Hello Friends!

Let’s wander among the memories of summer, shall we?  But first, an update on the here and now.

1) I now have a power strip on top of my crafting table which will prevent me from tripping over the iron cord.  Now if I could just keep from tripping over the things on the floor!

2) I ache all over. Is this the start of the flu?  Dang.

3) Yesterday’s quilt class was difficult at best and grueling at worst.  The teacher had returned from being sick for the first two weeks of class and could hardly talk.  Her husband landed in the hospital with the same thing. Their flu had turned into a bacterial mess and so antibiotics worked.  Hmmmmmm. Refer to #2.

4) The last line  is not hashtag 2. It is number 2.    And for some of you, it’s not reefer, it’s refer.

5)I am sticking to the keyboard and the arm of the chair. Does this mean I have a temp?  Or is it just my own personal summer?

6) I’m thinking of writing up a short little piece on lymphedema because when people ask about my sleeve and glove, I never feel that I’ve explained it well enough. If I have it printed up, I could just give it to them.  Or recite it.  Or sing it.  Maybe I’ll put the words to a familiar tune.  Where’s that script I wrote for Deb O. S.?

7) And does anybody else see checkerboards when you dry your eyes after a shower?  Just wondering . . .

++++And now++++++ a transition++++++to SUMMER!!!!!!!!

For those of you who are already  someplace warm (Judy, Kathy, Lori, Claudia) it is now snowing.  I could tell by the root beer color to the sky and the slight whiteness to the damn patio floor. The temp is nice enough, but it was cloudy dreary all day.  I did my best to brighten things up by wearing vivid green socks with red cherries on them.

We have a need to think about warmer times with sunshine and green grass.

As I was washing the romaine leaves tonight, my mind wandered back to eating lunch with my parents in the summer.  On occasion Martha would come over with a gift of leaf lettuce from her garden.  And we would grab the cooled cruet of vinegar from the fridge and the sugar bowl. Did anybody else put vinegar and sugar on leaf lettuce?  It seems like a strange habit, but it was oh so good.  It was that fresh taste that was so summery.

And the smell that was summer to me was the sweet smell of jelly and jam making.  The bag of grapes straining on the back porch just to the left as you came in the kitchen. And every odd glass we had being washed and drained on cloth lined trays in preparation of holding the clear jelly and the wonderfully lumpy jam.  Mom always made her jelly on a clear day because she said if it was cloudy, the jelly would be cloudy.  The box of paraffin wax blocks was waiting to be melted on the stove in the little pan and then poured on top of the jelly or jam to seal them.

One of the reasons I make jelly and jam is to re-create that kitchen, even though I use jars, tops and lids.  The smell is the same.

The other reason is that there is precious little that I do that I don’t have to do for another year.  Most things like laundry, cooking, buying groceries, cleaning need to be done much more frequently.  There’s not much to show for your work.

But with jam and jelly, you have this wonderful line up of little jars that glow in the sunlight and taste like summer when you were young.

Well, this has been fun.  I think we’ll be doing more thinking about summer!

Love,

Janet