Where has the summer gone? June slipped away from me and suddenly it’s the end of July, and I haven’t written to you since my birthday! The last two months have passed in a blur of museum work, gardening, writing, and visitors. We’ve gone from misty spring to high summer in the blink of an eye.
Image Description: Our red dirt lane bordered by lilacs and chestnut blossoms back in June. Indian River Church surrounded by lupines. The first sunflower against the evening sky.
The cats seem a bit flustered by all the activity we’ve had around here, but maybe I’m projecting.
Image Description: Bruce and Monty cuddling. The Contessa on her throne.
Reading
Life has once again gotten in the way of me reading all the things I want to find time to read, but I do have a few recommendations! I did a summer YA roundup for NPR that included three books about girls who undergo a metamorphosis, and you can read it here.
I also inhaled three audio books by Talia Hibbert - Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Take a Hint, Dani Brown, and Act Your Age, Eve Brown. The Brown Sisters are all delightfully messy and loveable, and so are their sweethearts. I also really appreciate the representations of neurodiversity and disability in these books.
Image Description: Posed with a sword from the Museum Foundation’s collection.
I re-read The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian for the Beaconsfield Book Club: Queer Historical Romance Society, and had such a lovely time revisiting this favorite of mine and discussing it with new friends. I’ve reviewed it in the newsletter before, so I won’t go on about it, but if you enjoy highwaymen, people fighting the system in a historical context, and two prickly cupcakes falling in love, this is for you!
And while it hasn’t quite been released yet, I can’t resist telling you about a new novella from T. Kingfisher, who is one of my current favorite authors! This retelling of Sleeping Beauty does that modern thing of asking, what if the baddie was actually the hero? That premise can be a hard sell for me these days, but Thornhedge does it with such a gentle love for the source material and a wry sense of humor that I could not resist its charms.
Image Description: Tucked in among the wild roses.
Interpreting
I’ve spent the summer running around to different museum sites and telling stories. The Yeo House has continued to provide regular adventures – including my very own strange encounter within its reportedly haunted walls! If you want to know what happened, you can listen to me tell the story here.
Image Description: The Yeo House, looking very innocent. Beaconsfield House decorated with garden flowers for Book Club.
One of the things I love about my job is that every day is different. Today, for example, I was mixing blueberries, sugar, and apple cider vinegar to make shrub to serve at Beaconsfield’s 50th Anniversary next weekend! It’s equal parts of all three ingredients – first you let the blueberries and sugar sit for 24 hours to get juicy. Then you strain the mixture and add the vinegar. The resulting syrup can be mixed with sparkling water, soda, or plain water – I’ll be serving it on the lawn in my new Edwardian costume, so if you’re local, come by and try some!
Image Description: Taking my new costume, immaculately made by a Ukrainian Etsy seller called Gibson Girl Dress, for a spin underneath a dramatic sky.
Crafting
Doing Wreath of the Month during the summer feels so decadent coming out of the winter months. There’s an embarrassment of blooms to choose from, and I feel like I can lean more heavily on their inherent beauty and less on a clever concept. June here on the Island is the time of lupines and lilacs.
Image Description: Lupine crown in the golden hour. A bouquet of lupines and lilacs.
For July, I wanted to try working with a plant that’s a new one to me this year – Cerinthe (more commonly known as honeywort). It’s a Mediterranean plant with blue-tinged foliage and little pink bell-shaped flowers. The bees absolutely love it – in fact, the name Cerinthe comes from the Greek word for waxen, because the ancient Greeks believed that bees extracted wax from it to build their hives!
Image Description: Me in my Edwardian costume, walking the farm’s laneway. More of the same. Capturing Nadine, one of our naughty escaping chickens!
Gardening
The transformation that the garden undergoes from the beginning of June to the end of July never ceases to amaze me. In early June, I always despair, feeling like things are never going to take off and the pests have overwhelmed me and the garden will be a failure. Then I’m always wrong!
Image Description: The veggie garden in early June, late June, and late July.
We ate lettuce, kale, broccolini, radishes, peas, garlic scapes, potatoes, and lots of herbs. There have been many bouquets, and the cut flower bed is just getting started in earnest!
Image Description: Harvest. A garden view. The garden flowers of June and July.The first bouquet from the cutting garden!
I hope that your summer has been likewise filled with both bounty and beauty. Until next time, wishing you the best books and the most berry-full brambles,
Caitlyn
I write this from the traditional unceded territory known as Mi’kma’ki. Two books by Indigenous authors that I really enjoyed recently are To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose and Saints of the Household by Ari Tison.
(All opinions expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not represent my employer.)
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