Summer

“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever.” ― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

As we head toward the dog days of summer I have been working on revising and completing my novel “Trade Winds” as well as drafting short story ideas. From those, a new short story, Paper Airplanes, has been added to my catalog for submission.

Paper Airplanes follows Steven as he returns home for his father’s funeral. As so often happens in times of bereavement, memories flood back, notably a time when as kids he and his brothers put on their version of an air show launching Paper Airplanes down the stairwell. An event that at the time ignited parental tensions over secrets that his father finally reveals to Steven in confidence not long before the old man’s death.

A new enhancement in the on-going webpage construction (does that ever end?) makes it easier to access the collection of my published short stories via one page.

Continuing on my quest to face my fears of James Joyce I have added Finnegans Wake and Portrait of a Young Man to my Joycean Repertoire (having tackled Ulysses last year). I cannot say enough about Internet Archive dot com. I use them for research as well as casual reading as they provide a treasure trove of books that may be hard to find online, many of which may not be available in my local library or for purchase.

We had the opportunity to travel to Europe this past spring, taking trains where we could, back and forth between Edinburgh and London, then the Eurostar, through the Chunnel to Brussels, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen.  Some wonderful jazz, plenty of art museums, tulip festivals, and amazing food. Standing at sunset in the center of Stonehenge, there is a wonderful calmness being surrounded by those stones and meditating on one’s connection to the site, the environment, and the world.

This time of year, finds us strolling Saturday mornings among the venders and farms at Denver’s City Park Farmers Market to complement produce from Kit’s garden, followed by live music on Sundays at City Park Jazz.  In a few weeks we will be getting ready to head to the east coast for our annual trip to the Delaware Shore for some family time.

Recent events have me reflecting on this passage from Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness (book), Desert Solitaire (audio). 

“A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. I may never in my life get to Alaska, for example, but I am grateful that it’s there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.”*

*The Heat of Noon: Rock and Tree and Cloud, p149, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey

Until next time. Peace

Note on the cover photo: Fireworks No 2, (July 2017)