Early summer enthusiasms
A theme, an old playlist, rereads, roses, summer drinks, a shop
It’s summer, and you know what that means. It’s time for the Forest Hag Summer playlist.
Does your summer have a theme yet? An inspiration? A guiding light? Mine does not. I was thinking of “goblin mode” or “bog witch,” but those aren’t so distinct from “forest hag,” which was last summer’s theme. It may be that every summer is forest/bog/swamp/creek hag/witch/goblin/creature from here on out.
I like my summers slow, earthy, and dark, filled with books and creek swimming and shade napping and iced coffees and time in the garden.
My BFF Joanna Powell Colbert has created a new work of art which I DID NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO SHARE SO I TOOK IT DOWN. Inspired by the traditional hermit of tarot fame, the piece is called “Elder Hermit.” She embodies the energy I’m looking for. Another name Joanna considered for her is “Green Hermit.” Aha! I think I have a theme for this summer after all!
Welcome to Green Hermit summer. You’ll find me snoozing under a lily pad with just my eyes and snout above the water.
Summer is also a time when I crave rereading, especially long, slow books. I’m in the middle of Daniel Deronda, and I have been feeling the itch to pick up Possession next. Losing myself in a 800-page novel is my version of comfort reading.
Do you, too, like to reread in summer? What books are enticing you?
Slow gardening. I would never do a darn thing in the garden if I didn’t allow myself to garden slowly. I weed one very small patch—even a square 12 inches. I plant eight seedlings. I set a few stones. I haul one bag of mulch. I sit in the shade with a cold drink and a book. Then I get up and do a little more.
Last year I wrote about my love of native plants. I grow a few vegetables, too, and berries, and some culinary and medicinal herbs. And some annual flowers: zinnia, cosmos, foxglove, poppy, snapdragon, sunflower. But mostly I add plants, slowly, that will show up year after year and offer sustenance to the local insects, birds, snakes, and rabbits. (In my downtown yard, these are the wildlife I see. But we do get the occasional skunk, opossum, and even deer. I adore the opossums.)
I read that native Penstemon varieties are disappearing from New York forests, and so I’ve added several of those plants to my garden this year and am happy to see my neighbors have done the same. I even have a volunteer Penstemon in my front yard!
Last Saturday at our twice-monthly Way of the Rose circle, one of our members brought baskets full of fragrant rose blossoms from her garden. I took home a basket-full and laid them out on a linen towel on my kitchen table. When we returned from a cookout dinner with friends (where we also started to learn how to play Mahjong, because we want to sit around in caftans and gossip), the entire first floor of the house was scented with roses.
I chopped up the flowers and filled a large mason jar, then filled the jar with bourbon and topped it with some local raw honey. In six weeks I’ll have the most delicious heart medicine, blessed by our prayers in circle yesterday.
Speaking of the Way of the Rose, I’m off to Woodstock this weekend to celebrate Our Lady of Woodstock’s feast day, which is this Sunday. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and spending time having the best conversations. The Way of the Rose is a loosely-knit group of people from all over the world, and all spiritual traditions (and none), who love the Holy Mother, however they conceive of her, and love the earth, and who seek guidance and solidarity and faith through the coming changes. In practice, these are some of the funniest, wisest, most humble people I know.
Summer drinks, the all-day kind, not the boozy kind.
My husband drinks an immoderate amount of fresh lemon and lime juice. He says if he lives to 100, he’s crediting the citrus juice. For his birthday a couple of weeks ago, I got him a manual countertop citrus juicer, the kind that is ten pounds of cast iron and steel, where you lower the lever onto the cut half-fruit until you get that satisfying “thunk” and your citrus has been utterly drained of its juice. I’ve started drinking a full lemon’s and a full lime’s worth of juice in 24 ounces of seltzer on ice, and it is icy refreshing bliss.
An Israeli friend tells me that you can buy lime juice and mint slushies everywhere in Israel. I plan to start making these as soon as the weather turns hot.
My other favorite summer drink is hibiscus made into an infusion (about 1/4 cup dried hibiscus flower in boiling water in a quart-size mason jar; cover and steep for four hours or overnight, then strain), then diluted with ice and water (or seltzer). You can add rose petals or hips to the infusion, too, or mint, and honey. But I like it best straight up. Hibiscus is tart, cooling, and astringent, which is perfect on hot, humid days.
Okay, while we’re on the subject of summer drinks, here is my favorite breakfast on weekdays when I don’t want to linger over a meal but just get straight to writing or gardening or a walk. In a blender, ideally a powerful one like a Vitamix: 2-3 pitted dates, about 1/3 cup raw cashews, plain whey powder to 30 grams of protein, a couple of tablespoons of cacao powder, a double shot of espresso, a splash of vanilla, about a half cup of whole milk, and a small handful of ice. Blend into a thick frothy drink and serve over more ice.
NYC locals and locavores. Caroline Weaver is a patron saint of enthusiasts. The founder of C.W. Pencil Enterprises at the tender age of 23 (the only dedicated pencil store in the world), she has been running the Locavore Guide to New York City for a couple of years now. She pounds the NYC pavement (literally days spent walking) to find the best of locally-produced everything, from cabinetry to terracotta pots to clothing to food. She seeks out those small speciality businesses that have been around and in families for decades.
Caroline’s latest project is the Locavore Variety Store in the West Village, which opens its doors June 15. She has been posting detailed videos to Instagram detailing the process of opening her new store.
I can’t wait to visit!
May your early days of summer be leisurely and filled with magic.
Reading this was like a lime and mint slushie for my mind and heart. ❤️