High Midsummer

I feel and see the tide of High Midsummer (my name for the spoke on the wheel of the year commonly called Lughnasadh) is upon us. Yes, the uber heat spell has passed (thankfully and hopefully it will NOT return to Maine) .  It is time to water the garden and we have been putting up wood, but there is change in the air. Even K asked, while grilling this week, "When does fall come here?" as he had noticed "something has changed." And it has.

The sun is not QUITE so early to rise now. I notice this because, for the past couple of months, I have not needed to light a lamp when the alarm calls me from my bed at 4... but now, even on days with no clouds blocking the first light, it's dark enough that a lamp is needed at least when I arise. And driving to work at 5, I do not have the full might of Old Brazen Face staring at me over the horizon.

My thoughts turn to fall plantings, hope for a good harvest of the crops in the field, and the projects that must be done before we button up for winter have taken on new urgency.

So the tide cometh. Hail to Sunna and to the Earth which brings forth bounty for our table.

First Annual Central Maine Business Expo

I committed a while ago to attend the First Annual Central Maine Business Expo in Newport, ME, representing both Dutch Hex Sign and Vision IPD, my design studio business.

Now the expo, which happens on Saturday, is almost upon us! On top of an atypical 6 day work week at my part time job, I need to build 18 digital files to print/assemble and mount on poster board to fit into the 18 display squares on the two, three-sided display columns that I rescued a few months ago from the trash stream at Best  Buy. Also am planning to run a power point presentation on the computer, with the laptop powering one of the two large computer monitors for better viewing. Have to build that, too.

And, of course there are still hex orders to fill (one, a 3' custom sign, I will take to the expo, partly completed, as part of my display). And the garden is calling for attention. We have a wonderful cool day after a couple of really hot weeks and I long to be out in the garden but the display materials won't build themselves. I'll knock out as much as I can this afternoon then hit the garden after supper to pick and inspect, and if time permits, weed and fertilize a bit. As of today the forecast is for tolerable temperatures for the next week, so once the expo is out of the way I will focus a bit more on the garden.

Twelve day Work-in-Town Marathon

This is day 4 of what will prove to be a 12 day marathon of work-in-town. My part time job which was never really supposed to be fewer days, just fewer hours) has added some more Friday work days, and this week not given any mid-day off. Adding to that, I am doing a business expo for my design and art business on Saturday, then do a (thankfully just) 5 day work week following. They have posted the following two weeks schedules and they are just regular 5 day weeks.

Adding to the stress, we have had more than typically hot days and not quite cool enough muggy nights. I suffer from summer seasonal depression, so I have begun my St Johns Wart again, hoping to head off the major blahs.

On the good news front, I am mostly caught up with hex orders... just one 3' on the bench and likely a couple of 2's will be ordered soon (custom signs, I have been in design negotiation with the potential customers) keeping the flow going but not drowning me.
Also for now (hear that loud knocking on wood?) the fowl seem to be staying in their pens, both hens and ducks. Baby ducks have gotten big enough to no longer be able to fit through the snow fence holes. The very tall grass is almost all down and their pens are being moved weekly or so onto new ground. The hens don't like the demise of the tall grass, though. It made it very hard to place their pen, but gave them cover in which they liked to lay their eggs. Now they are back to laying in their summer shelter/tent and I need to remember to take my cane with me to pull the eggs within reach, or pull the tent back to reach the eggs.

Out of the Past, Out of the Blue

Normally, my past STAYS there... in the past. Oh, occasionally something will bring out a brief memory of an event or a person, remembered with some fondness perhaps... or less ... or even with pretty even neutrality. I seldom deliberately revisit the past, more than the past year, and even that is on landmark personal occasions. One is coming up soon; we moved onto our land in mid-August, 4 years ago. That brings up memories of the first garden tilling, in September, by a hired tractor guy, the "first year garden" which got totally lost in the weeds and yet yielded a surprise lot of carrots and potatoes and other goodies when I could hunt them down... and last year's freak July 4 hailstorm that pretty much totaled it all. I'm fairly connected to the land and many of my memories are rooted there.

But people... they flow and eddy around me like leaves in a stream mostly. I honestly connect with very few and, considering that some folks I know are still in contact with -- daily even -- and friends with folks from their childhood it would appear that my connections are more typically on the other end in length.  I do not have the foggiest idea of where my grade school friends are; I last saw one when I was in college and we discovered nothing in common on that visit. I have a good guess where my best friend from high school is, but I did not see him for years after we graduated and went different directions. We reconnected briefly in the 80s, and drifted apart again after that. I generally do not succumb to curiosity to try to search out old acquaintances on the Internet like many folks do, whether they follow up with a contact or not. I do not regret my past or the people in it, but they were then, and this is now.

When then was now, I was focused there. Life was full and busy and interesting. Now, I am still focused in the present, which remains full, busy and interesting. Some threads weave in and out along the warp of my life; growing things, building things, digging in the earth, working with fiber, spinning, weaving, sewing, cooking, self-reliance and thrift. Most of those threads, though, beyond cooking, self-reliance and thrift, have not even been constant. I lived in the city without growing things until I rediscovered house and windowsill plants, for example. I have not sewn, other than to mend, for a year or more -- though I think that will change soon as I need things I cannot find.  Other "passions of the time" have gone by the wayside. I no longer sit up into the wee hours of the night in hopes of catching a celestial event; if it doesn't happen at dusk or dawn, chances are good I'll miss it. I don't chase UFOs or write poems or articles... Will some of those threads pick they way back into the weave? Maybe the Norns know, but I do not.

People from the past, well they stay in the chapter in which they were written. typically. Until now.

Last week I got a cryptic email from someone with the (relatively common) first and last name of my first husband, from the early 70s. The mail came into my hex business account, along with another the same day from someone who found my old business listing on WitchVox. I know the source of the latter, because it is a blind forward though that web site, for security. The other did not reference our connection or my art, just a desire to meet when he arrived in Maine in a week.

I have a habit of replying to brief critic emails in like fashion (just ask K about our first email exchange some time!  LOL) but not sure if this was actually the person I knew or someone with an accidentally identical name who might be looking to commission a hex sign, I tried to be polite. I still do not know how he made the connection, though I was doing hexen, though in batik, back in that time period. I am honestly not sure I will ask, though I have agreed to meet with him and his wife in Bangor day after tomorrow (Wednesday) at Nicky's Diner. Even if the house and farm were in order, I do not want to bring the past into this space. No, there is no baggage nor animosity and there was none at the time; we just didn't work out... young folks who got married and found we had little of substance in common, I guess. We parted amicably and that was that.

I have no desire to regain contact; I will not venture to share much of substance of my current life, ask after his connectivity on social media or the like. We will have lunch, I'll politely wish them a good brief visit to my new home state and that will be that.