Blueberry Bay

We were a little late getting there this year but we acted as gleaners, filling half a pail between us all before settling down to drink our blueberry lemonade.  I was just happy to have made it there this summer.  Labor Day is on its way.  My planner arrived in the mail today.  I'm told organization doesn't close you in.  On the contrary -it will set you free to do the things you always wanted to do.  I'll give it a whirl.  So far it has just meant doing more laundry.  I hope you all are enjoying these last lovely days of carefree summer.  

We still have September in our back pocket.  

Ice Cream Dinner

"Why not let it be the meal instead of adding its calories to already satisfied stomachs?"  That is exactly what I was going to say.  I read this quote from my More With Less cookbook and off we drove down one of my favorite back roads to Kimball Farm for an ice cream dinner.  Along the way I craned my neck to peer into all the immense gardens and beautiful backyards.  We eyed the beautiful old homes (like this one) and imagined.  It was a celebration of a perfect summer evening.

No Stone Unturned

Slowly, I'm realizing that the older you get the more what-if scenarios you have to play in your head.  They start to pile up.  Or stack up at least.  They are like the stones that sit on my front porch painted in gold by our neighbors.  For a while I didn't think life worked like that.  I thought there was one path charted out for you and you walked the line as it curved and veered.  Uphill and down.  But once you've lived some, or for me, until you reach your early(ish) thirties you realize that the unanswered questions don't go away.  You have to make peace with them.  To look at what might have happened and didn't.  And then to look at the life you have and know it.  

Last night I went to hear Jason Harrod play at Club Passim.  This was a big moment for me because I was mad at him for a number of years.  We were friends back in the day.  He slept in our guest room.  He played a concert for our neighbors in our backyard.  We ran together at our local track where we got in a fight about something.  I think one of us wasn't running fast enough.  He played the guitar with my brother and then complained about it afterward.  He visited me at my mom's store while I daydreamed at the counter.  I had just moved back home to New Hampshire and he was in the area singing songs and playing gigs.   Then the day came that we both knew would come when we started down separate paths and carried on with our lives.  For a while I missed the friendship, for a while I was mad and stopped listening to his music.  And then time passed and I got over it.  Now I am able to remember those days without pain or anger.  And, I'm glad because those days are significant to me.  They are some of the last I had with my mom and they are clear in my memory.  It's good to be able to turn over the proverbial stone and be okay.    

These two paragraphs will be inserted into my life's essay.  :)

Roadside Raspberries

We ventured up to New Hampshire yesterday and stopped at this roadside stand.  It isn't much to look at but it has always been there.  One pint of raspberries on the way up and one pint for the ride home.  I go for the break in routine, time with my aunt and my favorite hideaway consignment shop.  Naomi goes to push the double baby stroller.  Verity goes for the lovely crawling terrain.  :)

Deep Summer

We've hit deep summer.  Those days when the playgrounds are empty because everyone is at the Cape.  Those days when you start looking at your summer to-do list, erase a couple of wishes and add a couple of wants.  So far I've crossed off at least one thing -eating a whole pint of blueberries by myself.  I did that yesterday when I took an afternoon to myself.  I rode this bike and texted the person who borrowed my bike to next time please lower the seat to original setting after usage.  I also mailed the package on the back of the bike.  Huge.

I came back from my outing feeling extra-balanced.  (That is until I saw pictures of the Duchess step out of the hospital with baby George.  Oh, Kate, you do beat all.)  Starving but balanced.  I harnessed this hunger and peace and made dinner.  Summer Garden Ratatouille.  Now I know how the French get their children to love vegetables.  It did include a splurge on olive oil and heirloom tomatoes.  I want to buy heirloom everything.  Fortunately for both of us Ratatouille doesn't photograph well.  But, I will give you unsolicited advice and tell you to add it to your summer to-do list.  

Summer Garden Ratatouille

2 onions (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 bay leaf 

Saute in 3 tablespoons olive oil about 5 minutes.

1 medium eggplant (chopped)

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh basil (chopped)

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (chopped)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Add, cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is soft, about 15-20 minutes

2 summer squash (chopped)

2 green, orange, or red sweet peppers (cut in strips)

2 cups / 500 ml tomatoes (chopped)

Add simmer until peppers and squash are tender, about 10 minutes.  Serve over pasta or polenta sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.  

*minorly adapted from Simply in Season

Speaking of Optimism

Anthropologie remembered my birthday again this year!  They are so sweet.  And, I hope they are right.  No doubt.   :)

Tonight we will step out to slurp down oysters somewhere in the city.  Maybe here or our old standby, Central Kitchen.  I hope you are well!  

Filling Up On Maine

How have you been, friends?  I have gone from one vacation to the next.  It sounds indulgent.  But when you receive an invitation to enjoy someone's house on the Maine coast, it doesn't matter when those dates fall -you go.  Even if you have to leave the day after you get back from being gone for ten days.  You would have done the same, right?

Thanks to my sister's ability to squeeze every last drop out of a good thing (and whose children are slightly older than mine) we took the scenic route there and back.  If we had stopped at every roadside farmstand, seafood truck, inlet and antique barn we would still currently be in the middle of nowhere.  It was so tempting though.  As was buying a Volkswagen Westfalia and camping out an extra couple of days so we could celebrate Bastille Day at Salt Water Farm.

When you can no longer share the good things in life with your mom -a lobster lunch, an ocean breeze, your children, it's a struggle to enjoy them yourself.  It taints everything.  I say to myself "You should be happy!"  And I retort, "But I don't want to!"  It continues on like this until I have a diaper to change or people to feed or a conversation with someone that thankfully steals me away from this inner dialogue.  But this week was a gift in its purest form.  And I could do nothing to spoil it.  We embraced the tired fog of the mornings and coupled them with buttery pastries in butterfly gardens.  We ate something from the sea every day, shared a bottle of wine every night; chasing dinners down with bowls full of ice cream   We filled up on each other.