Pierre de Ronsard, or Eden Rose, so spectacular and with such lingering impact
For those of you who peak at this blog now and again, you know I am clearly obsessed with taking pictures of flowers. Whether in my yard, at flower shows or markets or even in store windows, as I did in Paris in March, I am instantly drawn to intense colors and intricate forms, and happen to react to them as if they were each their own little marvels, delivered to me daily, by some power from above. They are indeed, little special deliveries of happiness and wonder for me. This is clearly a ludicrous idea, of course, but in my mind, somehow it seems like there is some power which beautifies this earth and at the same time challenges each of us to savor and protect it. I know that sounds eerily like the oh so silly, yet mightily profound and memorable speech which George Burns delivers to John Denver in the movie, Oh God. (Don’t ask me how I make these connections, I just do.) My rose pictures from a couple of weeks ago serve to confirm this to me. Sadly, most of them are gone now but I have not given up hope for a subsequent bloom on many, if not the Pierre de Ronsard. Happily, my Sunsprite produced this, this morning:
Today is the day before the Summer Solstice, yet somehow, eerily (there’s that word again, hmmm), I already feel like Summer is beginning to slip away. Perhaps it is because, beginning the day after tomorrow, the minutes of daylight begin their trend downward again and this sends tendrils of dread into my psyche. Inevitably, by August, the season seems to have made a decided turn as the sunsets, particularly on Cape Cod are early (the days of skimboarding with Christin at 8:45pm at Rock Harbor are over). Temperatures and humidity are still high, yet the days feel different than they do now. I love this time of year when the daylight is at it’s peak. This morning I awoke just after 5am, and could feel that it was time to get up. While I tried to squeeze my eyes shut until at least 6, I was unable to, and so I headed down for coffee and an hour of solace and peacefulness, or so I thought. It was only a minute or two until I had the camera out, and even though I was not yet technically awake, I was snapping away.
Pictures before 7am:
and, some from a little later:
Who else could really be responsible for all of these marvels, I ask? Sorry, hybridizers for blatantly dismissing you from my mind.
I am off now to bake yet another batch of the Cornmeal-Blueberry Scones (did). I think I am addicted.
Should I consider home supervision?
Then I am reading a new stack of books, including Farmer’s Market Cookbooks, Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich and some others by Sarah Raven and David Masumoto.
Cookbook picks of the week:
and my top pick:
by Jodi Liano and Tasha DeSerio
Enjoy this perfect early “Summer” day – it was 57F this morning when I awoke. How lovely!
You will be happy to know that there are lots of bees, tho they seem smaller, on my spirea this morning. Also, this morning I made the David Leite’s cookies to give to Johnny’s girlfriend(sweet tooth, sweet girl!)for her bday and to bring to my brother in law down in NC tomorrow. They came out great–contrary to the first time I made them when I think I used rancid bread flour. I guess I didn’t realize it was sitting in my pantry for too long…very strong flavor that had overwhelmed the cookie. So happy they worked with new flour!
that’s good! I don’t know if you have read any of the articles, but size seems to be an issue with this pesticide problem; I just wish there were a better lobby!
BTW, I have NO bees on my Spirea
glad the cookies came out well; i use ap flour – the King Arthur in particular has a slightly higher gluten content than Gold Medal or Pillsbury and they come out fine