Quick Snippets of Summer News

Summer is here, and summer is nonstop. Business, household, grounds and gardens, young dog, married life, social life – all surge forward simultaneously, paths often crisscrossing, obligations at times colliding. There is a lot to do at home, taking care of lawn, flowers, fruits and vegetables.

Sometimes the relief of a break comes in carrying out a task. For example, as David organizes his summer studio in what he is now calling the “long” barn, he decides on Saturday evening to move a large painting from our front porch to the gallery in Northport. If we had simply gone out for ice cream, it would have felt like playing hooky, but having an errand to accomplish allowed us to feel productive. We did the deed and came home by back roads, at a snail’s pace. Tall grasses, heads heavy with seed, bow and wave and make me think of some large prehistoric mammal taking its rest, stretched out on the hillsides....

Then it's back to Northport, with an author event at Dog Ears Books. Last Sunday it was Bob Underhill, with his new murder mystery novel.

On Monday evening I got all the way to Traverse City with a friend, to the National Writers Series at the Opera House to see and hear author Temple Grandin. We were able to arrive an hour early, which gave me an opportunity to photograph the venue for its architecture before crowds filled it up. 

Not bad from the very last row in the way-back balcony, where Susan and I had scored the last two available seats in the house!

There is a lot more going on in Northport (and in Traverse City, of course) with new businesses and summer events, and I have more photographs, also, and I've been reading, too, and have a lot to write about a few books -- some new, some not -- but time waits for no bookseller, and I have not been to the post office since Saturday, so forgive today's rush of pictures without captions.

Reminder: This coming Friday, June 28, we are having a poet who's coming all the way from New Orleans. Mark Yakich will be reading and conversing with bookstore guests from 2 to 4 p.m. It's a new time slot, never tried before, chosen to accommodate a few people who requested afternoon rather than evening. Hope others can make it, too. I haven't met Mark yet, but his writing is riveting.