mondays at maywood
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Looking for Normal
Maybe this week will be normal. No earthquakes. No hurricanes. No power outages. Just people waking up normally and going normally to where they normally should go. No dramatic surges in cell phone usage. No frantic texting. No schedule rearranging. I’m not getting my hopes up for calm. Just normal. Somewhere in the recesses of Continue reading
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Do we have electricity?
Monday, when my post for Mondays at Maywood is due, I will either have electricity or not. I will either be dealing with lack of power, fallen trees, and water where it shouldn’t be, or I will be calmly observing that the prior week brought both an earthquake and a hurricane. So on Saturday I Continue reading
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Gouttières and Dutch boys’ suits
This is transition week. Next Monday teachers report back to work. This is the week I’m torn by what to do. Do I sit and relax? Do I frantically finish summer projects? Do I “set my face toward Jerusalem” and dig into school work? All of the above? None of the above? (None of the Continue reading
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Sycamore Tussock Moth Caterpillar
I was sitting at Café Maywood Tuesday morning, enjoying the quiet with my coffee and my journal. I noticed a caterpillar on a marigold leaf. So much for my quiet time… “Hey, Harper, come out here and see this caterpillar!” “Wow…it’s so cool…” We’ve never seen one of these before. Furry white and very soft. And it Continue reading
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Heirlooms in the garden
Just because you plant a garden doesn’t mean that you know what’s going to come up. This is especially true if you get your garden plants from someone else’s garden! Many things in my garden had their beginnings next door in the original Maywood yard. Why buy hostas, periwinkle, daylilies, daffodils, lily of the valley, or Continue reading
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Avoiding the closets
When the school year ended, my closets were in total dysfunction. Shoes were losing their partners in a heap that was taking over the floor. How do I even own this many shoes? I’m no Eileen Wilson. (She’s my lovely sister-in-law who owns lovely shoes. In fact, she owns a pair of really cute flip-flops that Continue reading
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Peach Jammin’ 2011
I will not buy peaches in a grocery store. I don’t care if they do say “locally grown.” Shipping to a store still means a lag time from orchard to kitchen, and in order not to have gloppy bruised peaches, the fruit must be picked on the early side. Peaches picked too soon never ripen properly. So instead Continue reading
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Seagulls
While most of the country sweltered in the heat, we spent the past week in Cape May keeping an eye out for flying beach umbrellas. The flap-flapping of a beach full of umbrellas is relaxing until one decides to take off à la Mary Poppins. A suddenly launching umbrella can be like a jousting pole when it is headed Continue reading
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Bug of the day
Sometimes the best bug is a dead bug. And today Harper and I found a really cool dead bug. It was about the size of a house fly, but irredescent blue and green, and it had a really long stinger. I have never seen one of these flying around. Just as well. The stinger is Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 