"She refused to be bored, chiefly because she wasn't boring." Zelda Fitzgerald

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Farm Party

I love it when something is so beautifully happy that I feel inspired by it in my own life. The last birthday party we went to was like that.


A gentle day in the sunshine at a private hobby farm in honor of the pint-sized birthday girl. Nothing fancy....no goodie bags of plastic crap, no giant sugary birthday cake, no fancy clothes to keep clean.


Just strawberries and cream from her mama's garden, milking a goat into a tin pail, and turns rising the horse together with a small band of best friends.


Lots of simple, rich pleasures....just the way it ought to be.



Do you think I could get my friends to come to a party like that for my half-birthday????Nobody has farm day celebrations in December when my real birthday happens.



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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Shakespeare + Outdoors = Atmospheric Perfection




Enjoyed a very fine production of Shakespeare's As You Like It tonight. Whoever invented the tradition of free, outdoor civic performances of Shakespeare was a kind of genius. Of course this particular show was really excellently executed and cast (which helps immeasurably) but still...the outdoors +. W. Shakespeare is top notch. In the first place you can watch barefoot. Point taken, right?



At one point there was a mockingbird singing really beautifully over the head of an actor making an elegant speech in the greenwood, the sun set in the background as the plot intensified, periodically the wind would carry the scent of the blooming honeysuckle across the audience and at one point I leaned my head back and saw a pair of egrets lazily gliding overhead during a lull in the action. So lovely. The way Shakespeare should be experienced.



And also, as a side note...As You Like It is a beautiful, feminist comedy and romance. Will earned points with me for it.


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Monday, June 24, 2013

An American Pastime

Summer is here! We hit 90 degrees today and I watered the veggie garden twice to keep it from wilting. There is iced tea on tap and weekly watermelon purchasing happening to boot. All of spring has gone except for the dogwood blossoms which are lingering with extra vigor this year. Even my roses have finished blooming and now the garden is all lilies and daisies and anytime soon now the purple coneflower will join in.

Our first "extracurricular" type activity has just ended as baseball wrapped up this past week. So much fun sitting on the mini-bleachers with the other moms through blazing sun and even a little rain and watching smash hits and foul balls alike as our boys learned the basics of the game together.



 I never expected to feel so very fond of a sport but Little League has my heart. So much of it has to do with Ru's intense love for the game...any game really, but he sure latched on to baseball. He loved learning from the neighborhood dads who coach, loved the hard work of studying stances and getting the particulars of procedures nailed down, and he felt so incredibly spiffy and official in a real, live uniform.


 I just put the pants and socks in the Goodwill bag but he's keeping his jersey in his sentimental box and still wearing his team cap around the house. I wonder if it will the first of many uniforms I stain treat over the years. I think we are headed to the sports department for good, this one is an athlete.

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Poetry Friday: A Candy Vision



Happy Poetry Friday! I wrote a poem today prompted by a photo I took on a recent visit to the humongous Times Square candy shop. Fun to play with the inspiration of an image and see what comes out. Sometimes it is more colorful than you might imagine.

Today you can find the other Poetry Friday contributors at Carol's Corner



Why I Don't Buy M&M's

In my childhood M&M candies were simple
There were primary colors in orderly tints:
Stolid blue, school bus yellow and sober red
Backed by stalwart chocolate brown in quantity.
Nothing too flagrant, reasonability being key.
Today on an impish whim we stepped inside
The giant candy store in Times Square: a Wonkan dream.
We were welcomed into an orchestra of color,
A world of sweet, magic pebbles in cosmic miser's piles
All colored like one thousand, thousand eyeshadow pots
Lush, gossipy shades of scandalous, blooming color
Tints I never dreamed of when I was seven years old.
They carry a blushing raspberry sorbet now and a soft lilac.
Creme de menthe green like popped collars and tennis skirts
And a soft dove grey to serve in milk glass like a Swedish dream.
I saw chartruese like a patch of sunlit grass in early April,
A mermaid blue like the lining of an elegant, silk glove
And a dark marooooon like red velvet cake at midnight.
I wanted to buy them all and carry them out into the night
Sit on a manhole cover in the starlight and finger the lot
Sift them through my fingers in a bright tic-tic-tic stream.
Then I would have clutched them warmly in my fists until
The colors dripped down my knuckles in decadent streams.
I'd have worn the shades down my cheeks like stage paint
All that delicious color in long stripes across my sternum
And slick lines down my thighs in a vibrant gloss.
And then I would have danced like Martha Graham
Extending my pointed toes and balancing upside down
Airily arching my neck in front of a gathering crowd.
 A private Cirque du Lune under streetlights.

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Pick Me A Mulberry




The mulberries are in! I found a beautiful tree in the back corner of a diner parking lot with giant, plump berries, the branches dragging onto the sidewalk, bowed by the weight of so much fruit. We stopped and picked a bowlful and then came back the next day and picked triple our first harvest without even denting the supply. I have a fantasy of bringing a sheet to spread under the tree next and harvesting via the shake method. Has anyone tried that yet?



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