Kinds of Honey

A kind friend gave me her old bicycle and I am sorry to say that it has sat unridden for two months.

But last night I needed cornmeal from the grocery store, which is pretty close to where I live, and when I went out to my car I just didn’t feel like driving it.

So I looked at the bike. Adjusted the seat. Hopped on. Flat tires, but there is a gas station near the supermarket. As I rode along I remembered how it felt to have everything outside of me be more accessible. No barrier between me, the sky and weather, the sounds of movement along the road.

It was nice. Especially after the tires were pumped up. Wheeeee!

So, even though I generally have a mixture of love/hate feelings towards cycling (it takes longer, requires effort, and is kinda scary on many roads), as the weather cools down I am determined that I am going to ride that bicycle more than I drive. How lucky that both of the places I work are well within biking distance. How silly that I’ve been spending money on gas and polluting the air and wearing down further an already-old car, when I could have been bicycling all summer and making both myself and the environment healthier. My somewhat legitimate excuse is that the intense heat would really have made the trips back and forth miserable, and possibly even not good for a girl who’d been working in the hot sun all day.

Other goals, along with this one? (a) Get up early and walk the dog every day. In order to make this, and the biking to work, happen without a great deal of crotchety-ness, (b) go to bed by 9 p.m. at the latest most nights.

Whoa.

For a grad-school-trained night owl, that’s a lot to ask. But it can be done! It will hopefully lead to more productivity, improved health and happiness, and stories and photos drawn from a slower and more engaged perspective.

Here’s to sleeping. And pedaling.

Forgive me.

But really.

I think someone must have tapped my 21-year-old brain to find the material for this music video. All of a sudden I’m back in college with a head full of pretty daydreams and possibilities.

Adventure and happenstance. Europe and country music. And it works.

Just perfectly sweet.

And not very realistic. Not the point, I guess. Except, you know . . . I’ve heard more than one story that makes it seem, actually, possible. So. I just want to say: 21-year-olds, dream on. Look for beautiful things – trust in them – make them come true as often as you can.

Ah, Thursday. This is my one day of the week to sleep a little bit longer. My official “day off” when I don’t have any designated work to do. Just volunteer time and writing time. Long mornings of drinking coffee, browsing goat breeds, looking at horses for lease, jotting down book ideas, randomly straightening things, and trying (oh, trying!) to organize thoughts into goals and purposeful action.

I have so many things up my sleeve right now, and I am just paying attention to see when the time is right to reveal and actualize them. I’m so tempted to tell everyone all about these things, and I already may have too much already. Dreamers, we sometimes have so many dreams that the flood of them is totally confusing to navigate. And all our friends wonder: Weren’t you going to do this? Or that? Where are you now? Wait, what’s going on?

It can feel a little foolish. But Thursday is my day to lavishly entertain all the dreams and ideas, and then to do something with some of them. Even if only baby, baby steps. Even a tentative toe forward. But sometimes, a jump!

I have always liked Thursdays.

Something exciting will be happening in September!

You know, in addition to the cooling down of summer and the onset of fall.

More hints to come . . . perhaps . . . yes, perhaps.

Look what we get to wake up to weekend mornings! The balloons drift by just outside our apartment and land in a field beyond the houses of the neighboring subdivision.

They are so close you can hear the shhhhhhhhhhhhhh of the air.

There’s something so happy about them.

The tomatoes seem happier.

Don’t you think?

With the summer scorchers we’ve been having lately, I wanted to make something bright, fresh, light. Today the plan was for blackberry shortcakes and by the time I settled into making them, the skies had clouded.

Does this seem to be happening often on my baking days? Yet I don’t really mind. It’s certainly better than rain falling on my work-outside days. And it makes everything cool down.

But before the rain came, when the clouds were just hovering and the thunder hadn’t yet rumbled, Miss T. and I went to our favorite spot while the berries macerated and the biscuits chilled in the refrigerator. I had to catch that misty blue.

Then home we went to put biscuits in the oven. Baking, they smelled wonderful and warm, and that is always good against the sound of falling rain. I left the door open for the cool air to come through.

And, you know? While strawberry shortcakes are so very much for hot summer days, even mid-days, blackberry shortcakes have a deeper, more mildly sweet flavor that works also for days like today.

Especially with a cup of tea, steeped long enough to get just a bit of a bitter edge. I want that sometimes.

So when all was done we sat outside, watching the water hit the sidewalk, breathing the fresh damp air. Tasting the sweet and bitter, the heavy and light.

Glad for contrasts, for complementing opposites.

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RECIPE

I won’t steal copyrighted info! So I can’t give you the exact recipe I used. But I can tell you the recipe for the biscuits is in Earth to Table, under “Shortcakes with Chantilly Cream and Macerated Strawberries.” You can use another biscuit recipe that you have on hand, but you’ll likely want to add sugar – and brush it on top with cream before baking.

For the berries, just mash the berries so you have some that are whole and some that are crushed, then mix in some sugar (1/4 to 1/2 cup), and vanilla if you want. Let sit until you are ready to use. You may want to cover and refrigerate if you plan on waiting awhile before you use them.

For the cream: making Chantilly cream simply involves adding a little vanilla and a little powdered sugar to heavy whipping cream. So, whip the cream first, then add the sugar and vanilla to taste as the cream seems to be near ready (thickened and forming peaks). Fold them in gently and don’t whip for too long!

Common sense, of course, suggests that you’ll want to wait a bit for the biscuits to cool before piling everything together. Otherwise your cream will melt down and you won’t have as pretty a result.

I recommend serving with a cup of black tea . . . on a rainy day!