Summer Days

Hello Gentle Readers. Greetings on this summery summer day. While the hot July sun shines on the flower beds and vegetable patch, the flax and the larkspur go to seed. The cucumber vines ramble out of their space to climb a tomato cage and twine around zinnias. Maybe the raspy cucumber leaves will keep the bunnies out of the zinnias. I've harvested a few cherry tomatoes and Juliets, a small Roma tomato that is generally prolific. The two other tomato plants are full of green fruit. Yesterday I canned eight half-pint jars of bread and butter pickles and made one quart jar of refrigerator dill pickle spears. "Basil bombs" are next on my list. Last night I watered and so it goes. 

Eventually today I will link with Kat and the Unravelers to post about making and reading. We are updating a bathroom and the washing machine repairman is due here sometime today. In between, I continue to work on two knitting projects. I am ready to finish the shawl in the photo. I have a third skein of yarn but am hoping not to need it. Time and stitches will tell.

I made some progress on the Avenue Vest. It's been a while since I knit on size 7 needles but I'm enjoying the shaping. I really do want to finish the shawl so will focus on it for a week or so and see what happens. Sometime if I knit on something, I can finish it. Funny how that happens. 

As for book notes, I reread two books on my shelf.  The Woman in the Moon, poetry by Marjorie Saiser, was lovely. As Saiser notices and records the world, she reminds me, "In the dark times there will be singing"  (Saiser, M. The Woman in the Moon, Backwaters Press, 2018, p. 54) I loved the metaphor in the title poem. [She - the moon]  has dimples and doesn't care. She "has paled and doesn't mind that she has put her gold away." (Ibid. p. 42- 43) I enjoyed every poem in the book.

I read The Magnificent Spinster, published in 1985, by writer and poet, May Sarton. I first read this novel in the 1990's when I was a fan of her nonfiction journals. The main character, a beloved teacher, is loosely based on Anne Longfellow Thorp, the granddaughter of Longfellow, that Sarton knew. In the novel, she skims the surface of all kinds of relationships between strong women. Perhaps in another time she would have written more honestly about homosexuality and identity, creating a stronger story. In addition, the book could have been edited in order to avoid repetition and a trite New England-y kind of story. The times are different so my judgement may not be fair. 

Sarton published and sold a lot of novels, nonfiction journals, and some poetry but was never pleased with the critical reception of her work, especially poetry. A biography of Sarton noted she was mercurial and didn't work well with editors. Maybe her work would have been better if she had been able to work cooperatively with her editors. Who knows, maybe she just couldn't find the right editor. After reading the biography, I felt I had been duped by the image she presented in her published "journal" series and so I gave them away. Now this novel and the biography no longer need to be on my bookshelf. I don't plan to read them again. I enjoyed her work when I read it but I'm a different reader these days and my bookshelves hold plenty of other books to reread.

What are you reading or rereading these summer days?

Late afternoon and the repairman has come and gone. After seven years of use, replacing our washer is more economical than repairing it. No wonder the planet is in peril. More poetry and perhaps a song is in order this evening.