Archives - Weekly Update

While I spend a lot of time writing online and doing virtual events, I do love getting out to meet readers, which is what I got to do on Wednesday night at the Avalon Free Public Library. I am trying to remember how many summers I have been doing this program. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, as well as some new ones. The weather was great there, unlike the first year when it was absolutely pouring. I joke that that was my christening into Avalon.

I love summer. I enjoy early morning swims, gardening, and reading in the pool or in the turquoise tent that we affectionately call “the Cleopatra tent.” I finally found some terrific dinner plate dahlias at the nursery. Last year, I bought two plants at another nursery that they swore were dinner plates, but they turned out to be regular-sized flowers, which was a disappointment. You can see what I am talking about above. Karyn, who has been doing a lot of planting for us, was here early this morning, working on a section that we bought plants for last week. But it was just too hot; the ground was way too dry.

I love the colors this time of year. Yesterday I spent part of the morning picking out shade plants at a local nursery, and they had peacocks on the property. There were two in “my colors,” and one spread its feathers while we were there, which is called “train rattling.” Also, it may be to draw attention to another bird for mating or to ward off predators. So either the peacock I saw was flirting, or it was terrified of us. I wish I had snagged a better photo of the train rattling as it was gorgeous.

I have no shelf control. I love that line. It’s so very true. The shelves of upcoming books to read have morphed into piles on the floor. A few weeks ago, I sorted them by publication date. There were a lot coming out on June 4th and others on June 11th, so that was not exactly one of my greater solutions.