Posted 12/10/2019 12:38:55
Category: Think Pieces

Banishing from my mind a single thought about deadlines or commitments, I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on Saturday and attended a music/arts festival where, under a cloudless blue sky, I enjoyed an afternoon of eclectic live music. Saturday night I went to my cousin Ray's 50th birthday party. Ray is a blast and so was his party!     

On Sunday, as Sissy Dare might say, I went a-visiting. Some of my friends were feeling generous. I left my friend Brenda's house with two jars of homemade cherry jelly and a splendid mess of beets freshly dug from her garden. At another friend's house, after enjoying a pleasant walk to the pasture to bring in the ponies, I was sent on my way with blueberries and fresh rhubarb. Today I made a rhubarb crisp laced with blackberry syrup, the eating of which was heaven! 

My last stop of the day was to visit a friend who’s in town helping to care for a relative who had surgery. We sat on my friend's mother's patio at twilight, where pots of blooming flowers gave way to flowers blooming in the gardens, to a farmer’s cornfield bordered by trees.  I can’t remember a June in my part of the world that has looked more green and happy. After that disturbing heat wave in March, we've been blessed with gentle thunderstorms and moderate temps in June—sometimes it’s been downright chilly. The grass in my backyard is so lush I’m reluctant to mow it; I like the color and natural look of the taller growth dotted with the yellows and purples of wildflowers. 

Today at dusk I watched a deer grazing in the yard, a healthy-looking, fully matured doe. She looked in my direction when she heard me stir behind the window. But then, rather than turn to the woods, she continued nibbling nonchalantly on buttercups. As she grazed, lightning bugs began to float up out of the grass. One twinkled in the center of the doe's eye. It was sublime.  

--DAC

06/2012 (edited 12/2019)

Related Entries:
AN INVITATION TO TEA - 05/2012