“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
~ Henry James
The garden is growing, freezer is freezing, the dehydrator is humming, the canning shelves are filling, and it’s oh-so-hot outside. Summer in Kamloops–perfect!
Gerry brought home the most delicious raspberries and blueberries yesterday. I got busy right away. I blanched a batch of blueberries and put them in the dehydrator (to use in granola in the winter months), and spread trays with raspberries and tucked them in the freezer (I freeze them on cookie sheets then throw them into freezer bags after they’re frozen). He also scored more new potatoes that I’ll be canning today (https://lindahoye.com/canning-new-potatoes/).
First, an early morning trip to the garden to water before it gets too hot. No need to harvest today; the fridge is still stocked with kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, salad turnips, and radishes, from yesterday’s pick–that’s tonight’s supper. We gifted a few of our neighbours with some beautiful lettuce yesterday too; we have more than enough.
Later, anticipating some time on the deck with a few books and maybe some camera play.
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A few simple happy things:
Bees in the lavender in my front flower garden.
Gerry destemming the dried oregano for me.
Hot summer nights.
Hot dogs with beet relish and Uncle Bill’s mustard. (https://lindahoye.com/uncle-bills-mustard/)
Open doors and windows early in the morning.
Is there not a memoir #2 in all of this about the profound gifts of your retirement years? Your joy and contentment is so visceral. On the other hand, writing a memoir is a lot of hard work that would take the place of some of that contentment…. Just saying… xo
I’ve been pondering a second memoir, Mary Jo. It is, indeed, a lot of hard work but good work, as you well know. We’ll see.