May the long time sun shine upon you ...

You know those summer weekends that are chock-full of good things and you try to be fully present, and capture the essence of it at all at the same time? Sometimes my impulse to keep a camera up to my eye seems to interfere on being fully present. I remember the advice of an inspiring photo instructor: 1) Have your camera with you at all times. and 2) Leave your camera behind sometimes.

While the two pieces of advice might seem contrary at first, if you think it over a bit, it makes total sense. 

Remembering Saturday

After a night of celebrating a friend's birthday here, is there anything better than spending a morning at a place like Glacier Ridge and just walking around, taking in a little nature? Perhaps only one thing, and that's following it up with a breakfast of heuvos rancheros.

Happy Father's Day!

When I was five years old, on a fine summer Sunday morning, my father and I went for a walk on a dirt road in the woods. I had on my yellow striped polyester shirt and matching yellow shorts; he had on his straw fedora and plaid shorts. He would hold my hand, and when he saw something of interest, he would bend down and point it out to me. Nothing remarkable happened, but it was memorable in ways that grown people have flashbacks of their childhood; of simpler times.

I spent this weekend at Lake Erie with my in-laws. It was equally tranquil and had the same effect. With nothing to do but have wine and cheese, stare at the lake and enjoy lengthy conversations, I couldn't ask for a more delightful weekend. It's nice to know that simpler times aren't always in the past.

I couldn't share my birthday with two more wonderful men. Happy Father's Day Gilbert and Jim!

More Food

Today is my sister Marie's birthday. An adventurer with an open mind and an open heart, she is also my friend. Marie, I made you a brownie. Happy birthday!

I'm also still getting ready for my final photography project. I had intended to shoot a lot of food over the weekend, starting with the brownies. I tried a "guilt-free" recipe, and when they emerged from the oven, I decided that the words guilt-free and brownies just don't belong in the same sentence. Rather than brownies, I made chocolate crackers. A second (very guilty) batch proved much more sanguine.

In any case, you can see my weekend diet was interesting.

Voyant

This is a glass of Voyant Chai Cream Liqueur. It is made with aged Virgin Island rum, fresh Dutch cream, black tea from India, and premium spirits from Holland. It is liquid dessert. And today is the birthday of my dear friend and sister, Carol. She is insanely talented and always inspiring, and I couldn't have been more blessed in being born into a family of such amazing women. Please raise your glass - whatever is in it - with me, and wish her a magical birthday!

Keep Them Hungry

Let me preface my story with a little habit of mine. Whenever I'm on the road, I look up for hawks. When I'm on a long trip with my husband, I count the number of hawks I spot. I love hawks. Knowing they have only a 75% survival rate in the wild makes me appreciate them even more.

Over a year ago, I had the privilege of going to the Greenbrier, the oldest spa/resort in the country. Nestled in the Alleghenies in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, what began before the Civil War as a few cabins surrounding some natural springs of sulfur water for the fashionable set to ‘take the cure’ has exploded into a palatial resort with golf courses, restaurants, an artists’ colony, miles of walking paths, a retired underground bunker for the federal government, a television set for a grilling show, culinary arts classes, and a spa with every treatment known to (wo)man.

During my visit, on my birthday, I took a lesson in falconry. Known as the ‘Sport of Kings,’ medieval nobles (before the invention of firearms) would train hawks to partner with them in hunting for rabbits and wild fowl. They would release the bird from a cage and allow them to perch on a tree with a good view of the field or forest. When the bird spotted an animal, it would lunge down onto the prey, perhaps even kill it. The hunter would intervene before the bird had a chance to devour the prey, and trick the bird into thinking he’d eaten a piece of the animal by giving it a small piece of meat from his pocket before the hawk fully realized what had happened.
As we made our way to the cages where various birds of prey were resting peacefully, there was excitement as the trainer opened the door to the cage. All of the birds started to scream, “Pick ME! Pick ME!’ in hopes of a shot at doing some pretend-hunting with the trainer. He chose a Harris’ Hawk, a rather large creature as far as birds go, but only weighing in at two pounds of pure muscle, bone and feather.

Harris’ Hawks can be found in the southwest of the United States, and often hunt in pairs or groups, which accounts for their popularity in falconry. They see the falconer as a partner in hunting.

My question during this lesson, “Why don’t the hawks fly away?” I was told that they rather enjoy these exercises. When the trainer held his leather-gloved arm out, he would flick up a small piece of meat with his thumb and the hawk would fly in from whatever perch it was resting on. Apparently he liked the regular meals.

As the trainer worked with the bird, allowing him to fly out to a tall tree across the field and calling him back by raising his gloved arm and flicking a small piece of meat, it seemed these two had a rather special relationship. I was surprised to learn that raptors never become attached to humans the way a pet parakeet does. They are motivated by one thing and one thing only—food. The bird will respond in the way it has been trained only when it's hungry. Release a raptor with a full stomach and you may never see it again.

Each of us in the lesson was allowed a few turns at bringing the hawk in. The feeling of such a bird flying at you with the momentum of a bullet and then perching on your arm is indescribable.

Finally, still confused about why the bird keeps coming back, I persisted in my question. The trainer answered, “You keep them just a little hungry.”

Birthday Poem

June surrounds us like a green sea,
The harvest of accumulated
Tasks and errands; of a sprinkler arching
Beads of light over potted plants and mowed lawns,
When nesting birds feed their clamorous young
On worms and bugs caught mid-air.
The daffodil has withered
Beneath the hosta, whose leaves spread
In a victorious gesture like arms embracing summer.

Here, I sit, insatiable,
As passionate as a fast or a prayer,
Forgetting the years as I breathe in
The subtle scent of a summer night,
Mentally marking the moments
To store like snapshots in an album
In this season I hold
Most dear in my heart.

How soon we allow ourselves
To reap and exhaust the rich rewards
Of all our sanguine toil.
We make appointments and arrangements
Spending our innocent future,
Trading past pleasures and duties
For pursuit and desire
Like a tree endlessly blossoming.

Little Birds

My apologies if I sound like a tacky chain email, but upon turning 40, I’ve realized a few things that have helped me over the years and I thought I’d share. My unsolicited advice on getting on in life:

1. Find something you are passionate about and master it.
2. Learn how to mamba. Or bake bread. Or fly a plane. Or play chess, or play the saxophone, or knit, or paint, or write, or speak French. Keep learning things, and whether you make a living from these things or not, they will be your dear friends throughout life.
3. Do something a little scary every day. Step out of your comfort zone. Paint a room magenta. Introduce yourself to someone you admire. Sing in your car. Apply for a job that’s a little out of your league. Write a screenplay.
4. Keep a few friends who are your friends because they like you, not because they want something from you.
5. Buy a garment you can’t really afford and wear it when you need a little boost. Whether it’s a leather jacket, a killer pair of boots, or a fancy hat – putting it on will change your perspective.
6. Be generous and honest with compliments.
7. Think with your head and feel with your heart, and make decisions accordingly. Had I learned this ten years earlier than I did, I could have saved myself an endless amount of pain.
8. Make friends with people who are better than you are at something or other and learn from them.
9. Look people in the eye when you talk with them.
10. Laugh out loud at least once every day.
    
    And keep these few lines I’ve borrowed from ee cummings in your mind:
    
    may my heart always be open to little
    birds who are the secrets of living
    whatever they sing is better than to know
    and if men should not hear them men are old
    
    may my mind stroll about hungry
    and fearless and thirsty and supple
    and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
    for whenever men are right they are not young