Summer Simplicity

Professor J,

I'm sorry to report that blueberries do need sun for most of the day. It might be enough to grow a healthy plant but I doubt you'd be harvesting many berries.

I enjoyed your story of the Greek woman and her book. Something about your description, your daily observations, and that encounter sound like the beginning of a beautiful story. Like you, I haven't read either of those books you mention though I did read a section of 50 Shades of Gray on Amazon to see what all the fuss was about. It must have had some secret allure later in the book (I wonder what ;)) because the writing was insufferably bad. I wondered --who in the world could be reading this drivel? And I'll join you in feeling a bit snobbish in that but you might remember a quote from the Guernsey book:

Reading good books ruins you for reading bad books.

So here we are reading War and Peace in summer. :)

Thanks for the movie recommendation. I'll make a note to see it. I recently watched The Candidate again and found it remarkable how many of the issues in the film are not only still being discussed today but with the same wording on both sides of things.  42 years later no one even has a new way to frame the problems. Nearly every issue brought up is still relevant today. What does that say, do you think? Besides that we are obviously really lousy problem solvers...

There is something magical about summer that causes our inner child to come out to play. It feels perfectly acceptable to sit in a swing and eat a popcicle (though now it's an organic fruit bar) or blow bubbles at the dogs. While I can't say it's my favorite season I can identify with your daughter about the start of school. I always feel sad for kids when the back to school ads start and the school supplies show up in stores. Leftover emotions from childhood, I guess. Some Saturday mornings I still miss Captain Crunch and Jonny Quest.

If there's anything to love about summer it's a garden and all the little details and creatures that inhabit it. Like mythical baseball fields, if you build it, they will come. Here are a few miracles I captured on a recent morning:

A bumblebee who positively sparkled with pollen. 

 A hummingbird moth, something I'd never seen before until a few weeks ago.

A louffa gourd tendril. Tendril is such a perfectly lovely word.

A rabbit. You can just see his silhouette in the bottom right corner of the gate under the apple tree.

A bundle of apple branches that were pruned in late winter, drying to be used as kindling in those autumn fires.

 Beekeeping supplies through the window of the honey shed.