Summer Hearts

Summer mornings...lavender fields...the lighthouse...Cape Cod---memories of fun times long ago.

In summers past, for many years, I packed up the kids and we'd head up to Cape Cod for a week or two. Those times are gone, the house my dad built in the pine woods on the old Dillingham farmlands belongs to another family now.

My mother grew lavender in the dry sunny herb bed by the road, in a plot edged with a weathered grey fence covered with pink Cape Cod roses. A wren always nested on the fence hole and would chitter angrily at us as we cut the fragrant armloads of lavender each June.

 My dad grew potatoes there, along with my mom's herbs...and once he found an ancient flint arrowhead in the potato plot! The last remnants of summer visitors eons ago.

My mother didn't sew but she always had Ideas.

She was the originator of my lavender hearts that I sell on eBay and etsy....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a new batch of hearts this week...and remembered the special summers with my family.

Good times, good memories...

love

     lizzy

gone to the beach...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honeysuckle and Roses

Hi! Summer arrives tomorrow, isn't that grand! Just in time for Fourth of July...

The afternoon storm has passed, moved off out to sea. Let's go for a walk.

See the funny dots and texture of the sand? That is from the hard drops of rain.

I stop at the top of the dune and take deep breaths of the scented air. I wish you could smell it too.

The air here in the dunes is laden with the aroma of honeysuckle and beach roses. No fancy French perfume can compare with the delicacy of the early summer air. Evocative: summer day, summer day, it whispers.

And look! This is new, masses of beautiful blue violet beach sweetpeas. They never grew here before.

The seeds must have washed up during the hurricane, a little gift from H. Sandy.

The sea grass is finally green and growing fast...

The mallards have rediscovered the summer pond, the dune swale.

Let's walk on down to the shore..

The air here is different. Strongly smells of salt, like a box of Morton's When it rains, it pours table salt. Crisp, clean, so fresh....

The water is exceptionally clear, due to the cold winter and chilly spring...

High solstice tide, washing my winter white toes. No treasures to beachcomb, just the pleasure of a perfect day.

Tomorrow I will pack a small picnic and head down early. Pitas, hummus, tiny tomatoes. Some icy cold lemonade. I plan to enjoy every moment of this precious season, to value all its faces, to stop and yes...smell the roses.

love
 
lizzy
 
gone to the beach....

A Red Letter Day

Hi! What the heck is a red letter day, anyway? Red might mean you got an F on your final exam...However I am using the positive point of view, a
 day of good things.

Very very early, each rare sunny morning, a bright red bird has been landing in the spindly locust tree. He rides up and down on the windblown branch at the very top...and he sings his little heart out.

Probably he is a cardinal, though in these pix, he looks rosy grosbeak-ish? The low red streaks of the sunrise keep me from seeing him clearly...but I love having him visit.

 The farmers market was so busy on this week's sunny Wednesday! Just bursting with shoppers and produce and cops giving out parking tickets. [I managed to evade.]

I stocked up on weekend snacks and appetizers....

Classic red radishes, crisp and tangy!

 

 

Just one perfect rainbow striped heirloom tomato.

Oh I must get more! It was so sweet and tasted like heaven, like no store bought tomato ever...

A fresh mozzarella from my friend the Brooklyn cheese guy, far right.

A loaf of fresh French baguette...and fresh tomato/ cheese stacks with black pepper, a dash of olive oil, and snipped herbs.

 

 another night, an antipasto with more fresh mozz.

 And June in NY bursts with strawberries. The whole market smelled like strawberries...

Again, so sweet, so full of sunshine and happiness.

I marinated them in a splash of amaretto, added some Splenda. [vanilla sugar would be yummier, but in my house we avoid sugar, so...] I'll serve them on peach gelato at the Father's Day BBQ tomorrow.

Let's hope it doesn't rain!

 love

lizzy

...........gone to the beach!