• BBQs with friends
  

  Hotdogs
  
  
• fireflies
  

  Firefly
• evening thunderstorms, especially if there is heat lightning
  

  Boston-storm
• the sound of cicadas
  

  Cicadas
  
  
• the beach (although I have yet to go this year, sigh)
  

  Cranes beach
  
  
• sangria
  

  Sangria
• books books and more books to read
  

  Stack o books
• ice cream
  

  Ice cream
• champagne grapes
  

  Champagne grapes

It's a short one when you aren't a kid and have to work for a living. Joe and I are wrapping up a nice few days in the Berkshires doing mostly nothing other than relaxing, drinking and eating, something I have desperately needed after such a stressful week at work and worrying about my father. He's doing okay...we're hoping that he'll go home from the hospital today. When I talk to him he's been in good spirits. His father and brother arrived in town yesterday and I know that really pleased him.

Over the last few days we did hit up Mass MOCA, which is one of our favorite museums. It's always been a source of some of my best photographs but I'm sad that they have signs up all over about no photographs now, mostly because of this idiot. Still, I managed to get a few subversive shots, both by artist Spencer Finch.

Sunlight in an Empty Room (Passing Cloud for Emily Dickinson, Amherst, MA, August 28, 2004)

You know it's summer when the ladybugs want to come help you with your laptop:

But don't mess with them or they'll tell you how they really feel:

Leaving a warning trail

Yesterday we hit up the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park for a picnic and afternoon of art exploration. One of the artists, Nina Levy, had two sculptures upstairs on the roof terrace. Both are equally creepy and are pictured here.
Nina Levy: Headlong and Big Baby. The frustrating thing is that if I had looked down when taking the big head above me picture, I would have found money...instead the couple after us that wandered over found it. My missed opportunity!

I also figured out how to finally use the Macro feature on my camera. Only had it for 6 months now.... YAY ME!

What's the strongest association you have between a scent and a memory?

When I was a child, my grandparents lived in Burley, ID on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Snake River.

Flowering Russian Olive

Out back, right along the ridge, was a beautiful Russian Olive tree that helped frame the incredible view from their backyard. It had the most wonderful scent in the spring and summer and whenever I have the good fortune to drive by a field with one of these pretty silvery trees, I think of Papa and Grandma, their big house, Penelope the St. Bernard, Little Paw the kitty and hundreds of summer images that come to mind.

1. riding on the lawn mower with my grandpa
2. popsicles
3. avoiding the sticker weeds that sometimes came up in the lawn--thousands of tiny little stickers
4. rhubarb growing in the garden
5. the long rugged path down the canyon to the boat dock
6. running through the sprinkler
7. popsicles
8. beautiful gorgeous sunsets every single night
9. equally incredible thunderstorms that would sweep through in the space of a half-hour then be gone
10. playing statues, hide & seek, jarts, badminton, tag and more
11. splashing in the wading pool (when we were really young)
12. performing elaborate musicals and "plays" for our relatives
13. BBQ, corn on the cob...watermelon
    
14. watermelon seed spitting contests

I don't smell those trees much since I moved to the East...but every once in a long while, on the way back from the beach, we'll pass a farm and I'll smell that tree and immediately I'm transported to a very happy time and very happy place.

A month or so ago Joe and I took a trip up to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH. The Museum captures the lives of historic New Englanders with working artisans and restored homes from four centuries. Part of Strawbery Banke includes the Dunaway Tavern, whose chef, Mary Dumont, was recently named by Food & Wine Magazine as one of the top ten new chefs of 2006.

While I was there, I tried a really refreshing drink that was sort of like a lemon mojito but with ginger beer. At home, I was looking for a way to recreate something similiar and came across two recipes that looked good...the Ginger Rogers and the Shady Grove. I smashed them together and came up with my own cocktail! I should sell it to some chi-chi joint and make a killing but well, I'll share it with you instead. This is an awesome summer drink. You REALLY need to get ginger beer for it--way better than ginger ale.

Ginger Rogers in a Shady Grove
Scaled for 1 serving(s) and 48.0 oz pitcher

• Fill highball glass with ice
• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• Fill with ginger beer (or ginger ale but it's not quite as good)
• Fresh mint, limes

Pitcher

• Fill pitcher with ice
• 8 oz gin
• 4 oz lime juice
• 1 oz sugar
• Fresh mint, limes
• Fill with ginger beer (or ginger ale)
• Serve in highball glasses