Dealing With the Heat

78°f /25.5°C and humid at 7:30am, 92°f/33°C now with heat index of 101° and expected to get hotter this afternoon. No chance of rain.

We were out early again this morning, getting done what we can before it gets unbearable. I have finished my stringtrimming work for now, thank goodness, but haven't been in the vegetable garden in the last 2 days, so that will be tomorrow morning's work. So far everything looks okay, although I did have some watering to do for the pots and planters. I added a little liquid fish and seaweed fertilizer to the water to give them a little boost.

The rest of the morning, once I showered and rested a bit, was inside work. I did some organizing in our work/storage room, hung out some laundry, and started a pot of broccoli- cheese soup, which is simmering as I write. I used broccoli stems and leaves from the broccoli I harvested (and we ate) the other day, plus a couple packs of broccoli frozen last year that need to be used. This afternoon I plan to make black raspberry jam, and put the last coat of wax on the desk I have been working on. And maybe do a few easy listings. 

A little note here on the plastic bag dryer I use. I don't know if any of you reuse plastic bags, but this card displayed works great for me.

I am adjusting to this new staying-inside routine, but i do get restless. I want to be outside! But if course that's impossible in this heat. I did finish another book, an older title by Judith Guest called Errands. It follows the lives of a family before and after the father's death from cancer. I must say, it was a bit of a downer, yet at the same time hopeful. I don't know if the author has ever experienced what she was writing, but she certainly has a deep understanding of grief, and of how and person progresses through a cancer diagnosis. She was spot on, at least in my own observations of friends with cancer, and my own journey through deep grief. Now i am starting a book by one of my favorite authors,  Alice Hoffman, titled Here on Earth. I hope it is as good as others I have read by her 

A couple of you suggested hiring a lawn service to mow for us. Larry mows between an acre and 2 acres, it's just the way our place is laid out, and it's not easy.  I have no clue what lawn services cost, but I am sure it would be quite costly. I am thinking about it though, and about how we will manage as we get older. To pay for such a service would probably strap us very tightly financially,  if we could afford it at all. I really don't want to tie down my one son who lives closest to us either. But I do not want to move either. So trying to think this through

How are you managing the heat where you are? Iris, I know you are not warm at all! Right now I am kinda jealous of those of you with more moderate weather. It used to be that we might get a few days of extreme heat in mid-July, but never in June. 

I remember when I was a child in northern Virginia,  the local radio station would have a contest to guess the day and I think the time  when the temperature reached 100°. It happened almost every year, usually in July. Manassas had very humid, sticky summers, as I recall, even worse than here, and similar to that of Washington,  DC, which was only 25 miles away. We had no air- conditioning back then, almost nobody did. Mom would close up the living room and pull the curtains so that at least that room would stay somewhat cool. 

The rest of the house though, would really heat up. We children played outside under a big shady maple, or in the sheltered and shade side yard. Sometimes we were allowed to turn on the hose and run through the cold, cold water, or fill a galvanized metal tub to play in. What bliss. We would make Kool-Aid popsicles in ice trays, using sticks saved year to year. Dinner was often just sandwiches or something very simple, because who wanted to cook in that heat?

When I moved here, we had no electricity for about 15 years, so no fans or AC to cool off. We didn't have these big shade trees either, so the house would really heat up. Fortunately these hills cool down nicely at night usually, so sleep wasn't difficult, and mornings were not too bad. Even when we got electricity, we didn't get an air conditioner until 2003, when my parents were coming for a (very) rare visit.

Today we have 3 window units--a big one in the kitchen that cools the main part of the house, a small one in the log room, and another small one back in the work/storage room. Often these are all turned off at night, and we will open the bedroom window. Maybe it was all thosevyears of our lives without AC, but we both enjoy the night air, and the quiet music of summer nights.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

So Hot That...

It started with Tony. He put up a post on Facebook about this heat wave. Tony had some pretty descriptive ideas for the heat, which prompted more from his friends. I picked up the idea and started a post on my own Facebook page, inviting people to share their "It's so hot that..." yarns. There were some great submissions, and that made me think I should share them with you. (And that is how some blog posts come about, isn't it? One idea leading to another.)

So here they are, starting with my original post. The names have been removed to protect the innocent:

My friend Tony Toledo posted that it was so hot in his neck of New England that the birds were using potholders to pull the worms out of the ground. I responded with "in WV it's so hot the chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs and the potatoes are already baked when we dig them up. So hot the compost heap is turning into coal before our very eyes. So hot the shine makers have changed over to making ice wine."

It's so hot in New Mexico that the green chilis are becoming Chili Rellenos on the vine!

Sad to say it's so dry up here in New Hampshire I used a thimble to empty a pond and I still had room in it for the surviving fish. The frog wouldn't fit, but I took him down to the river. 

It's so hot, I'm sweatin' like a whore in church. 

It is so hot in Ohio that the corn is sweating. (No joke. Corn sweat is a real thing!)

It's so windy here, a chicken laid the same egg four times...

So hot in MA my brain is too fried to think of anything better to quip with...and we are breathing pea soup from the humidity.

It was so hot yesterday, I baked a 2 layer carrot cake in my car.

So hot here in SE Ohio that the maters are already stewed as I pick them from the vine and the oregano is already dried and ready to be stored away for adding to those maters during the winter when I get a hankering for spaghetti!!

So hot here in NC, the watermelons are exploding like bombs in the fields...and this is true! Really messy. No it is true. my neighbor grows a big field of them. if you don't get them out of the field quick when they are ripe, they fester and explode. he gave us three. Two were delicious, but one blew up on the table outside on the porch. OMG the mess to clean up. Seeds on the ceiling. Red melon meat everywhere. And it did not smell too pleasant either. Yes it looked like a slaughterhouse.

It's so hot here in Illinois that our corn on the cob comes pre-popped. (And if you think it can't happen, check out this video.)

So hot that the devil is interviewing our engineers.

So hot that everything upright is now considered a wick.

So hot that in constantly kicking the bedsheets off, I've now trained harder than Michael Phelps.

And it's so hot that Trump comes here to inhale.

"It's so hot the lead melted off my homework."

It's so hot in NE Texas this morning that I almost got mugged by a gecko when I went out with the water hose to spray off the patio.

It's so hot here in NH that lobsters are jumping in pots of boiling water just to cool off. 

The sunflowers have died in SC. True story....mostly due to drought ..

So hot you don't have to iron your clothes. Just lay them out on the porch for ten minutes.

So hot the popcorn popped in the field. The plow mule thought it was snow and froze to death. This is an old south Georgia joke from my childhood. I live in VA now where we have real snow just not right now.

So hot the hot air coming out of the U.S. Capitol feels like air conditioning.

It's so hot, Trump had to take off his wig.

It's so hot here in Ohio, the vegetables out there in my garden have aleady turned into
succotash.

So hot that I just cooked eggs on the top of the car.

In the cool Colorado mountains, it's warm (by your standards). Sometime we call it hot if we're in the sun for too long.

It helps to laugh about it--knowing so many of us are in the same hot boat makes it better somehow.

So, how how is it where you are?


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Dawdling Down Joe's Run

I rarely take the time to photograph mid- or late-summer flowers, but yesterday I took my time as I drove out of our hollow, to appreciate the rampant roadside beauty all along the way.

The WV Department of Transportation has not yet mowed so the growth is rife, even hanging over the road in many areas. This isn't unusual, unfortunately--we're often one of the last places they mow (or plow) for some reason. This year it's more understandable, given the massive roadwork that needs to be done to repair the damage from the floods in the areas south of us. The side benefit to the lack of care is that the flowers get to bloom and grow.

I don't know the names of some of these, like this first one. I think it is tick-seeded sunflower. Open to correction anytime!

Wild blue chicory is everywhere this time of year.

Black-eyed Susans and Queen Ann's Lace...

and above I heard screaming. I obviously had upset someone.

Yes, there he or she was, a beautiful hawk (red-tail? not sure) high in a black walnut.

Lavender bergamot, or bee balm, is coming into its own now. My cultivated variety has already bloomed and quit but the wild continues to beautify.

Mullein is not yet blooming, but close, its spiky head high above its neighbors.

And more chicory. Too, too pretty. And unpickable--pick it, and it closes right up.

Our little lake, really a big pond, is one of seven watershed control lakes to stop the local county seat from flooding. It's brought a nice variety of wildlife and waterfowl to our road.

 Yellow, white and blue line the road in places, almost overwhelmed by the green everywhere.

More bergamot, nestling as if planted by the gate.

This patch of some type of wild grass caught the sun and my eye.

Wild blue lobelia crowds along another section of road.

I have photographed this cabin in almost every season, numerous times.

And finally back up on the ridge, a patch of sweet peas and Queen Anne's Lace, with a little yellow-flowered type of clover whose name I cannot recall.

Even the heat of July can't take away the beauty of our wild roadsides. I hope you have time to dawdle along somewhere in your part of the world and enjoy what's there for you to see.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

The Good, the Bad, and the Fruits (and Sweat) of Summer

 I. Hate. July.

Of all the months of the year, July is my official least favorite.

I hate being hot. I hate being sticky. I hate waking up when it's already near 80 degrees, and only going to get hotter. I hate having to stay inside so much because it's too hot to go out.

I hate this month. And I use the word hate deliberately. I really do hate it.

In winter, we can stoke up the fire and add more clothes if it's cold. Yes, we're stuck inside a lot, but we can bundle up and go out and be pretty comfortable.

In winter, we can enjoy being cozy by the fireplace while we watch the snow fly.

In summer, we sit inside, looking out at the beautiful green, the flowers and trees...and the simmering heat. If we go out, we sweat. A lot.

In winter there is no sweat, and no bugs or snakes.

In summer, we swat, dodge and curse the bugs and keep a wary eye out for any unexpected movement in unexpected places.

In winter, I look forward to spring, but dread the coming of summer. In summer I look forward to fall, and to the peace and rest of winter.

This week the temperatures will be in upper 80's to mid-90's where I live. Not terrible, but add in the high humidity and it's like breathing underwater. So outside work has to be done early, and even then the humidity causes us to sweat and feel a lot hotter than the thermometer says it is.

And of course, it's during this time that the gardens are really coming into their own. There have been storms almost every day so plants are growing like we're in the tropics. We have so much squash and zucchini I think we could feed a third-world country. Tomatoes are ripening and now the fight is on with blight. Potatoes are done, beans are hanging on the vines, cucumbers are trying to conquer the world as they vine up and over their trellis. The late flat Dutch cabbage is ready to be cut and made into kraut. Onions are drying on the porch, waiting to be put away.

This summer I have canned not one jar...yet. We have frozen berries and broccoli and cabbage and eaten lots of fresh vegetables. But no canning, because the cellar is still so full that it seems ridiculous to put up more. I must have over a hundred jars of jam out there, more than we will eat in two years. There are jars of pickles, beans, and who knows what else. So we have been concentrating on eating what we have, and not, for a change adding much to it. That will change soon, as the tomatoes (the one thing I do need more of) begin to really come in.

We planted only a short row of beans because I just don't need them, so this year they will be for fresh eating. Corn will be ready next week and that will be frozen. And I will use the corn, tomatoes, green beans, onions and so on to put up some vegetable soup, something we both love and eat a lot of.

It's been nice to have a break, I must admit. We planted a little late when we saw how my summer schedule would play out, so that the bulk of the veggies came ripe in late July/August when I would not be on the road. What a blessing! The pressure that usually comes from bushels of vegetables sitting while I am gone really made July even harder to deal with for me. But this year, I've been able to concentrate of the storytelling and a little booth work, and not have to worry about canning and preserving.

One thing we've come to realize: we just don't need that much food. If we plant for early eating gardens, and late gardens, we can cut back on how much food we put up by a large amount. If I freeze the summer's berry crops, I can make the jams and jellies in winter when the extra heat from the stove is welcome.

So we've been trying, these last few years, to plant smarter, and it's worked to some degree. Last summer the late drought meant the late garden failed. I am hoping this summer's late plantings have better luck. Right now, late corn and beans are sprouting, and the second crop of cucumbers is taking off. The broccoli is still producing and I hope we can nurture it along into fall. The third planting of lettuce is ready for picking right now, and we will be putting more seeds out as soon as we have room.

I really do hate July. But this year, since I haven't had to do any canning yet, I don't hate it quite as much.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

It's Summertime, and the Livin' is Good

How can I tell it's summer?

1. Library Summer Reading programs--I did my first one on Friday and it was such fun! All about vegetables, believe it or not. Vegetable riddles, vegetable songs, vegetable stories! The Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library was a great place to be on a hot, hot afternoon. A small audience, but big fun.

2. The West Virginia Writers Conference--I did not present or submit the year. I've been lazy about creative writing for the past few years and am only recently getting back into my writing groove. But the conference is THE place to reconnect with writing friends, and it was all I could have asked and more.

photo by Susan Korstanje of WV Writers

3. Late nights--I arrived late Friday evening after my performance in Clarksburg and a 2 1/2-hour drive, and found the conference in full swing. Well, maybe not workshops and such, but the meet-and-greet was going strong. We stayed late, just catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. Saturday morning I was up and out for a workshop with the stellar poet and musician Doug Van Gundy. His session was on finding poetic inspiration in music, and it was not anything like you might expect. Listening to pieces, then describing the person who might have loved the music, or a setting the music took us to...very good stuff. The evening offered a concert by Doug and his music partner Paul Gartner, known together as Born Old. Their music is old-time and just plain excellent. Here's a quick clip of Doug from an afternoon break on the porch at the conference:

We stayed until the wee hours of Sunday morning and honestly I hated to leave even then.

4. River watching--the Ohio continues to fascinate me, even though I'm pretty much afraid of water of any depth. We had a leisurely morning, getting up late and having a very late breakfast, then went to Marietta to tidy up our booth and (most important) pick up our monthly check. The booth certainly needed the attention! Sales have been excellent and the booth was a right mess. I didn't need to bring anything new in, just rearrange and straighten up what was already there. When we were done we picked up some lunch and took it down by the river to eat, and stayed a good while just watching the boats, the water and the people. It was so relaxing. Then we took the slow way home, following the river as far as possible south before turning east to home.

5. Gardens! Veggies are coming in beautifully now--lots of broccoli, cabbage, onions and new potatoes. Larry pulled the peas and planted pickling cucumbers and another row of carrots and beets, and replanted lettuce because the last planting did not germinate. Lettuce seeds seem to be very difficult to get to sprout in the last few years and I wonder why? What has changed? We're certainly not doing anything different.

6. Firepit evenings--now that we're finally caught up on spring yard chores and some of the house things, like painting the deck and porch, we can stop work a little earlier and enjoy the evenings. The cicada go to bed early, thank goodness, and the air becomes blessedly cool and soft. Such easy pleasure.

This week summer programs happen in earnest with 3 library programs scheduled this week in various parts of the state, followed by he West Virginia Folk Festival on the weekend. And then, I take a week off for Allegheny Echoes creative writing workshop in the beautiful mountains of Pocahontas county, WV.

Such bliss it will be, to only write, listen to some of the best music in the country in the evenings, and enjoy the beauty of the mountains, the Greenbrier River, and the fellowship of many friends.

So, this is how I know it's summer, even if the calendar doesn't agree. What says summer for you?


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Blight Weather

Rain, humidity and heat: the perfect recipe for blight. Already the grapes are showing signs of black rot, even though Larry has worked hard this year to prevent it.

It rained on June 1 and June 2, and some people believe that's a bad sign for the grapes--and for the blackberry crop too. My neighbor Belvie told me that rain on the first of June meant there would be no berries. I wonder, will this year prove her statement?

This week has been hotter than I can recall for the time of year, in the upper 80's-low 90's with rain almost every day. Monsoon season in the mountains. It's good growing weather and the plants I put in recently are doing great. I really hope this isn't the sign of a hot summer, because this one-half English woman does not like hot weather at all. Give me snow and cold any day over heat and humidity.

We humans, though, we worry about what's ahead, don't we? I tried to shrug off my worries yesterday and took a short nap in the porch swing. The gently swaying, the patter of rain, birds singing and the wind in the trees. Ah. This is really what I should be focusing on, and not what might happen that I cannot change anyway.

But I'll be watching my berries, and you keep an eye on your berries if it rained in your area on June first. Let me know if your berries blight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't hold true here.

You know, I might have to have another nap in that swing today.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

My Favorite Garden Pictures This Summer

It's been a good garden year, so far. I don't want to jinx it, so I qualified my remark with that "so far," because as all gardeners know, the weather can and does change at whim. But this year, we actually had enough rain in July that the gardens did not need watering, but not so much that the grass grew out of control. That, my friends, is a good year.

Here are some of my favorite photos from this summer so far. I hope there will be more as the season wanes; keeping my fingers crossed and my eyes on the sky.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

June

I always look forward to June. The threat of frost is behind us, honeysuckle and roses are in bloom, and if all that weren’t enough, my mother was named for this month of her birth. And it is my birth month too. My mother always joked that I came on the longest day of the year and for her it certainly was a long day.
June brings us a bounty of food, both from the garden and the wild. Raspberries and wild greens are there for the picking and some fresh vegetables are coming in. 

Some herbs are ready for harvest. I hang my herbs in my kitchen and let them dry naturally. I prefer this method to a dehydrator both because it costs nothing and I like the look of the herbs swaying gently in the breeze from the ceiling fan. I just bundle them up, wrap the stems with a rubber band, and use a straightened paper clip or piece of wire as a hook for hanging. When we were building our house  I found a drying rack made of oak at the demolition site of an old house. The man who owned the house said I could have it. It is a wall-mounted unit with four arms that swing out. We put it over a shaded window and it is perfect for herb-drying. 

Superstitions and folklore about this queen of months abound. For example, “a calm June puts the farmer in tune,” meaning that a good June will produce good crops later on. A June that is “damp and warm, does the farmer no harm” either, since those are good growing conditions, even if it might make haying difficult.

Some people believe that summer doesn't start until the elder is in flower. My neighbor told me once that when the elderberries are in flower, the cow’s milk production will drop significantly. I watched and found that this was true, at least of my cows. I have wondered why ever since. Was it just a coincidence? Farmers also know that “a swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay, but a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.” A swarm in July, however, isn’t worth a fly, because it is too late for them to build up their colony and make enough honey to survive the coming winter.

The rose is the flower of June, and we are fortunate in West Virginia to have many wild roses blooming along our roadsides. Did you know that there is a Greek myth about how the rose came to be? According to the story, the rose was created by Chloris, the Greek goddess of flowers. Chloris found the lifeless body of a nymph in the forest and asked the gods and goddesses for help. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, gave her beauty; Dionysus added nectar to give her a sweet scent, and the three Graces gave her charm, brightness and joy. Zephyr, the West Wind, blew the clouds away for Apollo to shine on her and make her bloom. Cupid, however, was shooting his arrows at some bees that had stung him and missed his mark. His arrows became the thorns. This, say the Greeks, is how the rose came to be.

Stories, folklore and superstitions aside, this is a blessed month of the year, one that truly abounds in gifts from heaven. Get out and enjoy this beautiful creation we call earth—smell the flowers, taste the berries, and rejoice that it is summer at last.

Adapted from my Two Lane Livin' article in June 2011 issue.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Morning

Is there anything prettier than lace curtains blowing in the wind, and roses peeking in at the window? We suffered through July to get to August, and we're being rewarded with the best of summer.

This morning I was up early for my walk. I have given up on getting Larry to go with me; it's hard enough to motivate myself! So I get up now and get out as early as I can. This morning I was on the ridge just as a glorious red sun rose over the hilltops. No camera with me so you will have to envision how it looked--mist in the hollows, the hayfields newly cut, a soft breeze, baby blue sky and pink clouds around that scarlet orb.

I returned to the house and got busy pruning. The flowerbeds took advantage of my absence and went wild. Five wheelbarrow loads of cuttings, weeds and deadheads later, I am still not done. The rest will have to wait because peaches and tomatoes are waiting for me. But I took a break and wandered around the yard, picking and eating ripe peaches and Concord grapes.

This is the part of summer I like best. I am no fan of July, although it redeems itself by being the month when several of my loved ones have birthdays. Other than that, I'd be happy to skip the whole month. But then August comes with its shorter days, long, slow evenings and cool nights, ripening fruit and slower-growing grass. It's like we can take a long breath and breathe out slowly. There is still plenty of work to do; the gardens are at their peak early in the month and weeds begin going to seed, potatoes need to be dug and all that garden bounty put up. But the frantic pace of June and July is past and we can actually slow down a little and just enjoy the result of our labors.

I think I'll run back out and get a few more grapes before starting on those peaches. There soon will be no grapes on the vines and this beautiful month will be over. Best to enjoy it while we can.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Boats, Summer and Grandchildren

This week we have grandchildren visiting! James and Michaela are so easy to have around, and so self-sufficient. And eating machines, my goodness. Yesterday they ate eggs, bacon, biscuits, grits, tomatoes, juice and jam for breakfast. Later James was fixing a huge toasted rye, Swiss cheese, tomato and ham sandwich (Michaela went to town with Larry and ate out). After that he moved on to tortilla chips and salsa and between them they ate the whole bag of chips and a pint of salsa. He also ate 2 apples trying to get out a loose tooth (it didn't work) and roasted marshmallows over the firepit. I'm sure I missed a few things, but you get the idea. Oddly, neither of them was hungry at dinnertime! I have a feeling they're both in another growth spurt.

We spent Monday on a little road trip. It was too hot to do much outside and I needed to pick up my check at the Marietta Mall so we stopped there first. The kids loved the mall and browsed around, even buying a few things (and got a freebie each from Granny's booth). We then went to the Ohio River Museum where I told stories at the beginning of the month. It's really a kids' paradise with all sorts of items from the steamboat era and early settlement of the Ohio Valley. The part they seemed to like best was the tour of the WP Snyder JR tugboat. It is not in operation but provides an excellent look into life on the tugs 50 years or more ago.

Stories of steamship disasters and the odds and ends that were once part of the furnishings provided a lot to look at and talk about during our visit.

This is the oldest surviving pilothouse (the place where the Captain and pilot steer and plan the boat's course), on display at the museum. Locked when we were there, and probably usually locked to preserve it.

Inside the WP Snyder, Jr, and walking down the corridor in the crew's quarters.

Outside on the deck the river breezes were cool, but inside the steel structure it was warm. Imagine what it would be like on a summer day with the boilers going. Too hot to think about.

The laundry room

Typical crew members' room. The captain's looked very similar, except had one bed and a desk for reading charts. Windows must have been open quite often even in winter to keep it comfortable.

The kitchen (called that on a freshwater boat, galley on the ocean-going ships)

and the refrigerator. They made their own ice on board, using a system similar to the way our gas refrigerator works.

At the helm! Look at the size of that wheel. The Snyder was in operation on the Monongahela River in northern WV/western PA until the mid-1950's, still burning coal to fuel it's engines.

Girls can do this too!

After the tour, the kids fed the huge carp that hung around the boat waiting for a handout. 

We left the museum and drove north to Sistersville and the old cemetery there that is one of my favorite places. More on that later.

What else is going on here:

I'm in catch-up and clean up mode this week. Peaches were waiting for my arrival home, as were tomatoes and cucumbers. The first bunch of peaches are frozen and today there will be more; I'm thinking jam this time. The cucumbers are now dill pickles, and the tomatoes are cooking right now into sauce.

There is still much unpacking to do from my 10 days away from home and a summer of storytelling. My clothes are mostly unpacked and the dirty ones washed and dried, but not yet put away. The summer reading program suitcase, the Appalachian program suitcase and the books and other things I took to Augusta are still waiting to be sorted out. My workroom is a disaster, full of items bought but not yet inventoried or priced for the booths, receipts that need to be entered and filed, eBay stuff...lots of work to be done in here.

And next on the storytelling schedule: The Three Rivers Storytelling Festival in Pittsburgh! That's this coming weekend and I am so glad to be able to be there to tell stories and reconnect with my Pittsburgh friends. Life is bringing lots of good things our way this summer. I must admit, though, that these days with James and Michaela are about the best of the whole summer--nothing equals spending time with grandchildren.





Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.