See you later, Alligator...

...in awhile, crocodile...or - this family is not what it's croc'd up to be? Ouch. On a walk and took one of my lame (but hey it's fun) foot shots and JW wanted to have his feet in a photo, too.

Happy Birthday, Daddy

For my Dad, a devoted gardener, who has been missed these last years since he passed,

a rose that we came upon while walking in Southport, Ct - the scent was sublime.

Tha mi gad ionndrainn, m'athair.

Tin Roof Rusted!

Remember that shout out from the song Love Shack? Or maybe you are not as old as me ('scuse me as I try to remember my wayward youth). I only recently discovered it means getting accidentally pregnant...who knew? I loved the line "I got me a car as big as a whale" as I drove a '69 Pontiac that had been my mom's and she sold it to me for a cup of coffee. It took up two parking spaces and could out hoof anything that pulled up at a red light and smirked at me.

Hot, muggy days, house smells like wet dogs, working through these sunny days - ah, cranky nostalgic me. I want a time trip back to summers off and parties where no one just sat around and made polite conversation but instead we moved all the furniture and danced our fannies off all night long. (Note to Time Travel Machine: please include Advil for next day muscle pain and stiffness).

Sunday Quote

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pequot Pilgrimage!

As we do annually - the trek to Pequot, this time with our friend, Mary, who survived the heat (and hoorah, no rain) as we hunted for books under the canvas tents. Loved the awnings on this harborside apartment but I will take the balcony apt. with the seaside view :)

Also loved the fence - beyond just a hint of extensive gardens and sculptures and just after the camera clicked - a slender brown rabbit looking very magical - hopped past. Perhaps he had a very important date with the white rabbit and Alice, one never knows.

Poetry, Brit-style (and fabulous)

SO, we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

Leave it to VSL which graces my inbox with all sorts of goodies (really, you want to sign up) to present this brilliant bit , a rockin' presentation Lord Byron would surely approve of...and here is the rest of the sight - looks terrific. I know what I will be clicking on all weekend - that is after my personal yearly pilgrimage to the book sales to blow out all book sales in Southport at the Pequot Library...if you are in Ct this weekend, worth it.

the toes knows

These feet really do not want to go to work in the summer.

Summer is off and running ...

...and I am trying to catch up! All the rain and chill has made it feel awfully unsummery.

Summer things so far:

-Made a blueberry pie

-Went to the lake and swam

-A little road trip

- Fireworks on the Fourth

-Playing in the dirt (otherwise known as gardening)

-lots of mango, pineapple, blueberries, nectarines and cantaloupe and strawberries...fruit salad happiness.

- playing summer music on the car cd player

-BBQ'd suppers

- College boy home for the summer rising past noon

Still... need buckets and sand fun. A longer road trip. Chowder. Lazy sleeping in mornings. Sun sun sun and more sun. Need to complain about the heat. Swim in salt water. Eat tomatoes warm from the garden (ours have moulted in the rain...they look quite alarming). And I need some sort of boat ride....maybe then I'll be convinced it's already mid-July.

Sunday Quote plus...

"and that's the way it is"... my husband commented that watching the Sunday morning news tribute to him was like watching a timeline of our lives - forty years ago when Walter Cronkite was bursting with enthusiastic joy at Apollo 11, my husband and I were watching the broadcast about a mile apart from each other, him at his summer job at the beach club, me at home with my parents, unknown and unmet to each other.
A couple of years ago, I was in a Mystic, CT bookstore about to purchase an armload of nautical and sea-themed books when I noticed the older woman, definately a retired librarian type, very proper and knowledgeable, looking startled and a bit starstruck. The only other people browsing were several older men and a mom and child who were wandering out. I realized she was staring at one of them, a tall, dignified looking man in a windbreaker and boating casual clothes...it was Walter Cronkite. You could see she was the type of woman who would never ask for an autograph, too polite to invade some one's space but - she couldn't help herself. Her personal exception was right in front of her. She stammered out an admiring sentence and he very graciously began to speak with her. His pals, standing near me, bore expressions of resigned impatience. "He gets that a lot, doesn't he?" I remarked. One of them chuckled, the other rolled his eyes. "You have no idea." We waited, them for their friend, me to buy my books, but we stood a respectful distance from them because we all realized that for her, this was an important moment in her life - and Mr. Cronkite honored that moment with grace and kindness. He was the real deal. Good-bye, Walter Cronkite, and cheers to a life well-lived.

Jaunts here and there

Doe and fawn in Goldens Bridge, NY,
and another deer came out later, how they know it's almost dusk a mystery. The tree shaped like a dragon head - do you see it? A lake in NJ and a rooster in Montclair.
Playing with colors on the two blogs and while I love the changes on Library Mermaid, not entirely sure about the colors here. Maybe I need to wait and see if I like them more tomorrow before I mess with the blog anymore.

Jumping into summer?

Finally starting to feel like summer - little trips here and there seem to be the way to go about it - a couple of days away really is good for perspective and getting out of the blahs.

Now to plan some more...

Sunday Quote

"I don't renege on a bet."

Best way to teach a kid that you keep your word if you give it? Do it.

Here's to my friend, Caren, who lost a rock, paper, scissors bet with my youngest son and, true to her word, jumped in the pool fully clothed.

I spy ...

the surprise of honeysuckle tucked inside a roadside hedge, one rose peeking, a blue water cover the same color of the sky and the hydrangeas, the intoxicating smell of linden trees in bloom, blue hydrangeas over a yellow splashed wall...all on a stroll in the neighboring town where I grew up a thousand and one years ago.

A short drive back in time

Summer was...

Sunday Quote

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.

-Wallace Stevens

fireworks!

Happy fourth of July

On our walk we spied this beautiful flag waving in the breeze - but by the time we had crossed over to the house, it had gotten snagged on a branch. Was very dramatic like a patriotic ceiling to stand under...now if only you could smell the breeze - a mix of salt air and linden trees...amazing. Have a wonderful fourth!

Inkhearted

A wonderful film from the wonderful book for booklovers, readers, and writers, all who know the power of the written word, and for those who know what happens when your voice wraps around words, and for those who know what happens when you hear those words spoken, and especially for all of us who know that yes, books do whisper, aching against the bound boards, "open me, open me, tell my story".