Summer Joy 12: Merry-go-round

Longing

This merry-go-round included Onward, Christian Soldiers and Jesus Loves the Little Children in its repertoire. Visions of Narnian animals going forth to battle danced in my head, during the first.

Summer Joy 11: Vacation

Father and son

". . . . the time cannot be long, . . . number. . . every moment, charging it with meaning. Love in ignorance squanders what love, informed, crowds and overfills with tokens of eternity."
--from Ellis Peters' An Excellent Mystery: The Eleventh Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, 1985

(Thanks to the Lean Librarian for recommending Cadfael, and to Sparrow, for passing along Circle of Quiet and Wittingshire's appreciation of him.)

Summer Joy 10: Bulb catalogs

Burgundy Lace (actual color deeper than appears here) with muscari

This week we received the first bulb catalog of the year from Breck's, "direct to you from Holland since 1818."

At our previous house, knowing crocuses, tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, Dutch irises, and lilies were asleep beneath the snow gave me a sense of anticipation from New Year's Day through the month of March.

The previous owners had left large purple crocuses, yellow daffodils, orange Asiatic lilies, and a few stray tulips. Partly inspired by the glorious array of color put forth during Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan, I added a few more bulbs every year. By the time we moved, there were not yet the masses of color recommended in Mrs. Greenthumbs, but there was something new coming into bloom continually during spring and early summer.* I was sorry to leave it. (The subsequent owner has apparently torn out most of the landscaping and replaced it with the ubiquitous yew.)

Now we start anew, with a yard which, until now, has had no time for spring-flowering bulbs. Where to start.

Breck's has a good coupon included in its catalog. Bluestone Perennials, here in Ohio, is a trusted source of plants. I will also check out the bulbs at Free Trees and Plants, which employs workers with disabilities.**

I have learned from my sister-in-law in Florida, and our own experience living in Georgia, that gardeners in the south cannot grow most spring-flowering bulbs; the cold season down there is not long enough for their hibernation period. Tulip bulbs would need to be kept in the refrigerator several months, in Florida, for them to bloom.

Tulips and daffodils are one compensation for our long, cold winters.

*I see Bookish Gardener is able to keep this progression going during spring, summer, and probably fall.
**Thanks to Dawn at Frugal for Life, for adding them to her site.

Dutch iris

Summer Joy 9: State fair

Yesterday at the State fair, my husband sent me off to the Arts and Crafts building to look at quilts. I detoured into an air conditioned auditorium and found the Ghirardelli Chocolate baking contest. No free samples, but we got baking tips from the moderator, who took questions while the judges tasted.*

She asserted that baking, unlike cooking, is a science. Exact measurements are much more important in baking. Is this arguable?

Parchment paper: She uses it for almost everything except cakes. Don't use it if you want a cookie to spread and flatten out.
Ganache: Use cream and chocolate. Cut chocolate into equal-sized small pieces. Heat the milk until steaming, then add to chocolate. Wait five minutes. Stir with whisk, starting in middle, moving toward outer edges. (The questioner asked how to avoid separation of particles in a ganache.)
Baking time: The moderator never times her baking. When you can smell a creation, it's almost ready to take out. Then you start using a toothpick to check for inner dryness. She said baking times vary greatly because of differences in ingredients and ovens. Most baking times given on cake mix boxes are too long.**
Fudge: The recipes using marshmallow creme are popular and no-fail.
Flour: Don't buy more than you will use in a month or so. (!) Store in airtight container rather than original package.
I have already forgotten how to obtain gritty sugar or crispier cookies. Overcook the first, adjust fat or flour on the second?

This year, Ruth Cahill became the first Arts and Crafts contestant ever to be inducted into the State Fair Hall of Fame. She has been exhibiting food at the fair since the late 1950's. This culture overuses the word "awesome," but I could almost attribute it to this woman.

*The moderator shared that there were many requests for this job.
**I once had a roommate whose boyfriend baked. He never used a timer. He claimed he waited to remove them from the oven until the Holy Spirit told him to take them out.

Summer joy 8: surprises in the garden

This week Early Girl lived up to her name, as she pulled into second, behind the cherry tomatoes. Yesterday I found what I thought were sloooowly ripening red tomatoes (when I checked several days ago) had turned golden yellow, and I picked 20 in one day! Eleven red tomatoes were ready on the three other plants, which had yielded a grand total of four or five, so far.
If you are a gardener, you know these little surprises are among gardening's choice rewards.

Summer joy 7: harvest

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22 (Amplified)

Summer joy 6: rain

Tuesday night, after days of sweltering temperatures, our heat wave finally broke. The heat index had been reaching the low 100's F for a couple of days. Off and on yesterday, rain, sweet rain.
(Thanks to Actual Unretouched Photo, from the ever mild and rainy Northwest, for asking.)

Summer joy 5: green fields

Soybeans (neighboring field)

July 25 addition:

. . . . the drive from here to the hospital is so pretty. I steer clear of the interstate and take Highway 61, known to southeast Missourians as “the old highway,” through a couple of dozen miles of rolling farmland. The trees along Highway 61 are so green this week that Technicolor couldn't begin to capture their intensely saturated hue, . . . . Art, I'm sure, means more to city dwellers who live far from such natural pleasures, and when I return home to the city, mine will mean more to me. At present, though, I'm happy to revel in the world around me as I drive to and from my temporary job as a caregiver. That seems to be all the beauty I need.
(from About Last Night, where arts critic Terry Teachout is blogging about leaving New York to spend some time caring for his aging, ailing mother, in his southeast Missouri hometown.)

(Apologies to aggregators and rss feeds, if this repeated. Blogger is not wysiwyg with text wrapping photos.)

Summer Joy 4: family reunion

My grandmother birthed 19 children (including two sets of twins) in 24.5 years, according to my aunt. The 14 who survived early childhood attended today's reunion, along with many of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

When I entered the cafeteria, the crowd was a blur, so I focused on the food: chicken; meatballs; dressing made with homemade bread; slow cookers of noodles, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, mixed vegetables, and sloppy joe filling; taco salad; fruit salads; vegetable salads; watermelon; cheese plates; a vegetable platter; and about 14 kinds of dessert.

On tables to the side sat water, lemonade, sweet mint tea, unsweetened iced tea, and coffee. One aunt asked another, "Do you think other family reunions have this much food?"

Summer Joy 3 : reading

I am bringing this to the surface from a behind-the-scenes email follow-up to Summer Joy 1, in which I recommended Expecting Adam, by Martha Beck. (Beck is a contributor to Oprah's O magazine.)

Expecting Adam is an entertaining book. Warning: Beck is pro-choice, a lapsed Mormon, and sometimes lets her imagination run away with her. As a married mother of one and a Harvard student, she finds herself carrying a child with Down syndrome. She attends a disturbing class in which abortion for children with disabilities is endorsed, but decides to allow her son to live. Adam brings the Beck family a lot of joy, while radically transforming their perspective on the value of an IQ. Their journey will make you laugh; it will make you cry.

Mitchell Zuckoff's Choosing Naia tells a story along similar lines, but with a more serious tone. It carries additional layers; the child will be bi-racial. The father is black, and doesn't want his daughter to have a double stigma to deal with. It has been awhile since I read this, but I felt for the man in his struggle. If you believe God makes the choice to give a child life, you do not face this particular turmoil. The wife did give birth to the little girl, and the family learned to love her. If I remember correctly, the paternal grandparents were firmly pro-life, and gave the couple moral support. I believe the couple was visiting churches, looking for a good fit, toward the end of the story. (The book is based on a series of articles Zuckoff wrote for the Boston Globe, as he followed the family's journey.)

Michael Berube's Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family, and an Exceptional Child is another account by a pro-choice intellectual. This couple didn't know their son had Down syndrome before he was born. Both parents were professors, and here again, love for child with a disability causes a deep shift in the way his parents view intellectual ability. Berube gets wordy and political. It is fascinating to watch a pro-choice pragmatist trying to argue against aborting children with Down syndrome. I respect this man for loving his son and for his disability advocacy, in spite of his ideology.

I am not recommended these books as uplifting Christian reading, but as a path to insight into the way some families deal with having a child with a disability. They are well-written and interesting. Mourning is changed to joy; what parents greeted with dread turns into a blessing. They are inwardly transformed by their children.

I found the discussions of choice disturbing, but waded through them (1) for the sake of the rest of the story, and (2) because I thought it valuable to understand how people think in these situations. They are a part of the reality in which we find ourselves. (Our local Down syndrome association gets calls from people who are making murder an option when their unborn child is diagnosed with Down syndrome.) I did not understand how these parents could remain pro-choice after having their children. I felt they were blinded by the culture.

For encouragement, try Gene Stallings' Another Season. Stallings is former University of Alabama football coach, and father of Johnny, who has Down syndrome. One of the pediatricians in the group we use attended U. of Alabama, and knows who Johnny is, which makes me feel connected. If I remember correctly, this was a Christian family.

Recommended reading: Changed by a Child: Companion Notes for Parents of a Child with a Disability, by Barbara Gill.

Summer Joy 2: fruit of the vine

Two years ago, our son was approaching school age. We put our house up for sale and moved seven miles north, into an apartment in a school district better suited to his needs. I said "goodby" to my flowers and the tomato patch around the corner of the house.

We spent last summer in an apartment.

This summer's crop will be especially sweet.

Summer Joy 1: water

Recommended reading: Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic, by Martha Beck (Oprah magazine contributor)