I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Friday, June 10, 2016

June




Hi! June is such a hopeful month....everything is bright and shiny and new. Treads on your flipflops, no rust on your beach chair, towels all Downy-fluffy and sweet smelling. Roses are in bloom everywhere, and the air is scented with the shy delight of honeysuckle that blooms on the dunes and marsh verges.

curbside volunteer Sweet William

A new case of red Solo cups, burgers in the fridge. American flags at the ready for the celebrations to come.



You couldn't ask for a nicer day than today. Yesterday's frigid storm has gone, the sky is blue with a big puffy 30 mph wind. Dry air so it feels cooler than the actual 70-ish degrees.


I sat on my deck for awhile, sewing Dotty 365s.


Leaves me maybe too much time to think, and remember. Like how when my kids were tiny, we'd arrive here in June and settle in. Before their day camp would start, I'd have a week or two of the little ones all to myself, for beach days and picnics and trips to the ice cream stand, Beach Boys blaring out my Jeep's open windows. A favorite thing was to get out our bikes and ride to the village, quite a long ride for very small kids and a winter weary young mom. [2 miles? 3? each way]. We'd get a slice of pizza and an Italian ice then shop at the little beach and surf shop, long gone now. The kids would choose a special summer friendship bracelet, meant to be worn on brown sandy ankles until it fell off in the Fall. Maybe they'd buy a coloring book, or a beach toy.

[quilt in progress is Summertime, by Jan Patek]










And usually we'd get a new kite, once each June. Kites are fun for little kids---until time to reel them in. Many times we'd just snip the kite string and set the kite free instead.


Later the kites became more sophisticated. Colorful nylon, box kites, shark kites. We shopped at fancy kite stores in Provincetown, Hyannis, South Street Seaport. Too costly to discard, I'd patiently wind them in and store them for another summer. I still have a few on my highest kitchen cupboard shelf, I think. And the old wooden kite winder my dad made for me when I was their age.


I sewed a few more circles, missing my mom and dad, and remembering summer days in the Midwest and Cape Cod. My mom and I always had a book we'd read. The back patio was brick, with masses of pink roses on an old blue-green iron fence. After lunch [weird stuff! mushrooms on toast, brie grilled cheese! Salami on white bread,lol.] my brother would head off with the guy-gang for baseball, maybe? and my mother and I would read a chapter of our book. This went well until the summer after third grade, when  we read Little Women, and it wasn't going fast enough for me. I read it myself in a few days. After that it was weekly trips to the library for books of my own.


Evenings----ice cream, fireflies in mayo jars, sunsets that lasted forever.
But not really.

The prompt for Lori's Baskets quiltalong [which I am not doing] is "childhood'' this month. No sewing required, but do you have a special summer memory? I hope so.



love

lizzy

gone to the beach....














14 comments:

  1. Ah, nostalgia. I remember playing outside until suppertime, usually in the dirt somewhere when I was little, then later occasionally in the creek. Gingerly walking on gravel barefoot until winter-tender feet toughened up. The smell of bug repellent. Making the mistake of walking in (soft, cool) clover barefooted and stepping on an unfortunate honeybee, OUCH! Evening baths, then sitting in front of a box fan watching TV until time for bed. Mom having to come close the windows late when the night air turned chilly. Swiping a tomato from the garden and eating them!

    There are things I don't miss, though. Chigger and mosquito bites, wasps in the house, sunburn (I *never* remembered sunscreen!), bee stings, never having enough books to read as the library was too far away, not seeing most of my friends all summer...

    Sometimes I wish I could go back and re-live some of the long days that now seem so short. It would be a nice treat for an adult, to be back in that young energetic body for a day!

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  2. I've had more childhood in the last 16 years that I had when I was young.

    We "reverse retired" and quit the rat race early and took 10 years off knowing we'd have to work afterward.

    Snorkeling every day. Long days under a beach umbrella. Picnic lunches and dinners. Daily sunrises and sunsets. Reading on the beach. Writing on the beach. Napping on the beach.

    Sand all over the tile floor every day.

    Hey, I was even tan through all the sunscreen.

    And now it's the "afterward" part. And jobs just as intense as the old ones were.

    But what a 10 years it was. No regrets...

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  3. Love your post and that beautiful quilt...inspiring me to pull mine out as I'm in the mood. Haven't touched it in a couple of years... I am in awe of your beach or any beach but envy your ability to just go there whenever...

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  4. I grew up in Arizona and have fond memories of constant swimming! We lived in our bathing suits. And oh how I cherish when our girls were little...we had the best summers together.

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  5. I love all your summer memories! I was just listening to a Beach Boys song in my Jeep the other day....LOL All Summer Long! A favorite. Enjoy! :) Kit

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    1. Can t have summer Jeep drives w/out the Beach Boys!

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  6. Love hearing of your memories. I'll be sharing some of mine when I post the border next month.

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  7. Hmmm...so many wonderful memories of Summer as a child. Homemade lemonade in a cut glass pitcher. Playing outside endlessly without worrying about crime. Spending time with Mom learning how to crochet and knit. The quilt is so lovely. Glad you are enjoying the yo yos. Blessings sweet friend.

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    1. Lemonade in a cut glass pitcher---such a lovely image.

      Thank you for yo yos, you can see I love playing with them evn if I can t sew them on yet!

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  8. These are my favorite kinds of posts from you. Love it when you share memories. Makes me melancholy, in a good way.

    I think I've mentioned before that I used to spend a week with my grandparents in the summer. It was during one of these visits that I overheard my Grandmother call my Grandfather an a**hole. My sweet Grandmother, not just cursing, but cursing at my Grandfather! It totally messed with my head...cripes, it still messes with my head. I did just crack a little smile though. Whew, I am finally working through it :)

    I enjoyed reading everyone's memories. You all paint such a picture, Mel especially.

    The quilt is looking great! I really like it.

    Hope you're on the mend.

    Take care,

    Kel

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    1. Hi Kel! I m glad you enjoyed my post...as Mel says, Nostalgia! But summer days were pretty wonderful back then. I m glad my kids can have their own version here too at the beach.
      Very funny story of your grandparents, I wonder what he did or said to set her off. I tried to picture my own grandparents but I never heard my grandma say so much as Darn, tho the gp's did talk in German/ Swiss together usually, so who knows. Lots of liebchens and schotzees, hahaha. And my mom never would have said that to my dad! Yeesh, tho she did like the ''s'' word, as in Tough Sh*&^% " if we whined.

      Did you have favorite childhood books? Dolls?

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    2. Yes, your kids will have so many wonderful memories, and so many traditions to carry on.

      Ah, love thinking of your grandparents speaking German/Swiss.

      No idea what prompted my Grandmother to say that. I was on the basement stairs and they didn't know I was there. My Mom was also very fond of the s**t word! Sadly I have picked up that habit. My Mom's potty mouth got worse as she got older...a little embarrassing at times :) Sometimes I could see it coming, and I would tell her to ZIP it!

      Nancy Drew books were my favorite. And my Velvet doll, or did I have the other one? Can't remember now. Gosh, my memory is like a sieve ;)

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  9. Wow, Mo is two already - time flies!
    Love reading your summer memories and seeing your quilt. I have a lot of fond memories with my children and also books.

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  10. Lovely quilt and wonderful memories. Funny you mention Little Women as someone else just posted about them. I have the whole set in green hardcover along with a separate Little House in the Big Woods in hardcover. They've been read many, many, many times.

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