While the rest of the country continues to swelter, Massachusetts is having an unseasonably cool summer. Normally in August we have temperatures in the 90s for at least some of the times, these days we are lucky if it hits 80. But even though we’ve had a cool, wet summer, the tomatoes are ripening and so are the raspberries.
It’s time to use up the basil. I always leave it too long, and then regret as it starts to yellow, but it’s perfect right now and we will eat endless amounts of pesto this winter. So this weekend I’ll cut most of it down and whir it up in the blender with garlic, parmesan, lemon and pine nuts.
We’re just back from our annual trip to the mountains, and reminded that after 3 days anywhere, it’s likely we will all want to be at home, no matter the degree of fun we are having. Homebodies, that’s us as a family. As much as we like to travel, home is the best.
But we did enjoy ourselves, celebrating a milestone birthday with friends, getting the kids’ back to school shopping mostly accomplished, hiking to a waterfall, and so on. But when we were done, we were done and so we cashed it in and came home. We have less than a week of summer vacation for the kids, and a few more days of it for me to spend cleaning and organizing, tending the garden beds, and prepping a wildflower bed for my son – this first requires a ring of rocks around the Seckel pear tree, which really needs a pollinator partner. I’m looking around for one to pre-order for 2024 planting.
One thing that going away always proves to us is that we love to eat at home the best. I did a major stock-up shop at Costco after our trip, and between that and some other purchases, I don’t expect to hear complaints about shortages of snacks or clothing for a while.
The squash vines, or at least the ones that I didn’t accidentally pull up when I was weeding are also being pretty prolific, with lots of squash and small pumpkins hiding between the leaves.
Our CSA has another 8 weeks left, and then we’ll shift to the Winter Share, which runs every couple of weeks up until right before Christmas. We are awash in fresh, local food and general abundance.
Abundance.
It’s a word I haven’t felt in a while. When our giant tax bill hit us in the chest, it came after we thought we had finally recovered from a series of financial challenges, the list of which is long enough I think people didn’t totally believe it (in the general public’s defense, the idea that a 70-foot pine tree could fall on one’s house on their absolute last day of work when they lost their job, which they found out on their first vacation alone with the kids after divorce and so on almost belies belief). We were just settling in to the relief of feeling solvent and comfortable again – saving lots, paying down the mortgage early, bought the RV outright – when that next challenge arrived, and it felt like an almost-mortal hit. We wiped everything out to pay it and started over. Yet again.
So now here we are again teetering on the edge of abundance, cleaning up the last dregs of the tax impact, but also facing down a few big things – the last 25 % of Eli’s teeth, my car is starting to need a lot of expensive maintenance, which makes us start to consider if we do that or we replace it, and of course, renovation.
That said, I really believe we’re at the tail end of the stressful time, and stress or no, I recognize and am profoundly grateful for the good fortune that we’ve had. Starting over, and doing it again and again is hard. It has taken it’s toll on me, without question. But I also recognize that getting punched in the face over and over and getting back up each time to face the punch you know is coming is something that requires a force of will that Eli and I have in spades. To do it while ensuring our kids are safe and sound and insulated from the impacts takes extra care and skill. I think we’ve done pretty great.
So this week, we’ll live in abundance as we get ready to shift to our school schedules from the laissez faire mornings of summer. And we’ll eat at home, delicious meals like Lemon Chicken Piccata Meatballs over linguini with salad, Taco Skillet, and the Lemon Bars with Brown Butter Raspberries, a necessary solve for the 6 lbs, instead of 6 individual lemons that Instacart brought me and the infinity raspberries ripening in the yard, and enjoy the waning summer while readying ourselves for the cold weather to come.
I’m a lucky duck.
Little House on the Fairy Hill 