Summertime Delights 4

Please forgive the lag time since my previous post.  I’ve been too busy living, writing and cavorting to post.  I will try to do better.

Summertime Delights in my  world

One & Two:

Baking a peach cobbler made the way my grandmother made it – fresh peaches and homemade buttery crust – then sharing it at a friend’s cookout.  The cookout was in honor of her mother and I was invited to the family event because C said that she considered me one of her family members.

Being given such a compliment and designation by a friend, I mean, family member is wonderful.

Three:

Having friends who are doing well and have the generosity of spirit to invite you to share in their bounty meant that I made my first trip to Nantucket Island.  What a lovely-lovely, peaceful-peaceful island.  The freshest air I’ve experienced.  Nantucket’s streets preserve history, echoing the past glory of the whaling industry, including, on Angola Street no less, the history of the African-Americans who lived there, a history you can feel when visiting the African Meeting House.

Having generous friends is tremendous.  An island that is essentially a historic district, despite the restrictions that requires, is a lovely place to visit.

Four and Five:

Music and dancing in two different settings – the South End’s O’Day Park, next to the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts on W. Newton Street, and the 2^nd of the Tito Puente Music Series concerts I’ve attended this summer.  Slade’s Bar & Grill on Tuesday nights with live music in a Talent Showcase hosted by Kaicee King

Live music and dancing is always fabulous!  Slade’s chicken wings are unfailingly finger-lickin’ good.

Six & Seven:

An acquaintance I met on the bus is turning into a friend.  She has finally started joining me for my morning walks, something she’d been threatening to do so for 2 years. 

Walking up the 63 steps and the hill  three times this week and picking up the pace as we compete with each other – energizing!

Eight:

An unexpected card and gift arrived in the mail providing a huge ray of sunshine on a cloudy day when I was having a miniature pity party and praying for a sign. 

Sign received.  Thank you to my former colleagues on the DR Board.

Nine & Ten:

A publisher asked to see my young adult novel, Pucker, as a reulst of my query letter.  Yippee!  The possibilities…

The second in the series of inspirational essays I’ve written, Pushing Through Shyness, is in the design phase.  It will be printed by September meaning that I’ll have two publications in force.

Thank you to my husband and two friends for reading and giving me feedback on Pushing Through Shyness.  You prove that your six eyes are better than my original two and forced me to make the essay leaner, more focused, and better.

And so on, and so on:

• Fresh, sweet corn on the cob. 
  
• Vine-ripened tomatoes.
  
•  Many of the flowers I planted in my tiny little garden are blooming in vibrant colors.
  
• Daily garden tasks provides a kind of zen.
  
• My granddaughter’s extended visit in June.
  
• A delicious California Club sandwich in the outdoor sanctuary at The Ledge in Dorchester with a friend I don’t see often enough.
  
• Seeing that two events I started, RFF and ROS, continue beyond me.
  
• A raucous game of Scrabble.
  
• The two-hour ferry ride to and from Nantucket.
  
• Time with my husband.

So much summer time delight!

I am thankful, grateful, appreciative, happy and just plain glad!