There were three of us in high school who always seemed to be together. We lived in the same neighborhood, so we rode the same bus. When one of us got a car (not me), we all chipped in for gas and drove to school and marching band practice together. And when we graduated, all of our parents got our friends small gifts. I think my dad picked up scratch-off lottery tickets. One mom gave us each a copy of Oh, the Places You’ll Go, which I suppose seems cliche, and while I’m sure I read it, I’m not certain I actually thought much of the message when I received it. But it survived the last fifteen years of packing and moving and unpacking and packing and moving again, and today I read it to Swee. I’m not sure what she understood, but she usually absorbs more than I think she will. It was a bit of a lightbulb experience reading the reminders that sometimes you will be on top, and it will be amazing and glorious. And sometimes you will crash and burn, and you will be very, very alone. Sometimes everything will work out perfectly for you, and sometimes it definitely will not. Love Seuss or hate him, the text strikes me now as scarily on point.

Our family has spent so much of the last year in a holding pattern. Waiting. Waiting for feedback from job interviews. Waiting for our house to sell. Waiting for a moving date. Living in limbo is mighty stressful, but then you think about it, and you realize that a year is really just a blip on the radar.

The funny thing about the end of the waiting period is that it’s not really an end at all. Hitting one goal is really only the beginning of a new plan, often kicking off more work, and yes, more waiting. Even when you are actively working to make things happen, you still have to wait for the rest of the world around you to catch up before you can take the next step.

Life happens, and it’s been happening a lot around here the past week or so. The brakes we replaced on the truck last weekend? They failed last night, leaving J to limp home leaking brake fluid all the way, and now we wait and see what the prognosis is. The propane tank that heats our house and water and food? Empty, and now we wait on the company to process our application to have more delivered (though they were super nice and brought a temporary mini tank over. Shout out to Mr. John who knocked on the door with it on his way home after his shift because he knew we had small kids). The list is long, and so we wait. We’re getting pretty good at it, even if we don’t enjoy it.

Someone commented that we’ve been living a “charmed life” since moving here, and I suppose in a sense that’s accurate. I also know that there are people who just could not grasp the WHY behind this move, and thought we were completely nutty. Maybe we are, but if so, we’re nutty together. We’ve escaped an environment that while perfect for some and charming in its own way at times, had become toxic to our goals and our relationship.  We jumped into this new life with two feet and some vague semblance of a plan, and are trying to make the most of it. Is everything going according to that initial plan? Nah. But you know what? Life is a working document. When the plan changes, and changes again, and probably again after that, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good plan at the start. There should be no shame in revision, both of the plan and of your definition of success. Life is not one size fits all, nor should it be. I think that’s a lesson that a lot of people miss. Maybe it’s not being taught. Or maybe we’re not reading the right books, because now I’m pretty sure Dr. Seuss knew what was up.

I spent an entire Sunday taking photos without a memory card in my camera. The silly thing pops up an error message on the screen when I forget to put the card back in, but I rarely look at it, and never check quality on my pictures until I get home, especially if I’m with the girls. They move too fast for me to be fiddling with the camera.

So that’s how it is that I’ve gone so long without posting. I was so frustrated with myself because I “took” so many great shots I was excited to share, and then I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

On this particular day that went completely undocumented, we went raspberry picking as a family. The brakes on the truck had been locking up and smoking, so we had to drop it at the mechanic. When J told me where this fellow was located, I realized that I’d seen signs over that way for pick-your-own raspberries.  I grabbed his gram’s enamelware popcorn bowl before hopping in the car, because that’s obviously the most photogenic receptacle for freshly picked berries, and we told Sweebee we were going on an adventure.

We followed the hand-stenciled signs onto a back road with no painted lines and a “No Outlet” sign, and turned into a dirt driveway. There was a pop-up tent to the right, and rows and rows of raspberry canes to the left. Another stenciled sign let us know that the proprietor had stepped away, but to go ahead and start picking. We helped ourselves to a fabulously rustic wooden basket with paper pint boxes, and headed out.

Beans studied J and I for a few minutes as we gave Swee instructions and began picking, and then proceeded to stuff her face. Amazingly, she only seemed to pick the ripe berries, so she clearly knew what she was doing. She wandered up and down the row, and around the end to join her daddy on the other side, happily indulging herself. Swee picked a few while muttering “kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk” to herself (another Blueberries for Sal reference. I told you: obsessed), but also ate more than she saved.

Half an hour of picking and a mere $11 later, we wound up with four pints of warm, fresh, organic raspberries. It was a beautiful adventure, maybe even more so because it was so spontaneous.

What do I have photos of?

– The first cherry tomato from our garden, picked this morning. We’re going to be swimming in them in about a week. I may set up a table at the bottom of the driveway with the ubiquitous coffee can honor system if we can’t eat them all.

– The last of the black raspberries, I think. There are more out there, but they’re up high and well into the weeds, and as I am not very tall and definitely not a fan of ticks and snakes, I think I’m going to cede the rest of them to the birds.

– This newly blooming flower which the pollinators are clearly loving. Does anyone know what it is?

Hope you’re all having a lovely mid-July. I’ve got a couple recipes to share with you tomorrow and early next week, hopefully with photos this time.

Yes! A garden update. A long overdue garden update.

When we built the box, we chose a spot in the yard that gets full sun from 4:30am when it starts getting light out, until almost 8pm when it starts getting dark. This is great for most of the veggies. However, I severely underestimated the amount of water a spot like that would need. After several days of soaking rain, the plants went bonkers, and I realized I really needed to soak the raised bed twice a day. Things have been going much better since then.

The black raspberries aren’t exactly in our designated garden space, but I think they deserve a place in this update. Swee and I went out this morning to check the bushes and came back in with five cups of berries. There are still more out there yet to ripen, so I think we will be heading back out before the weekend is over. I stashed some in the freezer, and we ate a bunch with dinner. If anyone has a good berry tart recipe, I’d be interested!

I planted both pickling and slicing cucumbers for the first time this year. The little picklers are doing far better than the others, and are climbing their way happily up the trellis. We already have two small cucumbers, and there are a ton of flowers. Has anyone ever canned pickles in a water bath? Everything I read says the process will turn them to mush, but I’m not quite ready to invest in a pressure canner, and I’d like to make pickles with more longevity than simple refrigerator pickles this year.

I have to stake the tomatoes this weekend. I really should have installed stakes when I transplanted the seedlings so as not to disturb the roots later on, but it’s too late for that. The cherry tomatoes are enormous and covered in flowers. A curious Swee popped the lone green tomato off the vine, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to taste them. I moved two beefsteak plants over and with some serious watering, they’re looking really strong. Hopefully we will get enough fruit to make some sauce for the winter.

The peas are also flowering, and the peppers have buds. The lettuce is doing well and the kale will have to be harvested tomorrow – it’s huge. My basil is taking a beating because a certain little one likes to pull leaves off and eat them. The arugula is starting to bolt, so it’s about done, but I think it had a good run. This is the latest in the season I’ve kept it going so I’m pleased.

We have an apple tree in the backyard that I’ve been watching. The fruit is still small but are starting to pink up. I am loving this mild version of summer, but I’m also looking forward fall, and to applesauce. And pumpkins! We received a packet of seeds in the mail today, and I can’t wait to plant them.

What are you harvesting this weekend?

We have a running joke around here. I ask J what he’d like for dinner, and he pretends to think for a moment, and then says brightly, as if inspired, “How about chicken?” I guess we eat a lot of chicken.

This isn’t chicken, and it was a deliciously welcome change of pace. I found some boneless pork chops on sale, and decided to try something outside our comfort zone. I grew up eating pork chops over white rice, smothered in Cream of Mushroom soup gravy. Yum, but not exactly clean and healthy.

I followed this recipe from blogger Jessica Gavin, and oh. my. goodness.

These were wonderful. I wasn’t sure about the cinnamon in the rub to start, but it was really good. My cayenne and paprika apparently didn’t survive the move, so I subbed in some chili powder, which seemed to work well. Beans ate almost a whole chop by herself, and J and I could have eaten twice what we did. They were so good, I didn’t get a picture of the finished product.

We ate them with grilled asparagus (tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper) from the farmers market, picked and sold that morning, and a big bowl of bright red cherries.

Grilled Pork Chops with Honey Mustard Glaze – from Jessica Gavin

2 pounds (4 portions) boneless pork loin chops

Olive oil, as needed for grilling

Honey Mustard Glaze-

2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard

4 teaspoons honey

Pork Seasonings-

Salt, as needed

Freshly ground pepper, as needed

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon cayenne powder

¼ teaspoon paprika

Honey Mustard Glaze-

1. Combine mustard and honey in a small bowl, set aside.

Pork Seasonings-

1. Combine all pork seasonings in a small bowl, set aside.

Grilled Pork Chops-

1. Generously season each side of the pork loin chops with salt and pepper. Evenly sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of pork seasoning on each side of the pork chops. Lightly drizzle olive oil on both sides of the pork chops. Set aside at room temperature while you heat the grill.
2. Heat grill to medium heat. Add a small amount of vegetable oil on a folded piece of paper towel, and then carefully grease the grill with the oil. Once the grill is nice and hot, add the seasoned pork chops. Cook pork on each side until an internal temperature of 135-140°F is reached, about 7-8 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the pork.
3. When the pork is just done cooking, use a pastry brush to generously glaze each pork chop with the honey mustard mixture. Save the extra glaze for serving on the side of the pork loin.
4. Remove the pork from the grill and transfer to a clean plate. Serve warm with honey mustard glaze.

– It’s HOT here. For the first time since moving, I would have turned on the air conditioning, if we had any. I really dislike having the AC on. We had central air in our home in Baltimore, which was a blessing with tiny babies to keep cool, but I’ve never liked the stale, closed-in feeling it gives the house. Today however, I would have been glad to have it. What’s amusing is that the temperature topped out at only 87*. I guess my blood really is getting thicker.

– With the heat, I’m doubly grateful for the kindness of our new neighbors. Our neighbor to the left has 6 year old twins who decided to pass their wading pool along to the girls this weekend, and then Barbara came up the driveway with a rubber ducky sprinkler, so we have spent the last three days in our own little water park in the front yard. The well water is icy, so we’ve been filling the pool in the morning and letting it warm up for afternoon splashing. It then gets emptied to water the veggies and rinsed out for the next day. We thanked Barbara with a bouquet of hydrangeas from the yard, and I think we’ll bake cookies for the boys. Once it cools off a little.

– Swee and I picked berries this morning, barefoot and in our jammies. I told her that she could be like Little Sal (a wonderful Maine story, and one that Swee is obsessed with) and eat anything she picked for her cup, which of course turned into me picking berries for her cup, and then scooping my berries out into her cup. Still, we came away with several handfuls to share with Daddy, and many more left to ripen on the bushes. And we never left the yard.

– The heat took it out of all of us this weekend. I’m looking forward to cooler temps again soon.

1. We have a working glider, thanks to my brother’s ingenuity. When he was here on leave, he suggested replacing the metal supports with chains, pulled taut to support the weight of the bench. He and J rushed right out to Tractor Supply and bought the wrong sized bolts, so they weren’t able to do the job before he had to leave. J was able to exchange them, and my brother’s idea worked perfectly, so the girls and I are now enjoying our time rocking together. We placed it to face the lake, and it’s a beautiful view. Next steps are scrubbing it with a wire brush and giving it a new coat of paint. I’m thinking sky blue, or a light turquoise…

2. Until then, we’ve been sitting on our picnic blanket, flung over the seat to protect clothes from the rust, and curious little fingers and mouths from the peeling paint. Truly, I think this simple blanket might be the best $20 I’ve ever spent. I found it on Etsy close to ten years ago, and it has weathered more events than I can count. It’s just squares of vintage sheets patchworked together, backed with another sheet, and yarn-tied. There isn’t even any batting. I think it’s actually the simplicity of it that appeals to me.

3. My veggies are growing! We have little green globes on the cherry tomato plants, and lots of flowers on the cucumber vines, both pickling and slicing. The peas are stretching out their tendrils for the chicken wire, and I’m beginning to think I didn’t request a tall enough trellis for them. We shall see.

4. I’m sure we’ve all seen the tutorials about how to re-grow your celery from the stump in the fridge. I had never actually done it, but the other evening – maybe two days ago? – I took the leftover end from our rainbow fish project and plunked it into an empty space in the ground. It was dried out and did not look very promising so I didn’t expect much out of the experiment. I went out tonight to weed, and lo and behold, there are celery leaves poking out of the dirt!

5. The light tonight got really strange, in that yellowy sort of way that usually means a storm is coming. It made the flowers really pop, particularly the yellow ones. I was bent down snapping pictures, and got closer to the milkweed than I have before. It’s so fragrant! J and I had been talking about how we’d like to plant some to support the monarchs when they finally arrive up here, but I had no idea what it looked like, having no real experience with it. When my parents were here, my mom pointed out that it’s already flourishing in the wilderness that is our front garden. I’ve been checking, but no sign of eggs or caterpillars as yet.

6. Our neighbor Barbara has a rack of handmade notecards in her shop. Each one is an original, painted and collaged by an artist in Farmington. I don’t remember seeing anything like them before so I snagged a couple. One I’ll save for something special, but the other is already on its way to a sweet friend that it made me think of.

7. My clothesline snapped, so our laundry is piling up in the kitchen next to the washer. Classy, I know, but I refuse to use the dryer, so tomorrow our number one task is to get some strong new line and string it. J is out fishing, so I’m hoping he’ll return with an offering from the lake to grill for tomorrow’s dinner. I’ll keep you posted.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy yoga.

A sign went up at the community center a couple weeks ago that they would be offering $10 drop-in yoga classes on Tuesday and Friday mornings this summer, which was really exciting since J has Fridays off. Somehow I didn’t make it there til this weekend, but I’m so glad I went. The poster said that class would be taught by Ruby and Ruthie. It turns out that Ruthie is a large German Shepherd in a service dog vest. She was very welcoming, and aside from a cursory sniff as I settled on my mat, she spent the majority of the class asleep in a corner.

It was an excellent practice. I was joined by two other women – one who has been summering here for 50 years and used to live in Maryland, and her niece who lives on the Jersey Shore and is six months pregnant. Probably the most intimate class I’ve taken, and it was wonderful. I’m looking forward to going back this week.

We went very small town on Saturday and walked over to the craft fair being held at the town beach. We didn’t buy much, but it was fun to look around. There was a stand with adorable little dresses, and I particularly liked one booth that made frames and candle rings out of old buttons and brooches. We did pick up some local honey and some stationery designed by an artist in the next town over, and we got each of the girls a patriotic hairbow.

After dinner, we donned our hoodies and jeans and went back to the beach for the fireworks. I was told that the community center hosts a concert every year on this weekend. There was seating inside that quickly became standing room only, and they hooked up a sound system so that all of us on the lawn could listen too. This year it was a group of musicians from the NPR show From the Top, which I wasn’t previously familiar with, but it was enjoyable.

I had explained to Swee that fireworks make a loud boom, but that they light up the sky and are really fun to watch, and that she could cover her ears if she needed to. She smiled the entire time, and with the first bang, stated, “I’m ok with the booms!” Beans seemed to enjoy them too, with wide eyes and lots of pointing, so I’m calling the entire day a success.

A few weeks ago, I saw a flyer on the message board in the post office about a gallery opening here in town. I snapped a photo of it with my phone, and promptly forgot about it. Our neighbor Barbara opened her antique shop today, and when I stopped in, she reminded me that the reception was this evening.

J had no real interest in attending, and offered to hang with the girls while I put on real clothes (read: not yoga pants) and got out of the house. I scurried to take him up on it before he changed his mind!

The gallery is across the street and up two or three buildings, so we watched the available parking fill up from the front yard before I left. Even so, I wasn’t prepared for the crowd I encountered when I arrived. I do believe that I was the youngest person in attendance who was not accompanied by a parent. Interestingly enough, I met yet another person from Pennsylvania – this time, a woman who winters in Kennett Square, about 40 minutes from my hometown. She was incredibly kind, and very encouraging about the coming winter here in Maine.

I get the sense that events like this don’t happen very often around here. When I asked Barbara how often the gallery changed their show, she remarked that this was actually the very first show and really more of a grand opening.

The building housing the gallery is just so interesting. It’s incredibly rustic inside with exposed planks and beams that are enhanced by the lighting. I didn’t have much chance to chat with the artists themselves, but overheard some conversation that the space used to be a gallery and then closed for a good while. It seems that the owner and some friends amassed such a volume of work over this past winter that they decided to reopen.

As I was snapping photos outside, I heard some generally derisive comments about “gentrification” of the town, with the implication that an art gallery was contributing to such a heinous concept, which made me chuckle a little. True, there’s not much else going on, but I believe that exposure to art can really only have a positive effect. I’m hoping that this won’t be an isolated event, and that we can continue to enjoy the fruits of our local talent.