July 21 and 22: Burlington, S. Hamilton
Dear Friends and Relatives,
I am writing you from a cafe/bookstore in Belmont, Massachusetts this morning, Monday, July 22. I was going to write you yesterday, but the weather was so hot (even in New England!!) and the tempo so listless that I gave up and read, played Scrabble, “Stadt, Land, Fluss” (a type of German categories game translated to English and resembling the American game Scattergories), and finally croquet outside with Owen and then with Owen and Norah, Marthe and Josh’s grandchildren. Before they came in mid-afternoon, Marthe, Josh and I watched the first installment of her photos made in India during her textile trip there in February of this year. Later on in the day she gave me an elegant, stunning, dark blue/muted gold shawl she had purchased in India.
Otherwise, we prepared a lovely dinner of quiche, German potato salad, and green salad. The point was to turn on the oven as little as possible. By the time Owen and Norah left at 7:30 p.m., the rest of the us resorted to cooling off by standing in the little plastic children’s pool we had dragged out for Owen and Norah. Eventually, the mosquitoes became over-anxious for our hides, and we decided to call it a day by about 9:30. I am in the middle of a gripping best-seller novel Hart recommended to me (“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens), so I cranked up the window air conditioner in my room and proceeded to read until midnight.
By this morning the excessive humidity was a thing of the past. The high temperature today looks to be about 75, and that gladdens the heart, mind, and spirit significantly. Marthe is at an appointment in Belmont, while I have been here at the bookstore. I have bought Marthe a thank you gift—a 1,000+ page tome called “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson—winner of a 1994 Pulitzer Prize. She and Josh have shown me an extraordinary time while I have been with them!
On the way home, Marthe and I took a short stop in Burlington to visit Eileen Fisher, Talbots, and Ann Taylor Loft stores to check the sales. Now we are back in S. Hamilton, and it is 4:00 p.m. Josh is still at work, Marthe is taking a little nap and then will go for a 2-hour Feldenkrais training session tonight. I will pack, and tomorrow morning we are going on a short beach walk before I pack and Marthe takes me to Boston Logan Airport, when I leave a bit past 4:00 p.m. and arrive in Dallas at ca. 7:30 p.m.
On Facebook, I will post a few photos from yesterday’s get-together. Otherwise, this is the last blog I am writing until July 23, when I am off for the last segment of my travels this year: St. Petersburg and St. Augustine, Florida, with Nancy and Jim—good friends of longstanding. I will be staying there until August 4. Meanwhile, hello and goodbye to one and all of you! As ever, Sylvia
I am writing you from a cafe/bookstore in Belmont, Massachusetts this morning, Monday, July 22. I was going to write you yesterday, but the weather was so hot (even in New England!!) and the tempo so listless that I gave up and read, played Scrabble, “Stadt, Land, Fluss” (a type of German categories game translated to English and resembling the American game Scattergories), and finally croquet outside with Owen and then with Owen and Norah, Marthe and Josh’s grandchildren. Before they came in mid-afternoon, Marthe, Josh and I watched the first installment of her photos made in India during her textile trip there in February of this year. Later on in the day she gave me an elegant, stunning, dark blue/muted gold shawl she had purchased in India.
Otherwise, we prepared a lovely dinner of quiche, German potato salad, and green salad. The point was to turn on the oven as little as possible. By the time Owen and Norah left at 7:30 p.m., the rest of the us resorted to cooling off by standing in the little plastic children’s pool we had dragged out for Owen and Norah. Eventually, the mosquitoes became over-anxious for our hides, and we decided to call it a day by about 9:30. I am in the middle of a gripping best-seller novel Hart recommended to me (“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens), so I cranked up the window air conditioner in my room and proceeded to read until midnight.
By this morning the excessive humidity was a thing of the past. The high temperature today looks to be about 75, and that gladdens the heart, mind, and spirit significantly. Marthe is at an appointment in Belmont, while I have been here at the bookstore. I have bought Marthe a thank you gift—a 1,000+ page tome called “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson—winner of a 1994 Pulitzer Prize. She and Josh have shown me an extraordinary time while I have been with them!
On the way home, Marthe and I took a short stop in Burlington to visit Eileen Fisher, Talbots, and Ann Taylor Loft stores to check the sales. Now we are back in S. Hamilton, and it is 4:00 p.m. Josh is still at work, Marthe is taking a little nap and then will go for a 2-hour Feldenkrais training session tonight. I will pack, and tomorrow morning we are going on a short beach walk before I pack and Marthe takes me to Boston Logan Airport, when I leave a bit past 4:00 p.m. and arrive in Dallas at ca. 7:30 p.m.
On Facebook, I will post a few photos from yesterday’s get-together. Otherwise, this is the last blog I am writing until July 23, when I am off for the last segment of my travels this year: St. Petersburg and St. Augustine, Florida, with Nancy and Jim—good friends of longstanding. I will be staying there until August 4. Meanwhile, hello and goodbye to one and all of you! As ever, Sylvia
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