06.17.18

Our vegetable garden is coming along well, with radishes and beans up, and we are less worried about revolution than we used to be.
–  E. B. White

It was my first trip to the farmer’s market yesterday, on a cool and rainy morning.  The vendors wore wool hats and fingerless gloves which was such a juxtaposition to the green pea shoots, arugula, red leaf lettuce, and rainbow radishes spread across their tables.  It’s always so cheerful at the market as families with children in tow, carrying bags and baskets, discuss various vegetables with the farmers.  You can always learn some new way to cook the broccolini or find out that sweet white turnips are delicious in a salad.  The morning is young and the robins are singing and the rain is soft and the air is cool, and the news of the world, which troubled you earlier in the morning, fades away.  And, the whole day is still ahead of you.

After being gone for nearly a week, rainy days are the best for settling back into home.  I roasted granola and ironed clothes with a lavender spray, and spent several hours in a cozy chair in the library, just reading, as rain fell off the roof.   A quiet lull, before the onset of summer, which is just around the corner.  The yellow canola fields are in bloom, the lake is at full pool, my model sailboats are positioned on the mantle, and the furniture has been moved away from the fireplace for a full view of the water.  The sailboat, perched high on its trailer in the driveway, has been washed and waxed and ready for Don to install the new lines.  Depending upon the weather, she will be driven over to Somers this week, the mast will be stepped, and off she will sail into port–which is our mooring ball off the dock.  Then, we will be ready for summer–which doesn’t really happen until the 4th of July–which is just fine by me.   I love these rainy days to prepare for the exuberance and joy and gathering of family, the swimming and boating, the late nights by the campfire, and all the memories that are made in high summer.  It feels like “our vegetable garden is coming along well.”