the mad whirl of late June

-- June 27th, 2012 --
fallen tree


Just look what a May and June full of rain will do for you!  The beau­ti­ful sumac tree in our gar­den sim­ply fell over from the weight of its wet branches and the soggy home of its roots.  The tree sur­geon has come to visit, cluck­ing sadly over the sit­u­a­tion.  “Sumacs are noto­ri­ously shallow-rooted,” he said accus­ingly, although as far as “noto­ri­ous” goes, shallow-rooted is pretty inno­cent.  But with a touch­ing faith in the future, the new buds of the sumac flower have adjusted to sit­u­a­tion, and have grown to point again toward the sky, what­ever the direc­tion of their branches.

Lon­don life has assumed its usual June qual­ity of watch­ing the days fly off the cal­en­dar, packed full with plays and musi­cals to go to, house­guests to wel­come, din­ner par­ties to host, school vol­un­teer­ing to orga­nize, social work, and of course bell­ring­ing.  I gave a big, fes­tive lun­cheon party for all my ring­ing friends, to cel­e­brate my first anniver­sary ring­ing!  A roasted side of salmon, stuffed chicken thighs in Moroccan-spiced yogurt, tomato-mozzarella salad with pine nuts and basil, a huge bowl of cous­cous with pep­pers, olives and grilled hal­loumi.  Laura brought a huge chocolate…