A Visit to The Gray Lady

I am off, at an unseemly early hour, for my annual visit with my best friend on Nantucket.  Lucky me!  I will try to blog with my iPad, but I make no promises.  I've had little success before and may well not be able to figure it out this time.  But I will try.

I recently reread Mary Starbuck's slim volume of poetry Nantucket and Other Verses.   It has 1911 as the copywrite date.  I have a lovely little reprint, in a slipcase, by American Perspective, Ltd of Brighton, MI, 2004.  My favorite poem is the title one.

NANTUCKET

"Just a sandy wind-swept island!"

What more would you have it be,

With a turquoise sky above it,

Around it a sapphire sea?

When its dawns are pearl and opal, 

Its moons are crystals clear,

And its sunsets shower down gold dust

Till the diamond stars appear,----

When to those who are born on the island,

And to many from over the sea,

"Tis fairer than all its jewels,

What more does it need to be?

Well, for me, it needs to shelter my BFF----and it does!  I can't wait to see it in its September glory.  Bee says September is a fine month on Nantucket.

I'll let you know how I find it!

Orchids

My local grocery store has been selling little mini orchids for a very inexpensive price.  I love orchids and these little guys are easy to care for and easy to find a suitable window ledge to display them.

I love them all....

....and have a very hard time deciding which one is my most favorite.  I think it's really this one!

End of Summer

It's September already.  How did this happen?  That means that Christmas is just around the corner!  Yikes!

The new grandson requires his own stocking, so I am (now) hard at work on providing a suitable receptacle for his surprises from Santa.  His big sister got the one with the mouse.  Reid is getting the squirrel.  There will be much beading.  I'm having fun with this.

 Even if I didn't have a calendar, I'd know it was going on autumn.  The spiders give it all away.  I had one the other morning in my kitchen sink that was big enough to have set off the motion sensor light out back.  (Hmmmm, wonder if I slept through it's arrival?

 This morning I went to breakfast with a friend and we almost walked into this huge web (with busy resident, I might add) that was just at face level near the back gate.  That would not have been a good start to the morning.

I would be able to tell that autumn was fast approaching by just looking at the hydrangeas.  They have their faded colors on now, their beautiful "I'm almost ready to leave" colors.  I have been falling more in love with hydrangeas every year.  That makes me officially old, I guess, but oh, well!

My pots out on the deck are lush and full.  Quite lovely, this year, they are.  But soon...ah, soon I'll have to pull out all the summer plants and get them ready for winter.  I'll plant daffodils and tulips and other little bulbs, cover their tops with a sheet of moss (sourced from my own trees at the cabin) and bid them adieu until spring.

I'll miss my beautiful pots of glorious color.  And my little blue table and chairs that are in the shady part of the garden out back---I love to sit there and have an iced tea and enjoy the bird song and the peace.  And the summer heat.  Alas, that's fast disappearing, too.

 Better go sort out my sweaters and make sure I'm ready for the change in the weather.  I can smell autumn coming on.  Can you?