Where did winter and spring go? Suddenly it’s summer, although so far a cool and rainy one. Today, while walking in the woods with Shadow, I came around a bend and saw a vision of orange—so orange as to be almost red. A ten-foot tall flame azalea bush in full bloom. Here is a flame azalea from our yard.

I’m sad to report that Tiyo died on May 6^th, while I was in Oregon for a writers workshop. He was twelve, and relatively healthy until the last two weeks of his life. What can I say other than he was a good dog and we miss him? Every dog owner knows that dogs don’t live long enough. It is their greatest flaw.

We're now in the waning side of high summer here on the Blue Ridge.  The hosta blooms are wilting but still are full of bumblebees busily working away.  The azaleas and rhododendrons have been replaced by day lilies, daisies and purple cone flowers. The lush green of spring and early summer now sports brown and tan age-spots, spurred on by the continuing drought.  I worry for the pumpkin fields down the road.  Last summer we got so little rain that the pumpkins were too small to market and the farmers let them rot in the field.  I hope that this doesn't happen again.

Meanwhile, I finally have time for summer reading.  Right now I'm deep into David McCullough's John Adams and enjoying it immensely.  Somehow, in my formative years I missed reading Robin McKinley--a serious omission indeed! I recently finished Beauty and The Hero and the Crown with The Blue Sword next on my list.  

With an Amazon gift certificate hot in hand (a birthday present), I'm poring over the numerous possibilities. First off, I want to read a new translation of Don Quixote.  After reading reviews and on the advice of Charlie Oberndorf (over on dm.net) I think I've decided upon the Burton Raffel translation.  Charlie pointed me to an intriguing article about the DQ translations and about translation in general by Natasha Wimmer, http://www.believermag.com/issues/200407/?read=article_wimmer .  I want to buy the new Leif Enger book on audio and I'm intrigued by the reviews of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.  Of course, there are dozens of other candidates or I could throw all literary sensibilities out the window and go for Season 7 of the Gilmore Girls.  

Other than that, I do daily battle to protect my struggling garden from the ravages of fungi, deer, and raccoons.  Like most of the gardening population in the world, I now have an overabundance of summer squash—from just one plant of each.  I have decided that squash borers exist to keep summer squash from taking over the universe.  Mine are late in arriving!  But we’re now enjoying fresh tomatoes and soon we will have sweet corn. Now, if only we could get a good, serious rain.

I feel like I've finally entered the 21st century!  Lee Allred, an award-winning writer and artist (www.leeallred.com) and friend extraordinaire created an avatar for me--my very first!  I think he did a terrific job.  This nice thing about avatars is that all those pesky aging lines don't show up at all (at least if the artist is your friend!)



In writing news, I'm plugging away on the book for Mirrorstone and am almost to the finish line of the rough draft, with time to revise before the deadline, June 30th.  Writing the book has been both harder and more fun than I ever envisioned.  One day I'm researching 19th century trains in Scotland and the next day giant squid (which are not to be confused with colossal squid, just in case you were wondering.)

As to gardening--strawberries are ripening even as I type.  Each day I pick a few more.  The asparagus has almost reached the point that I can't stand the thought of eating another spear--which means I'll let it fern out for the summer.  Everything is planted except the bush and pole beans.  I hope to get them in the ground in the next few days.  The Boysenberries are blooming like crazy.  Low sugar diet notwithstanding, I WILL make a Boysenberry pie if the crop is any good.

Welcome to an occasional blog about life in the Blue Ridge mountains, books, movies, gardening, and writing.

Spring is coming to the Blue Ridge. 
The daffodils are up, the hostas are sprouting, and the fruit trees are in full bloom.  Off the mountain Mt. Airy, NC, the trees are budded out in red, orange, yellow, and white, forsythias are birght yellow, azaleas are brilliant pink, and a few brave trees have sprouted pale green leaves.  Quite a spectacular display.  Before moving to Virgina, I had never seen the array of colors that spring in the East presents.  This is the time of year that we can watch the band of green creep up the mountain as spring works its way from Mt. Airy, elevation 1100 ft., to the 3000 foot level of the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

In writing news, my feature articles for the Bristol Herald Courier on the local foods efforts over in Abingdon and Meadowview have finally run.  I have an interview with Steven L. Hopp, co-writer along with his wife, Barbara Kingsolver, of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, as well as an interview of Anthony Flaccavento of Appalachian Sustainable Development.  Finally, I have a review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.