100 days of summer :: day 47

“But it seemed to me that this was the way we all lived: full to the brim with gratitude and joy one day, wrecked on the rocks the next.
Finding the balance between the two was the art and the salvation.”

― Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures

I spend the day visiting with old friends. We pass around grandchild photos and think about our boys, who all played soccer together when they were teens. I laugh and feel myself relax into their familiarity, these beautiful woman who know my life story. These amazing woman who have been right beside me whenever the bottom dropped out of my world and how they held me tight through it all. I hold on tight now to the stories told today, the updates, the good and the not so good moments we all have passed through since the last time we saw each other. I try to find a place to store up the goodness of today as I know I will need it at some point, so I write about it here, hoping it will help me remember how friendships need to be nurtured, and I best do my part.

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100 days of summer :: day 46

A tomato may be a fruit, but it is a singular fruit. A savory fruit. A fruit that has ambitions far beyond the ambitions of other fruits.
- E. Lockhart

tomato season is almost here

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100 days of summer :: day 45

“What you produce is not necessarily always sacred, I realized, just because you think it’s sacred. What is sacred is the time that you spend working on the project, and what that time does to expand your imagination, and what that expanded imagination does to transform your life.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

We wake to rain this morning and it is wonderful. I stand in the light drizzle and take photos of this rose, pausing to just listen to the quietness around me. I pair it here with a couple of photos I took yesterday, staying true to the no rules allowed ruling I put in place when I started this project. She has been a bit fussing, this rose of mine, and I have had to baby her a bit. Her delicate blooms are worth the effort.

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100 days of summer :: day 44

"'Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about."

- John Mayer 

Percy and I head to the park today. We are both amazed at how low the water is at the falls. We look for feathers and cross both bridges. We dig the car blanket out of the back of the car and lay on our backs, watching for eagles. We watch the clouds and point out the different shapes we spy to each other. We also make silly slow-motion videos on my phone, laughing hard at the playbacks. I come home feeling so relaxed and so full of love. And thinking, time is flying by way too fast.

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100 days of summer :: day 43

“July is hot afternoons and sultry nights and mornings when its joy just to be alive. July is a picnic and a red canoe and a sunburned neck and a softball game and ice tinkling in a tall glass. July is a blind date with summer.”

— Hal Borland

the house with the daisy patch

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100 days of summer :: day 42

“This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.”

― Natalie Goldberg

after dinner, on the deck. we watch the boats on the lake
we eat crackers and cheese along with the last of the pizza from last night
but, we save a few of the cherries for tomorrow’s breakfast
i get up and grab my camera, because that light…
it is always all about the light…

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100 days of summer :: day 41

“Cilantro was briefly everywhere, creating miniflurries of conversation about whether or not you liked cilantro, which invariably included someone in the room saying, "I can't stand cilantro. It tastes like soap.”

― Meg Wolitzer

cilantro fresh from our garden! this beautiful bowl-full was used to make cilantro pesto, which I plan on putting on everything I possibly can over the summer!

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