Archives - Weekly Update

You know that line “Summertime and the living is easy”? I am questioning the easy part. It begins with weeds. This summer they are everywhere. I stop to smell the flowers and am pulling weeds. I feel like we do not have a lawn; we have weeds in a row that are clipped and appear to be a lawn. It’s rained so much that at least it’s all green!

But then there was the wicked heat last weekend, and the flowers and leaves shriveled without lots of tending to them with water. Of course, right after I watered everything last Sunday night, it rained two inches. Then there is clipping dead flowers to encourage new blooms. Then there are bugs that eat the flowers and bugs that bite me. And there were the two nights when deer made their way over the fence, and bit and ate a lot of flowers and plants.

The weather in the New York area has been sultry. Sultry sounds like it’s a lazy day in the South, and one is settled with a cool drink under a magnolia tree. The reality is that haze and humidity in New York feel something like damp blankets tossed over you while you walk around in business attire dripping moisture. As I moseyed around to various ThrillerFest events last week and meetings in the city this week, I was trying to adapt my expectations of how I looked with a “dewy glow” and hair that was getting bigger by the moment. It was not pleasant.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. I made the flag pie that we shared the recipe for in the last newsletter on the 7th instead of the 4th; it was a really fun project. Cutting stars made of dough by hand is not easy…and it was somewhat amusing to make that happen. No two stars looked alike. I am not Betsy Ross.

When we left off Friday night, I was at the beach doing a Summer Reading presentation at the Avalon Free Public Library. I was delighted to see the familiar faces of some of our readers in the audience --- and I was amazed that 74(!) people were there on a Friday evening. You can see a photo of some of the audience members above. I enjoy events like this, seeing how enthused readers get about books and reading.