Friday the 13th

(Yes, I know... two days in a row...wow! Maybe she's actually going to write here more regularly! Uh huh... maybe)

I have a friend who pays attention to 13's because he was born on the 13th, so as an extension, the number 13 resonates with me (as do a few other numbers, like 17, 24, etc.). There's a 13 upcoming that looks like it'll be a lot of fun. This August I'll be spending Friday the 13th at the League of NH Craftsmen's annual fair at Mt. Sunapee, not as a paying fairgoer, but as a photographer's assistant, something I've never done before. One of my favorite things to do is watch people who know what they're doing, do what they know how to do, so this will be heaven for me. Not only will I be working close up with someone whose expertise with the camera and sweep are already familiar to me and admired by me, but I'll be surrounded by artists and craftspeople whose excellence has been acknowledged by jury and it shows in every piece they've created. These people do the kind of work that I aspire to do, and rubbing elbows with them makes me want to improve and expand my craft plentifully and immediately. To a limited degree I can do that, which I will, but with other obligations upcoming near the end of August and for 180-some days after that, I feel like I can't jump in with my whole heart and soul just yet. Still, that proverbial itch can be scratched just a bit as I prepare for the upcoming fairs and shows. I'm greatly looking forward to this next Friday the 13th!

Midsummer

I don't know that today is official Midsummer, but it certainly feels like it. The weather has been blessedly drier than the past two weeks, and it's a day of accomplishment: a lovely new screen door on the porch, paperwork for a craft fair that I help to run updated, a check mailed to pay for dinner at the reunion of a high school class for whom we were advisors all those years ago, and reservations made for a couple of luxurious nights away for our anniversary next month. One small item made me pause in all this enjoyable activity: a single red leaf on my lawn.

The mister marks the turning of the days when he starts to feel the increasing earliness of sunset, probably because he's looking forward to cross-country season, and the runs are often in the later, cooler part of the day. He also gauges it by a particular maple tree in a cemetery nearby: as soon as there's a tinge of color other than green among its leaves, he calls that the beginning of the end of summer. To that I say, "Bah! Humbug!"

We've already had Walkers' corn at three meals, a delightful experience usually slated for the last week in July but early this year due to the earlier onset of spring and heat of summer. Tonight we'll be enjoying the first stir-fry with vegetables from our garden, an event that pleases me greatly. Our garden isn't large or even medium sized by most standards of the very casual gardener, but we do manage to have a few good feeds from its limited bounty. Grilled ham steak will be the featured meat but the stir-fry will occupy a place of honor on the table, a dish made with our hands from start to finish. That feels mighty good.

I have yet to fall asleep on the lounge chair in the yard, a book splayed open across my lap, which would be another sign of deep summer, but I'm sure I can fix that soon. I'm not ready to rush back to the 186 days of delight called the school year quite yet. Let me savor July for another week and a half!