Miscellany

It’s been a long while since I’ve been here, y’all.

Oliver graduated from 4th grade, and we enjoyed our eighth annual family trip to Wrightsville Beach with Tom’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, and their darling girls.
Children are dying under pathetically inattentive, cruel “protective” custody on our southern border.
Trump is flirting with bombing Iran. His base is enabling his insane idiocy and excusing his many assaults.
Yet another has credibly accused Trump of assault -this time of RAPE.
I leave on Thursday to move the boys to summer camp, and I fly home on Saturday to commence six weeks without them.
Tom is soon to start a new job so we’re not traveling this summer.
Instead we are renovating our dining and family rooms and relearning how to rest and relax.
Nutmeg still doesn’t like Ruthie, but she is holding her own, and things are slightly better between them.
I have wonderful new writing students and last week taught a fun, energetic Canning 101 class.
I am deeply worried about and appalled by much of America.
Tom and I are driving to Brooklyn on Sunday in further pursuit of my passion for midcentury modern, Scandinavian-inspired design.
The fireflies are out, and my blackberry bush is thriving, and the orange calla lily I planted with hope two Junes ago is blooming magnificently.
It is PRIDE month, and love is love, and let’s just cheer that!
Today is Bourdain Day, and I miss the light that Anthony Bourdain was in the world, and I hate that depression lies so believably to so many.
I am so very tired, so very worried, and have so many books I hope I get through this summer.

In the meantime, I am thinking about connection and trust, relationships and self-protection. I am thinking of how wonderfully connective vulnerability and gratitude can be, and yet how exposed such porous borders can render us.

Here’s to peace and goodness, faith and the best of the unknown. Here’s to six weeks unplugged and in nature, to New York City and loving cats, to friends and also boundaries, and to the ways that appreciation and trust can make life richer.

Dispatches from the beach

I can hear the water lapping against the shores of the channel, can feel the breeze whisper against and across my shoulders as I rock slowly on the second floor porch. Some birds perch, others soar, boats and jet skis head home. The sun is setting, moving south as if through multiple filters. It is vivid orange. It is blinding yellow with rays bursting in all directions like a child's drawing. It is muted behind the prism of layers of clouds moving in various directions. Some are utterly static while others race. How is this? How do some freeze in the face of forceful currents?

Last night we celebrated my mother-in-law's 70th birthday, and today, she, my father-in-law, brother- and sister-in-law, and nieces headed home. It was a wonderful week- getting to see the kids together, see them truly love and delight in playing together is a treasure.

yellow cake with whipped chocolate caramel ganache frosting - recipes by apuginthekitchen

My crew decided to stay the day and are glad we did. I had peach apricot pie for breakfast (made this yesterday!), went for a run, we spent a last couple hours on the beach, and saw Wonder Woman. As have many, I cried in several spots, moved by her fierceness, wisdom, compassion, courage, and unabating morality. If only such sorts of people actually led our country right now. If only...

Instead, we have an ignorant, insecure, greedy, lying, fraud in the big seat, and innocent people like Philando Castile are murdered in cold blood for no reason other than their skin color and their killers are set free. This country is not moving forward, and it is utterly disheartening and enraging.

With a wink, a nod, and a clenched fist of hell yeah, I leave you with this. 

End-of-school blur

This past week has been such a blur. School ended, we caught up on doctor's appointments, the boys headed to the beach with Tom's parents (amazing; we had two nights just to ourselves and went to fabulous dinners on both), I got six hours of gardening in yesterday, and today we joined everyone in NC. This view never gets old.

I don't know if ever summer break has felt so welcome. It's lovely that we're all on the same page about that. The boys are loving every minute with their cousins, and we are grateful.

Tonight I can offer little beyond visual treats. Good enough!

One of the dahlias I started from bulb this year. Gorgeous! I love the parcel of petals you can see in the bottom bloom. 

Jack got a very cool chemistry set as an early birthday present.

Ol and I went out to lunch on his last day of school. He loves to make origami cranes.

I can never resist making an example sheet of all available crayons.