Playing Favorites?

Yes, you are in the right place.  I changed the look of the blog, guess I got bored.  Instead of painting the walls around here I decided to change the blog a bit, don't get too used to this look though, I'm not in love with it and it might just change next week!  I am trying to make it look a little fallish!  It is not really fall around here yet, but I know it is just around the corner...right?!

We are dog sitting for a few days.  We have our "grand-dog".  I have been noticing how much more attention I pay to the "grand-dog" than to Sadie.  Poor Sadie.  Lemy (grand-dog)  has been attached to my hip for his entire time here.  He follows me so closely that he steps on the back of my flip flops (yes, I am still wearing flip flops and it is almost October...ugh!) when he walks behind me. 

This is Lemy...keeping his distance

I had a little flashback today.  When the kids would have friends over to visit I would find myself bending over backwards to be nice/hospitable to the guests....at the expense of my own children.  Why is it that we are always nicer to guests than we are to our own family?  You know this is true!  Sadie can tell you this is true.  She has been looking at me lately with the "Really?  Are you kidding me?" look.   "Lemy gets to go out into the green space and run whenever he wants and I have to practically beg to get a few minutes out there! " is what Sadie is thinking, I can see it on her face.  The dogs have decided to cohabitate... but at a distance.

This is Lemy and Sadie cohabiting....notice his close proximity to moi!

As most kids react to their parents being nicer to the company than to them, Sadie has started giving us the cold shoulder.  I am sure she is saying in her little dog brain, "Sure.... be nice to him, take him out for extra walks...but who is going to be here next week?"    There will have to be extra sweetness coming her way when Lemy goes home.  Promises promises...




My Summer Romance

Did you ever go to summer camp or to the beach for the summer and fall hopelessly in "love" with someone while you were away?  He or she was so cute and different than those kids at school.  You were both kind of anonymous and not bound by your "status" back home.  Summer romances are so invigorating and clandestine.  You would promise each other to "keep in touch over the winter".  These promises usually lasted until school started and you were back in your real life, well at least for me.  Oh, but it is so nice to just pull out those memories from time to time and savour them. 

I have a Canadian summer romance every year!  Some years there were boys involved but most years my romance was with Canada. 

It happens every year.  I go away for a month or two or three and leave behind things like television, shopping, eating out, driving in traffic, having a yard guy....and no yard, twice weekly garbage pickup, a garbage disposal, and lots of other "stuff" and live rather rustically for the summer.  I always think I will miss the creature comforts of home when I'm away and every year I am proven wrong.  I fall in love with a much simpler, slower, rural life and Canada herself. 

Summer is over.  I am back home and already I have been distracted from my summer romance.  How fickle the heart is!  I only hesitated a few seconds when I threw away a banana peel....in the garbage and not in the green bin of joy.  My heart fluttered when I saw all the pretty clothes in the stores and the amazingly low prices.  I was smitten when TJ and I ate out three nights in one week and I did not have to pull the food out of the dirt, wash it, cook it and clean up afterwards.  My heart lept when my drive to the golf course was only 5 minutes instead of 30 and then it sank when I had my highest score of the summer.  The thought of meeting with my book club and seeing all of my friends put a giant childish grin on my face.  The biggest surprise came when I reluctantly (it was the day after our 4.5 day drive home and I was exhausted and this was the last place I wanted to go) went back to teach my ESL class and was once again swept off my feet by a room full of eager, smiling, Spanish speaking people ready to learn to speak English.  I had all but forgotten about my summer romance in a little less than two weeks.  Sorry Canada.  I promise to write....and I will come back next summer to pick up where we left off!

The Weight of a Purse

"Real" life just came rushing back at me like the tidal bore and it was in the form of a purse.  All summer I have been using a very small, light purse because.... what do I really need up here?  A wallet, keys and some SPF lip balm...right?  Ok, maybe a pair of sunglasses too since it has been sunny ALL summer.  Today in my packing efforts I transferred from my small summer-at-the-shore purse to my "real" life purse.  The passport, calendar, pill box, check books (yes, that is plural, one for Canada and one for the States), reading glasses, cell phone, etc. all got put in the purse.  I am ready for the road trip home.

 I went to eat dinner tonight at my parents cottage and grabbed my purse on the way out the door, ugh!  It weighed a ton!  That's when it hit me...."real" life weighs a ton!  I have not even left yet and I am already weighed down.  Can you see the sad face I'm making?  All the trappings of "real" life are going to hit me one by one as I head south over the next few days.  There will be no more looking out of windows at the water or the open fields in my yard and breathing fresh air.  No more long walks on the sandbars with Sadie until next summer, if we both survive "real" life for the next 8 or 9 months.  No more open windows with curtains blowing in the breeze.  I will no longer be surrounded by close friends and family.  No more carefree lifeystyle that seems to fit my nature.

Yes, Sadie, we will both miss this daily ritual!

So I will pick up my heavy "real" life purse tomorrow and leave another summer in paradise.  The weight of this departure will be heavy on me all day until I come to terms with reality and decide it is time to move on.   There is more to life than the shore....I guess.
Stay tuned for some "real" life in the next couple of weeks.  Until then, I will sleep well tonight...with the windows open and the cool breeze to keep me comfortable!





Death By Eggplant

You know that episode of the I Love Lucy show where she is working on a candy assembly line and it keeps going faster and faster and she can't keep up so she just starts shoving the candy in her mouth?  I know how she feels!  At first, the thought of working around candy is enticing, but even too much of a good thing is just... well...too much!  Take the garden for instance.  The thought of fresh produce right outside your door is something we all would agree is a nice thing. 

Who doesn't like fresh peas, carrots, onions and tomatoes right outside the back door?

Making dinner usually involves going out to the garden and seeing what is ripe and available and planning a meal around the pick of the day.  Easy enough!  The produce trickles in as the summer goes along, first the lettuce then the peas, carrots, spinach, Swiss chard, herbs, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, leeks, onions, tomatoes, artichokes, peppers, beans, turnips, beets, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries.  Any one or two...or three of these vegetables is great and when the house is full of family or friends it is nice to have meals planned by whatever is ripe and plentiful.  As each thing ripens it is always exciting to eat the first harvest.

Ok, we can eat all of this....that is a lot of tomatoes though....

This summer was one of the warmest and driest in history, fact.  Apparently that means the garden will grow with wild abandon.  It also means that the fruit trees at the farm will produce abundantly.  Who knew?  So...in addition to all of the fruit and vegetables we have planted, the trees that just happen to be growing here have record crops this year. 

These beauties almost plum tuckered me out!

As the population at the shore dwindled the produce in the garden increased exponentially!  Who will eat all of this food?  We invited friends we travel to NYC with every year to visit us for a week and Mrs. NYC is  a very skilled chef/baker.  She was all into making the most out of the garden.  My problem was that by the time they arrived my excitement over the garden was waning.  I was already in "time to pack everything up and leave" mode and they were all in "wow!  Look at all this food and think of all the yummy things we can make with it"  mode.  As the week went on I began to feel like Lucy and the chocolates.  So much produce!  We picked beans, peas, carrots, strawberries, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, leeks, and a million plums.  Her enthusiasm for the produce knew no bounds!  She was not alone either, TJ and Mr. NYC were more than happy to harvest the bounty.  We may have all doubled in weight because of all the delicious food Mrs. NYC prepared.   We (well "we" may be one too many people, really Mrs. NYC) made...

Plum tart

grilled artichokes and radicchio

homemade tomato basil pasta sauce

Tomato pesto tart

Plum jam

A huge apple, plum, blueberry crisp

The list goes on and on...and it was all delicious!  Don't say anything when you see me and notice I have gained a few pounds!  We ate like royalty when Mr. and Mrs. NYC were visiting.  Once they left it was down to two people and now...just me.  Right before the master gardener himself left on a business trip he deposited this at the doorstep!

tomatoes for one?!  Can I bring these across the border?

Exactly what I need/want.... enough tomatoes to feed a family of 20!  We leave in 4 days and I'm here alone ....hmmm, tomato sauce in between packing and cleaning the farmhouse?  As my mind raced through all of the possibilities for these tomatoes and the time and energy involved to make something meaningful out of them he brought one more thing into the kitchen....and this is when I went off the deep end...it was the straw that broke this camel's back....

an eggplant....one chocolate too many! 

So as much as I enjoy the garden and it's many fruits, when it's time to go, it's time to go.  I can't take it with me so I'll just have to leave it for the deer and the raccoons.  It's time to clean the very full fridge and freezer until next summer.  Time to put away all the toys of summer, put the flower boxes in the shed,  take the chairs off the deck, clean the floors, beds and bathrooms,  do all the laundry and throw away all the garbage, compost and recycling.  That poor eggplant will probably never get cooked.

Fireworks, Friends and Farewells

There are fireworks going off in the distance.  The sky is black and the lights on the distant shore flicker and it is quiet in the house, except for the remote fireworks.  It is the end of the season and after a perfect week of the most spectacular weather I find myself wishing everyone who comes here could experience a night like tonight.  Peace and perfection.  There is something to be said for subtle beauty. 

The last week has been one of the most spectacular weeks ever....as far as weather goes.  I only wish I could put it in a bottle and take it home with me and bring it out whenever I need a breath of fresh air!  This is how I remember summer as a child, sunny and beautiful during the day and cool and crisp in the morning and at night.  Ahhh!  I find myself just wanting to sit outside and soak it all up.  My motivation to do anything inside has been taken over by the beauty of the great outdoors.  I would feel guilty working inside on days like this.  I have even resorted to pulling weeds in the garden... just to be outside!  TJ will be so proud!

who can work when it looks like this outside???

We had a bonfire on the beach tonight.  We had hot dogs and marshmallows, chips and drinks.  The cool wind blew and we wore jeans and sweatshirts and huddled around the fire when the sun went down.  It was a very intimate group, not too many people and not too few, just the right number.  I looked at the cottages all lit up on the point in the distance and wondered if they would all be dark in a couple of weeks.  How sad....the summer is coming to a close and the lights will go out. 

Will their lights go out in a week?

At home summer ends when school starts but there is no defining climate change to tell us the season is over.  Up here the weather tells us it is time to shift gears.  Oh, how I love that!  I love it in June when the days are long and the sun never seems to set, it is like the world is telling us to stay up and play and enjoy the summer while it is here!  As the summer winds down the days start to get shorter and the world is telling us we need to go to bed earlier and get the sleep we need for school or work. 

I have said more than my share of goodbyes over the past week.  "Goodbye, see you next summer, have a great winter, see you next year!"  Summer friends are special people.  Our summer friends see us at our best!  We are relaxed and happy.  There is no stress in our life because we are on vacation at the shore!  We all look so good too....we are tan and fit...because we have been outside playing for weeks and we are smiling.  A smile goes a long way, no one even notices whether we are tan or fit if we greet them with a big smile!  At least that's my approach....

I plan to squeeze at least two more weeks out of this summer up here.  It will be a relatively quiet two weeks but from what I have heard September is beautiful up here.  I hope it is true, this is uncharted territory for me.  I also hope that when I get back to Houston fall has decided to arrive.  What?? A girl can hope!

For now I'll just continue to enjoy the earlier sunsets!

Forced Growth

Have you ever put tulip bulbs in the fridge in October to "force" them?  We have to do this to tulips in the south if we want them to flower because the ground never freezes.  Does it hurt or is it just unnatural?  Not sure, but the result is always so rewarding and beautiful.

Have you ever had to do something you were not ready to do or something completely out of your comfort zone?  Like trying to grow tulips in the south.  I remember when I found out I was pregnant with our first child, I was not quite prepared but when the time came I muddled my way through those first months/years and grew into a mother.  It was not always easy and it required me to call on some skills I had never used before.  It was a new and scary role but very rewarding.

Life hands us roles that we are sometimes not ready to live.  We are put in situations we are not comfortable in and we have to find a way to make it through.  After all is said and done we grow and many times look back and nod and say a private "whew, thank you." 

The first English class I taught to non-English speaking people was out of my comfort zone.  I went in very apprehensively and after two years I find it has taught me many life lessons.  Something lead me to that ministry and out of my comfort zone.  That something also gave me the tools to use when I was lost and as a result I grew into a teacher.

Life situations we have no control over put us in places we never expected to be.  The death of a loved one or serious illness can put us in a place we did not plan.  How we handle this causes us to grow and call on resources that would have lain dormant otherwise.  We can surprise ourselves with our strength.  We grow, but not because we chose the path of growth.  We were given a little nudge, we were put in the refrigerator and then planted and forced to blossom. 

The next time you find yourself in a place you wish you did not have to be just remember tulips in the south.  They go through the discomfort of six weeks in the refrigerator and then once planted are able to blossom into some of the most beautiful flowers ever seen.

Their Last Day

The kids have come and gone.  It was a fun two weeks!  They came in waves and left in waves.  Of course we never get to do everything we want to do when we are together.  Each of us has our favorite things about the shore and we each want to have the best time possible.  The only problem is that it is impossible to do everything you want to do and then everything everyone else wants to do and still have time to do nothing, which is what we all really want to do when we are here.  Well, at least I do.

The grandsons were here for almost two weeks and they are at such cute ages, exhausting ages, but still super cute!  They were here long enough to really get into the rhythm of the shore.  I fear this rhythm will not play out well at home though.  Life is so much more structured with so many more rules than the shore.

On their last day I decided to take lots of pictures and capture them just doing stuff.  I want to remember just how cute they were this summer.  Luckily they were doing lots of fun things that were photo worthy.  So without any further adieu...their last day.



There was pea picking with Mommy

 

They did a little climbing

Christopher went down the slide

And he went up the slide

They raced cars on the deck

They had a picnic lunch outside



It was so nice outside that Daniel wanted to have his rest on the deck.





Priceless!




                    There was walking in the water with Mommy    

There was swimming with friends

 




They scowled at the paparazzi and ate snacks on the beach



At the end of the day they walked down the beach to the rocks and climbed around for a while



And then they Razzle Dazzled our favorite place in the world!