#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Bumble Bee and Monarch in the Milkweed Meadow
No rain this morning. Frank has slept well with a muscle relaxer and we both wake much later than usual. The river is high, the brook, the marshes—I wade in the woods through the brook in thigh high water. I go for my swim at my friend’s dock. I pass the milkweed in the meadow, falling out of bloom, but still, alive and thriving for the monarchs and the bumblebees. The sailors from camp are out in their happy boats, sweet summer on the Lake. I swim once around the island and Charlie follows me; we take the wrong way back, and run into the marsh overflow and waist high water and I’m not up for that, we turn back and go another route. But pass these massive rhododendrons in bloom that belong, or used to, to someone’s property. My youngest phones, her work is canceled, so she’ll be out later for a swim. I have a meeting to work on the Power of Words conference proposals, so many excellent ones, and I also work on my most recent poem, a revision, which I finally send off tonight for tomorrow. A day full of distractions, but summer ones, and that’s okay. My youngest and her boyfriend here for dinner. Still working on leftovers and I decide to bake my Aunt Virginia’s wonderful blueberry cake from the blueberries, fresh picked, someone gave Frank at his party. Well, this cake is an absolute favorite; my mother baked it often when I was growing up, and my family loves it. I can’t find my glass loaf pan, so I make it in a round. Works best with fresh, not frozen, blueberries. I add a half teaspoon of vanilla, not in the recipe. It’s a huge hit! Frank loves it. all the kids, and me too. We eat it warm. And I remember how much I loved my dear Aunt Virginia, summers at her cottage on Laurel Lake, And my mother’s glass loaf pan, my favorite, where is it?
