Summer days

The beginning of summer, and already we worry about its end.  The days are getting shorter, but ever so imperceptibly (now that's a big word; too much reading Melville).  The days are certainly getting hotter, and we have moved down into the basement for our cool sleeping quarters.  We call it our summer palace, a la Dr. Zhivago.

Still, there's a lot to report.  Where to start? 

The garden.  It's the year of the strawberry.  And the rose.  But not the asparagus.  We've had some lettuce harvests and radishes.  It could also be the year of the deer.  We have seen a doe and two small fawns in the yard, and a young buck, with just the beginnings of antlers.  Did you send them up here, Peter?  Have they finished eating everything down in NJ?  You can have them back, as they have started eating the peach tree, the apple tree, the blueberries, the hastas, etc.  Go back!  So, there's a run on netting at the hardware store that seems to be slowing down the devastation.

We had our first visitor in a while.  Genuine visitor.  And we did visitor-type things with our friend Monette from DC.   The Clark, the Red Lion Inn, dinner on the lake, hiking and turtle sitting.  That's right.  We are taking care of Harris the box turtle over at the Locherys while their owners are away for a few weeks.  It's good material for some laughs, like taking Harris for a walk.  I actually don't remember holding, or even seeing, a box turtle for years.  Mary thinks Harris likes her.  No kidding.

Big news in DC – Simon is taking steps.  Pretty soon, he'll be going to the Olympic tryouts.  With his mother who has delighted her mother by starting to swim again. Over in Asheville, Annie had taken an art workshop over the weekend.  She and Sankar have decided, or their workplaces decided for them, that they will be heading back to California, by summer's end,  at least for a while.

Down in Brazil, the whole gang, along with Leonor's parents, had a weekend at a nearby resort with a water park.  The pictures showed long, fun days, followed by exhausted boys collapsed in their beds. And, tomorrow is Leonor's birthday!  (Same day as Gramps – Grandma's father.)  Feliz aniversario!  We're looking forward to their visit back to the U.S., before the next weekly letter.

Some items off Facebook, include pictures of Johanna with tatoos!  Did you get your parents' permission? How can I not post that photo?   And, we say pictures of Donald on a bike and in a kayak!

A bit of sad news down in DC is that Jeff and Melodie had to put down their cat.  It's been a bad string of loss of pets in the family.  So sorry.

Out west, Andrew and Lur are up in Green Lake, as of this writing.  They missed out last year, but they're back.  We understand Claire will join them for a few days.  They will celebrate their 30^th wedding anniversary this coming week.  How's that for timing – within the space of a year David and Paula had their 50^th, Andrew and Lur their 30^th, and Mary and I had our 40^th. 

More good news.  My box of saved weekly letters is all digitized.  But there's bad news in that when I started saving the letters, I was saving the stamps, not the missives, so I have many empty envelopes from the early years.  I also realized that I never saved letters when I was physically at home.  Pop would leave them on the kitchen table, next to a job list, and whoever was home would share reading that copy.  The end result – I'm missing many letters, but I understand some guy out in Illinois has binders full of letters.

Anyway, here's one entry from one of the earliest letters I found (1971) –

"Dear Wonderful Workers,

I'm only kidding, as you know, for you really didn't work during your visits home, except to saw wood, creosote, trees, steam wallpaper, rake leaves, wash dishes, iron sheets, clean ponds, move logs, etc.  But it was simply great to hear your laughter, wild music, late snoring and all those other great sounds of a busy home." 

And with that, see you all in the Poconos. (Next year.)  Love from up here.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roller coaster

Some highs and lows in June, so far.  We were saddened to hear that Lur's father passed away.  He had been in physical and mental decline for some time and required continual care, but we understand his final days were markedly different.  No matter how much you prepare for this eventuality, the departure still comes as a shock.  Claire, Daniel and Billy came home for the service, where the minister mentioned his work as a carpenter, a biblical profession.  Lur's mother, with her own issues, seems to be aware she's missing her life partner.  Very tough for all involved.

Over in Rochester, it was a different life commemoration, this one for 50 years of marriage for David and Paula.  5-0!  Wow!  Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Grandma and Pop's 50^th in Princeton.  How does time pass so quickly?  That said, I do remember the wedding, beautiful in so many respects, traditional and a model for those that followed, but hard to match.  One thing did not get repeated - Pop's near meltdown over David and Paula's lingering to enjoy their party with their friends.  No word on the nature of the celebration in Fairport yet (photos??), but we saw Jeff and Melodie made their way up from the nation's capital, and it's a safe bet that Matthew and Tina came over as well.

We are coming off a week with Simon.  Enjoyable, funny, predictable, growing, learning, unpredictable, tiring – so much wrapped into one full week.  Margaret and Andrew made the courageous drives up and back, and paid the price of a little boy who didn't want to be in a car seat that long.  They set about trying to work from Hancock Road, with the inevitable interruptions, despite our (admittedly mostly Mary's) day caring.  We went on little outings, played in the pool, walked over to the lake, watched Simon scoot around each of the rooms in the house, looking back to make sure someone was on his tail.  He's standing and walking with support and crawling as fast as Carl Lewis.  Unfortunately, he got a cold on their return home, and has had to stay home while Margaret and Andrew try to work with a sick little boy.  I should add Simon had a couple of firsts - Shaker Village and a Pittsfield Suns baseball game.  It was also a first for Margaret and Andrew at Shaker Village.

Down in Brazil. Joe and Leonor had, by all accounts, a wonderful sejour in Rio, that seems to live up to its reputation.  All you have to do is hear the words Copacabana and Ipanema, and fun and sun and beaches and spectacular geography spring to mind.  Leonor's parents are down there and watched the boys back in Brasilia.

The news from Asheville was highlighted mostly by the sighting of a bear on Annie's street, just a ten-minute walk from the city center!  Yikes. 

One more piece of sad news from Dundee was Andrew and Lur had to put down their dog, Willie.  This followed the loss of their cat a few weeks ago.

In the eastern part of this commonwealth, Kara's daughter Sage graduated from high school and the John Boyle family congregated for the occasion.  Sage is off to Berklee Conservatory in the fall.  A talented musician/guitarist/singer.

Here, we're inching back to normal lives.  At church on Sunday, the hymnals were back in the pews, and they even took collection.  We're playing bridge, in person, with no masks. We even went to a Tom Rush concert, albeit outdoors under a tent.  Did I mention we washed the windows?  Does that even count?  Yes, because for some reason, the windows didn't get dirty during the year of Covid.

And, from the archives – on June 10, 2021, the letter that was at the top of the pile for scanning was from June 10, 1974.  And what was happening forty-six years ago, three years after David and Paula's wedding?  "It was so great to have everyone in Princeton, and your father deeply appreciates the effort that all of you made to come to the 25th. I know it was loads more fun for Pop than it was for you. I'll come to your 25th."

Love from up here.  Welcome summer!