August Outdoor Days

At last! Sunny days have arrived in Vermont, and we are bathing in the golden light.

Saturday, we drove with dear friends to Burlington for Shakespeare in the Park, an outdoor production of "The Taming of the Shrew." The cast (dressed in contemporary costumes) was incredibly able and talented...and the green grass most welcoming of our blankets.

We had a lovely, leisurely day...walking along the Lake Champlain boardwalk, stopping for an Italian dinner and ice cream, then being led by the giant full moon on the drive home.

Sunday morning, we jumped out of bed and said, "Let's go sailing!" We've had so few days on the boat this wet season. The winds were gusty, so Thurmond had a blast. Haskell, our little Maltese dog, and I, snuggled below and read. We had a few canoe rides to and from the boat (moored out in Lake Memphremagog) and another ice cream cone. The pink sunset convinced us to spend the night on the boat.

Can you see the sailboat with the black mast, the Rising Sun, behind paddling Thurmond?

Monday morning, we recalled the years we used to hit the ground running and head for challenging jobs. Today, we enjoyed a canoe ride to shore and a sunny drive home. Thurmond picked raspberries for breakfast, while I made the coffee and buckwheat pancakes.
I am reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and her thinking tucked in nicely to our weekend of appreciating local blessings. Just the lakes alone in northern Vermont make our Green Mountain summer a paradise.

The book tells the story of her family's experiment of eating only locally produced food for one year, and the many benefits of this "close to home" approach to living. Kingsolver sympathizes with exhausted working mothers, who can no longer bake their own bread or grow tomatoes for their own spaghetti sauce:
"When we traded homemaking for careers, we were implicitly promised economic independence and worldly influence. But a devil of a bargain it has turned out to be in terms of daily life. We gave up the aroma of warm bread rising, the measured pace of nurturing routines, the creative task of molding our families' tastes and zest for life; we received in exchange the minivan and the Lunchable. (Or worse, convenince-mart hot dogs and latchkey kids.) I consider it the great hoodwink of my generation."

May we all find ways to dance around our schedules and avoid the Great Hoodwink...may all enjoy the preciousness of this moment.