And so easy to grow from seeds!  One of the easiest.

The embedded video of a girl being rescued makes me cry tears of gratitude:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/world/europe/amatrice-italy-earthquake.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&src=recg&mabReward=CTM&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Recommended&pgtype=article

 

 

 

So many books, so little time!

I spent mine in flights of fancy.  I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mojave to Portland; I wallowed around in an unhappy childhood with my crazy mother near Boston; I donated my cells to science without knowing I did and, in the process, advanced science and medical advancements; and then I still had time to time-travel back to the 19th century where along with my family I was a pioneer, growing up in the woods and on the prairie!

In other words,  I spent the summer reading, reading, reading, and then, when it was too hot to even hang out in my garden, I read some more.  And I did some writing.  It was a wonderful way to pass the time!

I’ve been preoccupied with the amazing genre of contemporary memoir writing.  What advances have been made in the field in the past 10 years, especially by women!  Here are a the titles I’ve recently finished and loved, and the ones that took me on my flights of fancy:

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed 

 

With or Without You: A Memoir Paperback by Domenica Ruta 

 

 

 

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack by Rebecca Skloot 

 

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pamela Smith Hill 

 

Would love to know what you’ve read lately or what ever else has kept you busy this summer!

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Mary Oliver “The Summer Day“**

 

**  “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

 

 

The Uffizi was visited by 3.4 million people last year!!

Happy late August, everybody!  The sunflowers are blooming, the birds are singing, the temperatures are cooling.  That’s enough for me!

Mrs. Obama’s dress, once again, speaks volumes.