Animals - especially dogs, Books, News

And So It Begins: Editing, Hurricane Florence, and a Full House

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As fall makes a tentative appearance with weather so cool that it actually feels brisk—going from 95° to 60° in less than a week—the tempo at our house has gone from busy to out straight.

Dee has finished editing my YA fantasy novel, Library Lost. For new blog readers, this is the second book in my Great Library Series, the sequel to Maya and the Book of Everything. Now comes the hard work of copy editing. Only basic housework will be done. Meals will be very, very simple. The book must be edited! I am so glad I now follow my blogging friend Jason’s lead and no longer cut back perennials in the fall. Instead, I wait until spring. (Jason’s wonderful blog is Garden in a City.)

To add to the merry chaos, our daughter Shannon, her husband Mike, their dogs Holly and Somara, and their cat Penny will be coming for a visit the end of this week. That’s right, even the cat. Hurricane Florence, a most unwelcome guest, will be pounding North Carolina, where Mike and Shannon live, just after they leave for Maine. Mike and Shannon are afraid that flooding will make it impossible for their pet sitter to tend Penny.

So when Shannon asked about bringing Penny, I immediately said, “Yes.”

The complicating factor, of course, is that we have two cats who just barely tolerate the two dogs, whom they know. As for a cat they’ve never met…well, I’m sure you can picture the results. A lot of hissing and fighting.

But never fear! We have come up with a solution. We had folding doors in our basement, and Clif has brought them upstairs to put at the end of the hall so that Penny will have her own little suite of a bedroom, a reading room, and a half bath. Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it? I hope she likes our selection of books.

I probably won’t be blogging much in the next few weeks, and if I do, most likely it will be a picture along with a few lines.

So onward, ho, to editing and dogs and cats and sacks and wives.

 

 

Flowers, Home

The Waning of Summer

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Summer has pretty much come to an end. While the days might still be warm and sunny, the gardens around the house tell a different story—autumn is coming.

The back garden is definitely ragged, no two ways about it.

The bee balm is no longer in vibrant bloom, just a few red petals here and there.

Except for the border of annuals, the rest of the garden doesn’t look much better. But the impatiens are positively thriving—I have never seen them so big and full. Clearly, they liked the heat and humidity, even if I didn’t.

And the begonias, troopers that they are, continue to provide welcome color.

The front yard actually looks a little better, and it’s all because of the hostas that I divided and planted in the many holes in my garden. Hostas might not be showy, but they maintain a cool, even presence. Surely there must be a lesson in this.

One plant that is coming into bloom is the sedum—autumn joy. Here’s a close up with a little friend on the top.

Farewell, summer. You might have been too hot and humid, but I treasure those evenings on the patio, the nights with the windows open, the gatherings with grilled bread.

 

 

Celebrate, Community, Nature

A Labor Day of Blue Skies and Water

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On Sunday, we took Dee to the bus station so that she could return to New York City, where she lives and works. Always so sad to see her go, but what a fun time we had celebrating our birthdays.

Monday was Labor Day in this country. Here is a short explanatory blurb from Wikipedia: “Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws, and well-being of the country. It is the Monday of the long weekend known as Labor Day Weekend. It is recognized as a federal holiday. ”

Very fitting that we should honor laborers who made the workforce a better, safer place. However, for many people it is the long weekend marking the end of summer. Tourists aplenty come to Maine on Labor Day Weekend, but luckily for us, central Maine is not a hot spot for vacationers, and the roads are fairly quiet.

In keeping with our quiet area, we decided that Monday would be a no-car day and that we would bike along Maranacook Lake, one of our favorite places to ride. The day was hot but beautiful, and after our ride, we sat on a bench at Norcross Point to watch the water, the boats, and the sky.

Hydrangeas are in bloom, and I liked the way the blossoms look with the sky as the background.

Also, I liked the way the two bright kayaks punctuated the water. Blue and pink, pink and blue.

As we sat at the park and watched people paddle and swim, we reflected how lucky we were to live in a town where there is ample access to free public areas by the lake. Not every town has this, and in Readfield, the town next to ours, their beach is billed as “a user supported beach.” The town charges $40 per family for an annual permit.

Certainly, $40 is not a great deal of money, but lots of people in central Maine live on a tight budget, and I wonder how many families decide they can’t afford the fee. Much better, in my opinion, to have the beach and the park free for all to enjoy. (I do realize that taxes pay for the maintenance of the Winthrop beach and park, and I am happy to have a portion of my taxes used this way.)

After these musings, Clif and I decided to head home. And what did I see? Leaves just beginning to change color.

It is September, after all, and while the calendar tells us that autumn isn’t here until September 23, the trees are telling us otherwise.

Soon, the most  beautiful season of the year will be upon us.

In the meantime, Clif and I will enjoy as many evenings as we can on the patio.

Those days are numbered.

 

 

Celebrate, Food

Pizza Palooza

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On Wednesday, when the temperature was in the mid-90s but because of the humidity it felt like 100°, this family of pizza hounds went to Cushnoc Brewing Co. for a pizza palooza to celebrate our birthdays. Normally when we go out for pizza, we use a reasonable amount of restraint. We share a large pizza, and while Clif might get a beer, Dee and I usually get iced tea.

However, this was a birthday celebration for the three of us, so we pulled all the stops.

We started with spicy nuts,

and we all had special drinks.

Here’s a closer look at mine, a humdinger of a bloody Mary.

Then came the pizzas. We each ordered our own, and they were all beautifully baked.

Naturally, there were leftovers and lots of them. (Truth be told, I was pretty full after the drink and nuts.) Did we come prepared? You bet we did. Not only did we bring a cooler with two ice packs, but following the example of our friends Alice and Joel, we also brought containers from home for the leftover pizza.

After the pizza it was off to the movies, a perfect air-conditioned way to spend a very hot afternoon. We saw Alpha, a beautiful, soulful imagining of how wolves and humans bonded 20,000 years ago in Europe. It’s told through the point of view of an adolescent, Keda, who, in an accident, becomes separated from his tribe’s hunting party. He forms an unlikely and an uneasy alliance with a wolf, and together they travel across a harsh winter landscape to return to Keda’s village.

If you are a canid lover, this is a must-see movie. If you are not a canid lover, Alpha is still worth seeing at the biggest screen you can find. Imax, if possible. The cinematography is stunning—dazzling even—and so immersive it feels as though you are traveling with Keda and the wolf.

And something unexpected happened as I watched Keda and his tribe hunt buffaloes. As the small band of hunters stood there with their slender spears, they looked so vulnerable that I actually felt sympathy and tenderness toward them. It reminded me that we were not always a scourge on the planet, that once we were small and relatively weak in a harsh environment.

What comforts we have now in comparison to those who lived in the ice age. In a neat coincidence, Dee bought Clif and me an Instant Pot for our birthdays, which will make soup, among other foods, much easier to prepare. Looking forward to cooking with it.

After the movie and presents, we sat on the patio and had drinks. Beside us, the blue fountain rippled with falling water. Birds came to the feeders, as did squirrels. Crickets sang.

We all agreed that the patio was one of the finest places to be in late summer and a fitting end to a wonderful day.

 

 

 

Celebrate, Food

If There Are Chocolate Chip Cookies…

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It can only mean one thing…the kids are visiting. In this case the kid is Dee, who is a cookie monster with a passion for chocolate chip cookies. (Yes, even though she will soon be forty-one, Dee is still a kid to me.)

Dee will be here for the whole week, and because she is a film buff as well as a cookie monster, we’ll be going to plenty of movies. The temp is supposed to hit the mid-90s this week with the dreaded high humidity, so going to air-conditioned movies will be the perfect thing to do. However, I have to admit I had hoped we were done with the high heat and humidity, which comes under the category of “No Fun at All.”

Back in the day… Well, not much point in mentioning what the old days were like, when late August in Maine was sheer delight. Anyway, this absurdly hot weather weather in northern New England certainly reinforces the need to reduce my carbon footprint.

On a happier note, we’ll also be celebrating birthdays—Dee’s is in October, and Clif’s and mine are in September. A little early, but we are all together so we will strike while the iron is hot, as the saying goes. Besides, this ties right in with my philosophy: celebrate early, celebrate often. This year won’t be the birthday palooza we had last year, when Dee turned forty, and I turned sixty. But though the celebration will be more modest, we’ll still have fun.

As Bill and Ted of the Excellent Adventures often said, “Party on, dudes!”

Flowers, Food

The Dream of the Fish and the Chips

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Last night, I dreamed that Clif and I were making fish and chips. We seemed to be in the hall of the Methodist Church in town. You know how dreams are. People kept coming for our fish and chips, and I was afraid we were going to run out. But lo and behold! Suddenly there was plenty, and when our friends Alice and Joel came, we had enough to give them. I have no idea what the heck such a dream could mean, but it makes me giggle just to think about it.

Now on to other matters in the hinterland.

My birthday is right around the corner—in September—but my friend Barbara will be home in Pennsylvania by then. So we got together for tea and cookies, and she gave me a lovely tea towel.

“I thought of  you when I saw it,” she said.

“Oh, it’s so lovely. I don’t want to use it,” I replied.

Barbara gave me a stern look. “I gave the towel to you to be used.”

She’s right, of course. What’s the sense of having the towel and not using it? So here it is, covering rising bread dough, and this is how the tea towel  will be used from now on. But the tea towel is pretty, isn’t it? Wouldn’t you hate to use it?

And speaking of pretty…I am slowly, slowly coming around to begonias. They’re bright, they do well in part sun, part shade, which is the best my yard gets, and they last straight through until fall. In short, they are troopers. (I hope you noticed the little fairy hovering over them.)

Readers might recall that this was the year I succumbed to hostas. I had lost far too many flowers in the dry shade that is the reality of much of my yard. Finally I snapped, digging like a fiend, splitting up hostas I already had, and planting them wherever there was a hole left by a dead plant. And there were holes aplenty. Now, in late summer, I see the wisdom of all that mad activity in the spring. The front yard actually looks pretty good. There are no masses of flowers, but that’s pretty much true for the entire season. Most important, there are no ugly bare patches.

In the backyard, a plant has crept onto the patio, and Clif thinks it might be an evil creature from Doctor Who. But Clif is wrong. Instead, it is a cucumber, exploring and expanding. So far, I’ve only gotten a few cucumbers. I hope I get more before the frost comes.

This last shot might seem a little odd. This really is our kitchen wastebasket, and there is nothing distinguished about it. I included the wastebasket because in an effort to reduce trash and my carbon footprint, I had set a modest goal for myself. Instead of a bag of trash a week, I resolved to have a bag of trash every other week. I am happy to report that this goal has been met, chiefly by buying more in bulk, cooking more from scratch, and being careful about the packaged goods I do buy.

My next goal? A bag of trash every third week. That one will be harder to achieve.

Stay tuned!

 

Books, Food

A Very Maya Weekend

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On Saturday and Sunday, Clif and I went to two events to sell our books—Maya and the Book of Everything and The Wave of Time.  A busy weekend but a good one.

On Saturday, we set up at the Winthrop Sidewalk Art Festival, which was right in our own little town. How nice it was to only drive a mile to get to this event. On the other hand, the weather was far from nice. In the morning, it rained, and when the rain stopped a high wind blew through town. Here is the gray view from our booth.

Nevertheless, lots of people—bearing umbrellas—came to the art festival, and we sold quite a few books. So despite the bad weather, we did well.

The next day, Sunday, was a much better day, and off to Lewiston we went to the Sunday Indie Market, which had a fun, funky vibe.

Unfortunately, there was another big event in the area—a balloon festival—so not many people came to the Indie Market. No matter! We still had a good time, and we loved being a part of the Market.

We enjoyed being on the city sidewalk and hearing a clock in the distance chime at noon.

Clif at our tent

On one side of me was Courtney Schlacter from Quiet City Books, which is not far from where the Indie Market was held. Three copies of Maya and the Book of Everything soon will be in her store, and for the December Indie Market, we’ll have a pop-up table at Quiet City Books.

On the other side of us was Bella’s Best Sweets & Treats. Oh, my! I, of course, succumbed to a cupcake, and it was ever so good—moist, chocolatey, and filled with cream. And, yes, I did share it with Clif.

Nearby, to add to the fun, a folksy, bluesy band played.

Not a bad way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon! And kudos to the Indie Market group who, among others, is helping to revitalize Lewiston, a factory city that has been down in the heels for quite a while.

Food

The Generosity of Friends

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It’s been quite a week. For starters, I made some absolutely delicious  granola that is so good that I will probably never buy another box of cereal. (We like having cereal on hand, not only for breakfast but also for busy nights when you want something quick to eat.) In the past, I have made granola but have had only mediocre results.  Not so with this recipe, which came from the blog Thrifty Frugal Mom.  This granola recipe really is as easy and as forgiving as Thrifty Fugal Mom states in her blog. I didn’t have any wheat germ or coconut, so neither of these went into the mix. I only had quick-cooking oats, so no rolled oats went into the mix either. It didn’t matter. The granola was still very tasty, and I have been eating it for breakfast every morning. Next time, I will be sure to have rolled oats on hand. Also some dried cranberries. Anyway, this granola will now be a staple in our house, thus reducing the excessive packaging and cost that come with boxed cereal.

And speaking of packaging…On a recent trip to Hannaford Supermarket, I brought two of my own bags for green beans and popcorn. I wondered if the cashier would be nonplussed by the bags from home.  She was not  and even stated that these bags were much better than the ones the store provided. Of course, we had to pay a little extra as Hannaford doesn’t weigh containers from home, and my bags are heavier than the ones from the store. Also, my bags are still plastic and will eventually wear out. But I’ll be able to get many, many uses out of my bags, unlike the flimsy ones from Hannaford, which really are pretty much single use. And my bags aren’t that heavy. So, success!

And to make the week even finer came a perfect summer’s day with low humidity. This is the view across from the Winthrop Farmer’s Market, where we buy our corn on the cob. Note how blue the sky and water are.

That night we had a meal consisting solely of Maine vegetables. Nothing else was needed.

Now what, you might ask, could possibly top all the delights I have described above? The answer: A box and two bags of vegetables left on our porch by my friend Beth Clark. She had dropped them off so early that we didn’t even know she had come until we saw the bounty on our porch. Her husband John had picked the vegetables for us the day before, and we were dumbfounded by the abundance, which included cabbage, Swiss chard, tomatoes, eggplant, and yellow squash. Both Clif and I were incredibly touched by Beth and John’s wonderful generosity.

Here is a picture of a few of the beautiful vegetables we found on our porch this morning.

As we might say in Maine, a finest kind of week.

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