Yea, hey, out of this world news! Corn season is officially open here at Raven Ranch! No joke Bwana! We got into a dozen ears yesterday at tapas to start the season officially.
This is the Sugar Buns variety ripening which is impressive with it’s earliness. It is tender and very delicate. It will run about two weeks til it peters out. The next variety Bodacious will be ready, of course God willing, for the Veranda party. This is a perfect example of alperfect!
And as long as we are talking corn 🌽, the final variety Golden Jubilee, bigger and better than anything, like third gear, will come along. What a show, almost better than the fireworks on the Fourth of July!
OK, preparations proceed for the Veranda party. People are asking how they can help and I am assigning things for them to do. I am going to drop all other duties here pretty quick so I can concentrate on it. Oh boy!
Monday morning walk coming up. Where are my shoes?
It rained last night and this morning so uncharacteristically hard. Not the usual just settle the dust rain but a serious rainfall. Wow. Noon now and the sky is still cloudy.
Back from Bible Guys and head still spinning with that wisdom. We finished the last chapter in First John. Oh, I had a correction to some I said the other day about the Apostle John. He indeed was imprisoned on a Greek Island but the right answer is Patmos and not Samos. Not that that makes a whole lot of difference but we have to make an attempt at accuracy around here.
So, My Rebecca is getting all pumped for her event on Wednesday evening. This is the launch of her new novel That One Day in August. That happening is at the Vashon Book Store right in lovely downtown Vashon on August 12th. I don’t have the time on that but it is evening 6 or 7 PM. Come down and support her, let’s pack the place!
Off I go to lunch and work. Glad to connect with you once more. Stop by for the walk and tapas tomorrow, will be serving fresh corn 🌽!
Dangerous Barrettes Part Two was a blogpost from Good Friday 2017, ancient history in the uncharted jungle of Caminoheads. Catalina our good friend and art historian wizard is bravely reading her way through past material and searching for nuggets of Camino wisdom in there. I am sure that she will find some good stuff but it is mixed in with so much flotsam and jetsam of daily life.
It would have been beneficial for this kind of a search if I would have put posts in categories as is possible. But two things seemed to have hindered me from doing that over the five years and two thousand posts. One was that it took all of my concentration to produce the content and I didn’t want to get distracted from that. And two it was all so subjective and I had no idea where things were going as time progressed. If I had the time and energy it would be possible for me to go back and do that now I suppose.
Anyway, Catalina seems undaunted in her quest. The purpose of all this rigmarole is to write a chapter about Phil’s Camino for her new book. This has been in the works for a while and the deadline is coming up so hopefully we will be reading all about it soon.
But the phrase “Dangerous Barrettes” brings back memories of time in the chemo chair and writing the blog from there on Wednesday or Friday mornings during my scheduled times for infusions. Writing from the hospital is tough because I would try to be upbeat with my post and the place just isn’t generally conducive to that. But I would look hard to report something that was positive and interesting. Maybe the weather was doing something interesting out the window. Maybe there was a Seattle Seahawks flag flying in the distance. Maybe there was a fat little hummingbird hanging around trying to winter over just like I was trying to get by. Maybe someone would say something that would spark an idea or it would come from a book or magazine that I was reading. It was a challenge to come up with something in that sterile environment. But in this case two nurses were walking by my chair gabbing away about something non work related when one used that phrase “dangerous barrettes”. A least I think that is what I think she said and it was quirky enough to catch my attention and inspire me. You never know where an idea will come from.
OK, good luck to Catalina then as she journeys through our Caminoheads territory. Enter at your own risk, right?
Pic from Visual Delights on Vashon. Thanks to the photographer.
Gosh, I am running late and just started writing. But forging ahead as usual. Had a nice visit yesterday from some old friends of My Rebecca’s. That made me happy.
I am thinking about all the thoughts and notions about love from my Bible class uncovered this last Saturday. The chapter was the 4th chapter of First John. All about how love works. It’s about how God loves us and how to return that love and how we need to one one another.
In this blog over the years I have had numerous posts about how the Camino works and how it works in me and in us. And we all know this. We know because we drank of that wine. We may have a hard time explaining what happened there but we know that something significant did happen there.
John goes a long way in explaining these things. This is his blog from the end of the first century AD. He does a nice job. It is as relevant now as it was then. This is one remarkable thing about the Bible, how it stays current. It’s timeless stuff.
John was the last of the Apostles. The only one not to die a martyr’s death. He lived out his days on the Greek Island of Samos, a Roman penal colony. And he wrote these inspired letters for the fledgling church and for us.
Walking here in a few minutes. Time to join the salon of thoughts, ideas and laughs at Phil’s Camino.
Yesterday was our afternoon walk and tapas and we had five pilgrims partake. We did it up right too. Catherine and Dana, Jim and Jen and Henriette we’re here. So, great to have good weather and be out at the tapas table and comfortable.
We are getting closer to the end of this “walk across” Spain. We are slowing down so you all can join us and we can walk in together at the Veranda. So most days I have been doing two laps instead of my usual three which is OK in this heat.
Things are working out for the Veranda. Folks are checking in and making arrangements. The excitement is building! Our daughter and family have vacated the ranch so we can concentrate on our shindig.
I am running late today so I will let you go. Hope that things are fine with you.
I’ve spent way too much time with these three items this morning. Not that they didn’t deserve it being the three wonderful items that they are. I wish I had more time for them. But I am handing them off to you because there is something important here. And these aren’t necessarily in the right order. They are related but one doesn’t really come first.
Here is this young fellow sitting on a bucket in an alley playing a guitar too big for him maybe. But play it he does, mightily. And sing he does, mightily, with a voice that can’t quite catch up to his talent. Long but amazing. I am moved. Nothing else matters while he performs:
Yea, the first dozen ears of Sugar Buns sweet corn was picked and consumed last evening. It was substantially under ripe but I was rushing it for our guests who are leaving today. But we enjoyed it despite that. Maybe it needs another week.
With all this celebration I want to acknowledge the tragedies that have blossomed over the last days. We will pray for all those families and pray for us. Our summer is marred. Togetherness is called for.
Here are a few pics from dinner last night which beside the corn featured pesto and green beans from My Rebecca’s garden:
Soaking the ears before going on the grill.On a wood fire.Freda and Osian, naked kids at the dinner table.Corn!And more corn!Watching an owl at dusk, Tesia and Freya.Owl moon, high summer.
Just in case you are not local or you are not a FaceBook friend My Rebecca has published her first book! This is tremendous exciting and fun to witness. My wife the author.
The local book store is out of copies but wait there is Amazon! I just looked it up and it is appearing by searching for “Rebecca Graves”. For some reason the title That One Day in August will not get you there. But that is less typing, look at it that way. And by the way it is being published by Raven Ranch Press, new and up and coming.
I’m calling her the new Betty MacDonald who lived on Vashon back in mid twentieth century and wrote The Egg and I and Onions in the Stew. They were both about small town Pacific Northwest life. Oh and by the way Betty’s house is now a bed and breakfast place and you can stay there. Just in case you want to come and visit us and have that experience.
All pretty exciting stuff. Summer continues on here also. I am keeping a close eye on the corn waiting for a half a dozen ripe ears to arrive. Went to Mass this morning a came back with a gift zucchini. We had our first red tomato. The blackberries have started. Pickles are being made. The whole cornucopia of August is about ready to gush.
Well, lunch time for me. And we have a walk at 1600. Very cool and alperfect.
There were ten of us this morning that showed up for our Teleios Bible Class or Bible Guys as I call it. I gave the lesson which was guiding my friends through a chapter which was First John chapter 4. We are working on some of the shorter books which were originally letters, communications.
I’m pretty proud of myself because the guys thought I did an “excellent job”. Well OK! I do spend hours preparing so that is a good payoff. Well, another payoff is that a guy really gets to know a chapter after preparing and worrying about it.
I have to break in on this to say that an old high school buddy just called me so I had to talk to him. He found me on FaceBook. I hadn’t talk to him since 1965 or ‘66. Wow!
Back to First John. This is an area that Rev Bonnie Barnard preached on several weeks ago. It is about the ins and outs of love, God loving us first and then our love for each other. It is if as John now an old man has distilled this down to the really important stuff.
Well, it’s lunch time here for Felipé. I’ve got a haircut and an archery lesson this afternoon so time to get in gear. Thanks so much for checking in here.
