberg. (For more of a description of these two books, see yesterday’s post. ) Jason, from the blog Garden in a City, suggested I go with Barkskins, and I independently came to the same conclusion. I read some of Barkskins last night, and at 12:45 a.m., I reluctantly put the book down so that I could turn off my reading light and go to sleep. Now comes the challenge of finishing the book before it is due in two weeks. At 736 pages, Barkskins certainly qualifies as a tome, but I do feel I am up to the challenge.

I’m not sure how much I’ll be blogging next week. I might post a picture or two, but I expect I won’t be writing much.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week.

Books

Under Book Pressure

August 4, 2016 Laurie Graves 10 Comments

No, the title of this post does not refer to my upcoming book, Maya and the Book of Everything. I am right on schedule for that. Instead, I am referring to two other books, which I recently checked out from our town’s library.

The first is White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg. This title pretty much explains the premise of the book, and as someone who has come from an underclass—I am Franco-American—I am always interested in how class plays out in our supposedly classless society. (Such a foolish premise. Where there are humans, there is always a class hierarchy. )

I’ve begun reading White Trash, and it looks as though it’s going to be a very good book. I’ve already begun peppering it with little sticky notes when I find passages that are especially engaging.

The second book is Barkskins by Annie Proulx, and it’s a novel of two Frenchmen who come to New France in the late seventeenth century. Steven, my Franco book buddy, put this on our must-read list, and knowing there were a lot of holds on Barkskins, I told him I’d see what I could do about getting the book from the library. As luck would have it, Barkskins came far sooner than I expected it would, and now it sits, along with White Trash, on my night stand, two hefty books waiting to be read.

And here we come to the crux of the problem. White Trash is 480-pages long, and Barkskins clocks in at a whooping 736 pages. Both are due in two weeks, and for one of those weeks—next week, in fact—my daughter Dee will be visiting from New York.

Now, I am a fast reader, but to read over a thousand pages in two weeks is a bit much, even for me. Amazingly enough, White Trash has lots of holds, over fifty I was told by our library’s director. I guess I’m not the only Maine reader who is interested in class in America. Barkskins also has a lot of holds on it. No surprise there.

This means that renewing either book is out of the question, and. most likely, I will be able to finish one but not the other. Yesterday, I dipped into White Trash. Today, I will dip into Barkskins. Then, I will have to make a choice.

I wasn’t kidding when I chose this post’s title. Under book pressure, indeed.

Wordless Wednesday

Ghost Leaf

Image August 3, 2016 Laurie Graves 5 Comments

Flowers

Flip the Calender and Raise a Glass

August 2, 2016 Laurie Graves 19 Comments

Flip the calendar to August. Say goodbye to July and to the evening primroses, whose bright yellow made the gardens positively glow. But hello to the black-eyed Susans and daylilies. For the gardens at the little house in the big woods, this will be the last burst before fall. After that, the plants have a tattered, tired look. They have given their all, and by the end of the month they are exhausted, bloomed out and chewed by slugs, snails, and beetles.

But oh, the first of August, when my favorite daylily blooms. Such a red beauty.

However, the other daylilies are lovely, too.

Less showy but much appreciated are the black-eyed Susans, and sometimes I even catch a little inhabitant of the garden.

Another little inhabitant.

The crickets have begun their song of late summer and fall. Such a lovely but sad chorus, a harbinger of dark, cold days when the flowers are gone and there are no more patio days.

But enough of that! We have at least one more month of summer, where we can spend much of the time on the patio. Last weekend, our friends Dawna and Jim cane over. She brought her delectable margaritas, and we raised our glasses high as we said farewell to July and toasted August, one of the most beautiful months in Maine.

Too bad we couldn’t trade the tiresome, irksome month of March for another month of August. How would that work? It wouldn’t, of course.

Only in my dreams.

Flowers

Little Winged Visitor

July 30, 2016 Laurie Graves 16 Comments

Oh, I wish I could hold one of these ethereal beauties in my hand and feel the wings tickle my palms. I never will, of course, as it certainly wouldn’t be good for the bird. Still, I like to imagine it as I watch the birds come to my garden.

Books, Flowers

Of Blooms and Maya and the Book of Everything

July 28, 2016 Laurie Graves 12 Comments

At the little house in the big woods, in mid-July, the gardens went into a slump after the glorious burst at the beginning of the month. But now they’ve gathered themselves again with the bosoming of the daylilies. (Eliza, so sorry you missed them! But flowers will be flowers, and they bloom in their own time.)

I am also happy to report that we—Clif and me—are making great progress with my YA fantasy book Maya and the Book of Everything. All the material for the first part—synopsis, blurbs, and other necessary information—is done and ready to go. Clif is designing an oh-so-lovely author’s website for me. I know. I am lucky to live with a computer geek who also has terrific graphic sensibilities. However, I did have to ask him to remove the flying saucer he put in over the castle. (There are no flying saucers in Maya, but there is indeed a castle.)

I have ideas brewing for a presentation, if I am fortunate enough to be asked.

Busy, busy, busy! But in such a great way.

Soon, I will be sharing the cover.

Food

From Yard to Bowl

July 27, 2016 Laurie Graves 10 Comments

Animals - especially dogs, Nature

Deep Summer in Maine: By the Water’s Edge

July 26, 2016 Laurie Graves 12 Comments

Art

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens: The Sculptures

July 23, 2016 Laurie Graves 4 Comments

At the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, the beds of beautiful flowers with their snappy color combinations would be enough to please most people. However, what makes these gardens really special is the attention that has been paid to the aesthetics of place—the use of stone, water, and sculpture. I know it is hyperbole to call any place magical, but the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens really fits that description. Going through these gardens and taking pictures becomes a sort of mediation, a celebration of the beautiful now.

Here are some pictures of the sculpture at the Botanical Gardens. They only give the barest glimpse of what it’s like to be there and walk along the pathways with the drifts of flower, the expanse of blue sky all around, the many, many pieces of art, the dappled shade, and the solid yet lovely stonework.

Readers, there is only one solution. If you live within driving distance, go visit these gardens and see for yourself. If you don’t live within driving distance, then you can follow Botanical Gardens online.

A wonderful interlude, but now it’s back to Maya and the Book of Everything. I have a deadline of August 3 to get certain materials ready, and I am making good progress.

Onward!

Art, Flowers, Nature

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens—A Longer View

July 22, 2016 Laurie Graves 18 Comments

Yesterday’s post featured close-ups of the many delights at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Today I’ll give a longer view of this lovely place. Eliza and I arrived at about 11:00 a.m. and didn’t leave until about 4:30 p.m. As I have mentioned previously, we were the perfect companions for this outing. I had my wee wonder of a camera, and Eliza had her larger Canon.

Here’s how it went. We’d take a few steps, stop, snap some pictures, and repeat. For someone not as enthused about taking pictures as we were, it would have been excruciatingly slow. But the pace was just right for the two of us.

As I was going through my pictures this morning, I realized that a third post was in order to highlight the wonderful sculptures in this garden. The sculptures are so fine and so integral to the look and feel of the place that they deserve their own space on this blog.

But for today, here is a broader sweep of flowers, sky, water, and stone.