morning edition

Cousin Jon Loomis is on NPR's Morning Edition this morning, talking about his books High Season and Mating Season, which are set in Provincetown here on Cape Cod. Hear the interview with Linda Werthheimer and read more about it here.

nye house preservation

I thought you'd all be interested in reading about the recent preservation of the Nye House, our ancestral family homestead located in East Sandwich here on Cape Cod. There was a good article in this morning's Cape Cod Times.

If you've forgotten how we're related to the Nyes, you can see the family tree on my old webpage:

• Generations of the Leonard Family
• The Deserted Farm -- A Poem

And here's a link to the Nye Family website:
Nye Family of America's website

Mom recently donated several Nye family artifacts to the Nye Association, so they'll be in good hands in their newly preserved home.

don't take my picture

Dear Mom:

If you won't let me take a picture of you swimming in your pond, I'll just have to take pictures of other things. I must say that you have a very photogenic dustpan. I took a few others while I was there, including the swallow's nest after we cleaned out the nesting box. You can see the pictures here. Thanks for a great lunch, delicious dessert, a refreshing swim, and a lovely afternoon.

xxoo lucy

when life hands you sumac, make pink lemonade

I went walking on a newly established set of trails in Marstons Mills last weekend. The Danforth Trails start on Race Lane, wind under the road, behind the airfield, and then head west through an amazing sumac grove and fields before meeting up with trails in Otis Atwood and West Barnstable Conservation areas.

The Sumac grove is magical because you're able to walk under the canopy and feel like your'e a kid all over again. The young plants come up with pink fuzzy stems which I found really charming, and later in the season you can use the flower heads to make a sort of pink lemonade. Find the recipe here.

You can see photos of the walk on my flickr photo page.

fourth

When I was in fifth grade, I wrote my only patriotic poem (this was 1967, in California, right before I fell under the spell of the peace movement.) It started, embarrassingly, like this:

Give me liberty or give me death,
Said Patrick Henry from his royal breath,
He talks about the Battle of Bunker Hill,
O when, O when, O when will the battle ever stop.
If we wish to be free we must fight,
Don't just stand there and say you might,
Stand up and say you WILL,
fight the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Oh dear. It went on for several more stanzas in an equally 5th grade sort of way.

Anyway, like many Americans born of a certain generation, I struggle with the concept of patriotism. Every year on the 4th of July, I get great pleasure watching our little village parades, and seeing the fireworks, and gathering together with people I love. But I still feel conflicted by the references to US military-might and American swagger.

I feel like these little girls in the Barnstable Village parade yesterday worked out a happy balance:

In a sea of red white and blue, this girl marched in the parade wearing yellow.



Or this girl, who did the whole red, white, blue (and pink) thing, but wore her peace sign necklace. Also, for her, it was mostly about the candy.


See more parade pictures and other recent photos on my flickr photostream.