Right now, on one countertop and in the fridge there are pears, peaches and plums, keeping company with apples and berries. They are all ripe, ready and in need of attention.
If you’ve been driving in and out of Langley lately, on Langley Road, you may have noticed the unusual amount of activity in and around the old Langley High School building, perhaps wondering what was going on.
Everywhere I go, I see them: the apples of autumn. Three of my neighbors have trees, loaded with ripe and ripening apples, many already falling to the ground, to the delight of the ever-present deer. And along the drive I take from our end of the island to anywhere else, apple trees dot the wayside, all currently heavy with fruit.
Back in one of my other lives, I looked forward eagerly to the beginning days of the new school year. I was a teacher, then, and couldn’t wait to meet my new batch of students. My own kids, of course, were moaning and groaning about having to give up their too short summertime fun and put on those stiff new “back-to-school” shoes and clothes.
It’s been a tough week, a strange, confusing, terrifying and very discouraging week. As remote as we are from the recent Colorado massacre, it’s impossible not to feel within ourselves some of the pain and suffering everyone involved there must be going through. We may never find out or understand what triggered such insanity in the previously brilliant mind of a seemingly promising young man, but the questions this event has raised may be with us for a very long time.
Are you ready for the onslaught? After the lousy June, slow springing spring, we’re suddenly thrust into summer, and not a moment too soon. However, it also means it’s time to prepare for the deluge of all things wonderful.
Thanks to readers, friends and family members (who are often trying to reform my eating habits), I receive a lot of food/health related information, which I appreciate even if I don’t always follow through with some of the suggestions.
Tuesday was officially the longest day of the year and the first day of summer, which means it’s time to celebrate, right?
Monday is Memorial Day, the first big summertime celebration, although I still have a hard time dealing with a Memorial Day that doesn’t fall on May 30.
There’s no denying that we who live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, especially in the greater Puget Sound area, go a bit nuts when summer comes early, as it has just done.
The first column I ever wrote for the South Whidbey Record was about rhubarb, and it appeared on May 9, many years ago.
Eating one’s words.
It’s not the first time nor, I suspect, will it be the last, but I am here today to eat my words; not all of them, just a paragraph or two. Corrections are in order whether or not you even care about the topic.
Heaven scent.
There’s something new in the air, something that smells of new-mown grass, with overtones of tree blossoms, and just a hint of holiness.
