Summer's End

To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, it was a quiet summer here in the valley and I’m delighted that fall is hard upon us.  I spent 121 days without stepping into a commercial aircraft.  That is an all time record since 1975.  I just had nowhere to go and no desire to go anywhere.  The summers here in Charles Town are usually quite lovely but this one had a six-week period of really intense heat, at least intense for West Virginia, and the gardens needed a lot of TLC.

Since Cindy fully retired last spring she has thrown herself into two major fields of endeavor: music and gardening.  She had a lovely vegetable garden with mostly carrots, tomatoes and one asparagus.  There were several patches of herbs that provided lots of flavor to my dinners. And there were the flowers, flowers everywhere, pots, plots, climbing, hanging and some that just seemed to wander all over the place.  The colors were intense and the bees and butterflies were particularly impressed this year.

My outside jobs tended to focus on constantly massaging the lawns, watering flowers and vegetables - mostly from our three rain barrels - and trimming trees and bushes.  I used to be an avid gardener but lost the lust when I realized that I could purchase good stuff for less than it costs to grow it.

Cindy’s passion for music has soared.  She had a one week music camp in Seattle that was just what she needed to jump start her playing and teaching.  She has two students; she is in the local orchestra, plays in several trios and quartets and practices a minimum of three times a day.  It is a joy to see her so happy with her passion for music.  I’m trying to learn the guitar; it is humbling to know that I’m really not very good at something!

Being home for so long did allow me to do a lot of cooking and I’ve been branching out into different cuisines and techniques.  At Cindy’s suggestion we have rainbow meals, which means foods of lots of colors.  Our fresh vegetable intake has therefore expanded and a supplement of fish or chicken adds some variety.  While this may sound very healthy, which I’m sure it is, I temper it with wine and Fritos so as to keep my caloric intake up.

We have become counters.  We each have pedometers that allow us to make sure we walk, in my case – and walk/run for Cindy - at least seven miles a day. That is our minimum and for the most part we hit it six out of seven days a week.

As I read this over it sounds so boring, which is why I haven’t been writing much. However, the time seemed to fly by and we were never really bored.  I wonder if that is what aging is all about?

Best to all and more to come of a non-boring nature.  Cindy and Wm