Thunderstorm Last Night

Weather Report:

A thunderstorm rolled in last night off the lake. It rained for the first time in several weeks which, no doubt, our garden welcomed. Everything will pop now. Driving into town last night, I was checking out the cornfields. The plants are just ribbons of green. The adage knee high by Fourth of July will not apply to this year's crops. But, it's strange, no matter how early or late we are (in a span of 3 weeks), everything matures at the time expected. How can that possibly make sense? But it's true. There seems to be a three week window of time.

Weather Report: Time to Get Things Done

Weather Report: Rain, a soft gentle rain that began around 4 a.m. and continues into the hour of coffee. It's, at last, cooler. The next two weeks will be filled with preparation for the upcoming semester and finishing of projects. So much to do, so much to do.

We made the blueberry and navel orange jam sans sugar. It's a very sophisticated taste. More like marmalade. I like it, but those who prefer a sweeter taste would be startled by its pucker up. The book says it's best on zucchini bread. Now that it's a bit cooler, I'm going to bake some bread. We do have an abundance of zucchini.

Planning on going out to the gardens as soon as the rain lets up to harvest tomatoes and carrots. The carrots are very sweet this year and look more like starfish than straight eights, but once cleaned and sliced, who really knows or cares. It's interesting how veggies have been engineered to look a certain way in the grocery stores. The code of uniformity does something to the taste.

As a kid, I used to love Red Delicious apples, so sweet, so juicy. Now the store bought variety
have no taste. It's disturbing. Peter has been grilling fruit, peaches and pears. What a nice side taste that is. Nothing better than summer veggie fare.

Went to see EAT PRAY LOVE this past week. I really enjoyed reading the book and had an opportunity to hear and meet Elizabeth Gilbert several years ago. There were 900 people at the reading, but she made the room feel very intimate. My favorite part of the movie and book was Italy. And after seeing that landscape and plates of food and gatherings of friends for meals-- I wanted to jump on the next plane.


Enjoy your August Sunday . . . any way you please.

Last Day of January

It's been so cold and snowy, one of our black and white chickens has been laying crooked eggs . . .
What does that mean? I woke up early this morning, before dawn, and could see the shadows of seven deer moving single file through the apple orchard. By daylight, thirty robins were in the crab apple tree. They appeared anxious, pecking at the frozen fruit. Our resident pileated woodpecker was hanging on the feeder and new snow falling. Quite a sight from our kitchen window. This winter has been tough on the animals foraging for food. They are taking risks coming closer, and within reach of the cats . . .


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The Northville Review is now live! Looks terrific. I personally like online ezines.
Here are my favorite ones: The Centrifugal Eye, Apple Valley Review, Lark!, The Hobble Creek Review, The Public Republic, Brevity, Smokelong Quarterly . . . What online journal do you read? Recommend?
I love the immediacy of online journals-- a poem, story, nonfiction essay, just a click away.
I appreciate the increased readership, too. I have been introduced to many fine writers by reading online. True, I will always love books, and many of these online zines have made print anthologies, which is the best of both worlds. I imagine the sales of the printed version would increase because of the online visibilty.