2026, books, gardening, home, Nature, Seasons

Is It Summer Yet?

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In looking for my packing list on my pc last night, I found a Word file titled “From Books I Like”.  It’s only a couple of pages long and I would not have remembered that I have this document if I hadn’t stumbled upon it.  It has a few quotes from books that I’ve read; one of the quotes is that wonderful metaphor about the town from The Egg & I by Betty MacDonald that I’ve written about before.  Then there are two other quotes from Michael Perry’s Off Main Street.  One is another transfixing metaphor….

“Summer is a seducer.  After bundling through another tight-lipped winter, after enduring the mounting frustration of spring’s titillating dance of veils, we gape as summer comes sliding down her blazing ecliptic like a woman down a banister.  She laughs with her head thrown far back; she throws her hands high in the air, releasing fistfuls of butterflies.  She belly dances through the cornfields until the dust rises like a charmed snake, hanging in fat curls, leaving you cotton-mouthed.  She makes the fox pant, she drives the hawk to think air.  Weaker creatures curtain themselves away to complain.”

Fairly appropriate as I’m enjoying the beginning of spring/summer this week.  My major gardening push is done so now I can enjoy my yard without massive effort.  Bird feeders are full, hummingbird feeders are out (although I haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet).  YA and I have new Adirondacks in back as one of our old ones gave up the ghost a couple of weeks back.  Windows open.  No fans down from the attic yet although I have had my overhead fan going a couple of times in my bedroom.  Did my twice-a-year laundering of  my bedding and allergy covers.  Swapped out my spring/summer wardrobe for my winter one.  Aaaaahhhhhh.

Of course, unearthing these quotes on the pc makes me wonder if I have other files like this started and squirrelled away.  Suppose I’ll have to take a look one of these days!

You enjoying anything in particular this week?

 

27 thoughts on “Is It Summer Yet?”

      1. A few years back, I quit moving the long sleeve T-shirts to the attic for the summer. So now I have one drawer that is dedicated to short sleeve T-shirts and a second drawer that is dedicated to the long sleeves. In the summer, I simply move the short sleeve drawer up and the long sleeve drawer down. This makes it quite handy for days like today.

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  2. I am enjoying (most days now) being able to leave the house without a coat.

    Really enjoyed a happy hour at The Lafayette (cocktail lounge), with a couple of friends yesterday… hope to do that more often.

    Enjoying looking out on the calendar and seeing fewer meetings as we head into summer break!

    I enjoyed sitting down at the piano recently for the first time in months!

    To be continued…

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  3. Rise and Droop, Baboons,

    I am not having much fun lately. My Spring allergies have really been problematic this year at the same time my antihistamine stopped working for me. In March I had the first sinus infection in 3 years. Then stuff started blooming. So I am headachy and dizzy. I am trying other meds which work better but make me sleepy.

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    1. Did you ever try ear acupuncture? This year has been really bad for allergies. After two years of bliss, mine came roaring back last month. My acupuncturist re-tested me three weeks ago. In addition to my usual culprits, I now test positive for ash trees and some flowers. She inserted four tiny needles in the outer ear canal which are still in (can’t feel them at all and don’t interfere with my hearing aids) . They will come out next week. I still had to take Allegra for the first 9 days but am now off of that – still use occasional allergy eye drops (darn wind!). I am not completely symptom free but am much better. The real test will be when cottonwood full starts flying. Fingers crossed!

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      2. I contacted the acupuncturist you use. It comes down to a matter of scheduling. She has a pretty restricted schedule and I can’t get there when I have coverage for husband.

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        1. wei liu is a great accupuncturist. the man in minneapolis not the woman in richfield or edina

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  4. Today is my first day of 1/2 summer vacation! I go 1/2 time at the college for the last 2 weeks. A few extra events in the theater before my real summer vacation starts on June 3.
    So working from home today.

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  5. I did my joy card as usual today. Here are some items I wrote, some I write every day
    Given another day
    Good coffee
    My son switched to team he wants and team who wants him
    Roxie came today to clean
    Found a lamp to put right over my clipboard when I write
    Birds in tree canopy outside my window
    My shorebird decoys look nice against the window

    BUT where are the 5 things I know are here that I cannot find

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        1. I used to think corruption would be exposed and the people involved would be punished. Now it seems the corruption is just business as usual.

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  6. We had the furnace ducts vacuumed out today. The ones in the basement were really bad. Now I truly am looking forward to the dust settling so I can deep clean the house. Grandson asked to make banana bread with me, so that will happen this afternoon. He likes to do the NYT word games with me, and is really good at spelling. Once yesterday he said, “look, Oma, that is a palindrome!”

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  7. I’m enjoying the end of my spring allergies. No more red, itchy eyes and I can go outside without having a pollen attack.

    We’re enjoying new cooking ventures. After many months of shopping and waiting for the best price, Husband has finally acquired his Holy Grail: a Le Creuset 5-quart braiser pan. He’s also been wanting to try pasta with vodka sauce. It’s a popular dish, but we never buy vodka and I was doubtful that putting vodka in pasta sauce would make much difference. This week we found a recipe, bought a small bottle of vodka, and made rigatoni with vodka sauce in the new braiser. We topped it with some fresh basil that’s growing on the deck. It was very good and I loved cooking in the braiser, but I’m still not sure the vodka contributed anything. And now I have a bottle of vodka to use up.

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    3. I posted before reading others and hope my comment about allergies didn’t sound like bragging. I’m sorry to learn you’re still suffering from them, Jacque and K, and hope you’ll feel relief soon.

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  8. Random moment of illumination this morning, when I had public radio on and the show was spotlighting the group the Go-Go’s.

    They were talking about a song called Our Lips Are Sealed. My first thought was that I didn’t recall that one. Then they played an excerpt, and I thought, “Oh, that’s what they were were saying! The word “sealed” was sort of stretched to two syllables, so I always thought it was “see you”. Never knew what the line was, but thought it might be something like “I can still see you.”

    Now I know.

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