Hurryin' By

The days and evenings flow along quickly and busily at this time of year. So much is happening, in every aspect of life. Of course, it is Cherry Festival time in Traverse City, but we are too busy out in Northport to get very far from home these days.
Friday evening’s book signing reception for Robert Underhill was a noteworthy event at Dog Ears Books. I had ordered a substantial number of copies of STRAWBERRY MOON, Bob’s first Leelanau murder mystery, as well as his newly released CATHEAD BAY, and while he was busy signing and I was busy selling, his wife Trudy was the evening’s gracious hostess. They both commented on the beautiful atmosphere provided by the Painted Horse Gallery, the lovely paintings making the area feel like someone’s home. Weather was perfect, too.

Closing time on Saturday took me down the street to a memorial picnic for Sigrid von Bremen Thomas, author of GOODBYE STALIN. Sigrid hadn’t been interested in having a memorial, her husband Rich said. She wanted a party. The family arranged for both, but when I expressed doubt about being able to attend both, Rich insisted I come to the party.

Later, at home, my dog and I got out for a ramble. Cherries are beginning to shout with color. North Manitou Island beckoned from the horizon. Cow-vetch and St. John’s-wort triggered half a memory of a poem. “Purple and gold” is the key phrase. Any ideas, anyone?



P.S. on the vetch and vort: "Very Like a Whale," by Ogden Nash at http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/854.html is what was in the back of my mind. A more literary mind would no doubt have gone to the original....