Summer Fading Away...

Go Play Outside

The balmy weather and golden afternoons we're having just now have put me in mind of childhood days-- when my friends and I would play outside till it was too dark to see.

I count myself lucky to have grown up in the late Forties and the Fifties -- before there were so many electronic distractions and -- at least till 1953 when my grandparents bought a television so we could watch The Coronation -- no TV.  

What's more, I lived in a suburban neighborhood where we knew pretty much every family on the block and there were lots of kids to play with -- Marcella, just across the street, Louise next door, Nancy in the house behind ours. and farther down the street were Carla and Lee and DeHart, to name only a few. 

(DeHart's mother was famous for calling him in stages. "Dee! Time to come home." And when he didn't, she upped the urgency. "DeHart!" Soon followed by "DeHart Ayala! Come home NOW!" But still he would linger, waiting for the inevitable, "WILLIAM DEHART AYALA!" that signified imminent peril and the dire necessity of scuttling home at once.)

Simple games like Mother, May I? or Red Light, Green Light or Swing the Statue kept us entertained for hours.  And there was lots of pretending -- cowboys with cap guns and Indians and horses were favorites. (We had punk trees in the back yard with several low, almost horizontal branches that made good horses.) I don't recall any princesses.

The breezeway between our house and carport had a concrete floor, perfect for hopscotch or jacks. Eventually a sidewalk was added to our block and I was given a pair of skates -- those clamp-on metal ones -- but I was pretty hopeless at skating. Bikes, though, that was another matter. Oh, the joy of heading off, sometimes with a sandwich packed, to ride around the neighborhood and dine al fresco in a certain huge Banyan tree!

                                     

As I grew older, some of the best games were not on my block but in the neighborhood around my grandparents' house. Kick the Can at the Hall's (they had a large yard and lots of handy bushes for hiding and sneaking) and Capture the Flag at Jeep Connor's where a side yard divided by a line of trees and shrubs was the perfect setting for a game usually played in the twilight time between supper and black dark.

It was an idyllic childhood, in many ways -- there were still vacant lots to play in and still a feeling of safety. Parents could allow their children to roam, to climb trees, to be gone for hours.

All that changed eventually. Not twenty years later I was on a visit home -- a grown and married woman -- when I told my mother I was going to walk over to my grandparents' house -- a matter of maybe a quarter of a mile.

"Oh, no!" I was told. I must take the car. Someone had been mugged in his driveway nearby. The neighborhood wasn't safe anymore. 

Josie's Photo Shoot

On Saturday, one of Justin's friends came out to do a photo shoot with Josie. As always, her staff was on hand. These are my pictures, taken quickly and at a distance, while I tried to stay out of Derrick's way.

She is wearing a little dress that was mine -- and possibly my mother's before me. My mother gave it to me when Ethan was born and my father said, "Thank God -- once a year she takes it out and washes it and cries."

Josie was happy to pose.

She is four months old now.

To view the complete album go HERE.

Holding the Light

Time to Plant the Pansies

With the autumnal equinox fast approaching, one of my favorite rituals kicks in -- planting pansies beneath the crepe myrtles in our entryway.

Such obliging little flowers! If the deer or rabbits don't get them, they'll bloom continuously, even under snow, till next summer's hot weather.

The bed I'm putting them in already has pink Japanese anemones and Autumn Joy Sedum abloom.

As well as some saffron crocus.

There's a pleasant job done! Now to plunk a few pansies into the planters on the deck Those shy little spots of purple will brighten the coming months amazingly.

Late Summer Seen

                                                                         
                                                                               

                                                                                   

Letter from Five Characters :Sim's Letter

Sim is the one fictional character amongst the five voices that narrate my novel. He is a young man from East Tennessee who, like many, wants no part of the war but is conscripted into the Confederate Army.
                                                         

                

Well, ma'am, I never figured to feature in no book but I'm glad of it and I'll tell you why.

What happened to me, getting caught up in a war and a wrongness that was none of my making nor of my desiring neither, it's a thing could happen to any man. And while I ain't proud of ever thing I done, I reckon I done the best I could, so far as I could see the right of it.

The right of it. That's the trouble, ain't it?  Ain't no one enters into a quarrel without they believe they have the right of it. But it stands to reason that if two fellers is disputing over something, can't both of them be in the right. Most likely they's both in the wrong. And so this life has sometimes seemed to me.

The Good Book's full of stories about heroes -- David who slew Goliath,  Joshua who made the sun stand still, and many another. I ain't no hero. Alls I ever wanted was a peaceful life.

You write your story the best you can. If you can find the right of it, well, that's more than many have done.

But you tell my story true -- the things I done and the price I paid. And tell about that boy -- the one what whispered in my ear all those years.

                                                 Your friend,
                                                              Sim Ramsey

                                              

Bouncy!

Comfort Cooking

What to do on a chilly, rainy day?  How about a nice loaf of Praline Pineapple Bread? It warms up the kitchen and it tastes really good with a nice cup of tea.

The recipe is from the website Manila Spoon.

BATTER

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup sugar

1 can (15 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice (not syrup)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped pecans

The original recipe said that no oil was needed but I threw in some melted butter -- maybe 3 tablespoons worth -- just because . . .

TOPPING

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9x5 loaf pan (I added a greased piece of waxed paper cut to fit the bottom.)

In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl combine the eggs, sugar, and pineapple. Combine the two mixtures and stir to mix. Add half of the pecans.

Spoon mixture into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle remaining pecans on top and press gently into the batter.

Bake 45-50 minutes or till knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes then turn out to rack.

                          AND THE TOPPING

Combine the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan and boil hard for 1 minute. Spoon over top  of loaf. Let cool as long as you can bear to wait.

And then I went on to make some jalapeno jelly. I'd harvested most of our remaining peppers when I removed the netting covering them,  in preparation for the high winds that have not yet appeared.  I love hot pepper jelly, not just with cream cheese on a cracker, but as an ingredient in a sandwich with leftover roast -- pork, beef, or chicken -- it works with all of them.

Current projections show Irma tracking well to the west of us . . . we are happy for the rain and will be even happier to avoid wind damage. Our friend and family in Florida all seem to have come through mostly unscathed -- here's hoping Irma fizzle out soon.

AM Update: Our internet was out first thing this morning but is back now. Can we blame Irma? Who knows?