I’m sure you all know what I mean by Hot Hot Hot 😳 … but I thought I would give you something ELSE to think about . . . maybe blow some ocean wind your way . . . with some MUSICA ❤️ FOR 
GUESS WHAT???
GOOD NEWS!
While it’s only 2023, and I’m hard at work on the 2025 Calendars, the 2024 Calendars have arrived! YAY!! Somehow it all makes sense! Was counting the years the other day … my first calendar came out in 1993… I’ve been keeping track of our days for a long time, 10,950 days so far, not counting leap years!!!🌸
We can add another 365 days to the tally with this new 12 x 12 Wall Calendar . . . to put some cute in your kitchen and remind you and your children of life before phones!😂 You probably remember, the manufacturer ran out last year which meant some of you didn’t get your calendar. That rarely happens, but we never know! Hopefully it won’t happen again, but do make sure if it matters, if you do want one, or if you’re planning for Christmas, you put your name on it.😘
And the others are all here too, the large Desk Blotter Calendar, the 7 x 7″ Mini, and the Purse Calendar, all in and ready to go. Click on that link to see more… Hope you LOVE them!❤️
Most importantly on any calendar, be sure not to simply plan for dentist appointments, you have to put fun on your calendar … and here’s why . . .
Taking my own advice . . . Joe and I love going out at night . . . watching the summer sun go down . . .
I’ve been keeping my little vases filled with flowers from the garden . . .
When I’m doing “gratitude” … I always include this tiny shelf in my kitchen over the sink. It was here when we came, Mr. Bowditch built it in the 1950s for Mrs. Bowditch! What a good boy he was! Perfect for tiny vases! I’m wondering if she used it for cough medicine, prescriptions, salt and pepper, and dish soap, or if like me, it was filled with beach glass, candles, shells, daisies, and Beatrix Potter!?!
I’m working a lot right now . . . but when I’m not … life is always about the little things!💖 The ones that make life worth living. The MINUTE I finished the new wall calendar last night, I went to the garden and changed all the flowers in the little vases. First thing’s first.
We go early now on our walk through the woods to the sea . . . and try to get out before the heat or the bugs begin to attack! We each carry an old dishtowel, and when needed, we twirl them over our heads, or fling them over our backs to deter all bugs with a bad attitude. Works well!
We need to go here for the exercise, for me to get the circles closed on my demanding, pushy watch, and for the cool refreshingness of being near the water . . .
Also, Books!!! Our walk now means books!!! This is the book we’re listening to now… it’s based on history, but not a true story … 22 year old Girl enlists in the Revolutionary War disguised as a 16 year old boy. If she looked like the girl on the cover, I don’t think she would get away with it! Interesting to get “You are there” details of that war in such a descriptive way. It’s action-packed, horses, and officers, West Point, attacks in the woods, sneaky traitors cross-country travel . . . We’re not done, but we can see there is a love story coming up!
Then home through the neighborhoods . . . I just wanted to show you this pretty, leafy, old street… worth going home the long way!
We stopped at a yard sale . . .
We bought that dresser behind the chair! Handmade, beautiful, and old, and only $200. Needed it. The dresser I use is like my brother’s dresser when he was in the 4th grade. Maple and really small. I’m getting a “new one”!👏👏👏 Joe just left to pick it up! Then we have to enlist someone to help him get it upstairs, which is when I take over! I don’t understand why anyone buys new furniture. I’ve been looking for a dresser but haven’t found what I liked ~ everything was well over a thousand dollars and probably not even made of wood! This is better!❤️
We lightened up the house, put in the window air conditioners, strategically placed fans where needed, so we’re doing pretty good 
in here! I AM bothered that the earth seems to have now kicked us off for TWO seasons … used to be only winter where we had to control our environment in order to survive. Never even had air conditioners at home, in cars, in stores around here, for the first 20 years I lived here! That party is OVER.
But there are summer treats to be had ~ things that make summer special, things we don’t really do any other time of year!
I made us my favorite ice cream with our own basil from the garden. It’s such an easy recipe, interesting, and delicious with all the basil and lemon zest. Lots of protein too, and lots of fat!!
It’s cooked! Do it early in the day before it gets hot!
The recipe is on page 147 of the expanded Anniversary edition of Heart of the Home…you can put chocolate sauce on it, but it’s even better with Balsamic Syrup. Sounds crazy, but it’s just NOT! Excellent with angel food cake too! PS. Know what else is good with a little dollop of Hershey’s Syrup? Coffee! Yum, with milk! Joe makes it for me sometimes.💖
Anyway, isn’t it pretty? Pale green, perfect for a summer party!
And another recipe many of you have tried, but might want to be reminded of! Bubble-gum PINK Skip and Go Nakeds!
I’m having a thing about the color pink lately! Anyone else? I always love pink, but right now I can’t get enough of it, found the perfect color in my paint box and making hay while the sunshines! Why? I don’t know, must be magic!
We’ve been out and about too, for the sunsets, for dinner next to the water . . . the other night a friend had a party at her beautiful house, and these gorgeous fragrant lilies greeted us in her driveway. Party ready! I asked her how much she had to pay those flowers to get them to bloom at exactly this moment!🌸
Such a nice party! We filled our plates with a delicious bean salad, a green salad, baguette sandwiches, watermelon, brownies, and lemon bars. She had set up lots of chairs in the garden where we sat, we ate on trays, and watched a silent movie on a screen they’d set up under the stars! Such a magical, creative evening! The music was wonderful. The fireflies came out! The movie was The Artist! Do you see the sapphire sky above the trees…?
We’re keeping icy little bowls of watermelon in the fridge these days!
It’s hot here too, not as bad as it’s been in Texas and Arizona! 
But I just heard on the news this will be the coolest summer in the next 20 years so we’re doing our best to make as many memories as we can! Going to the beach for a picnic tonight. A wee picnic, everyone bringing their chair and sandwiches!
I didn’t finish writing this blog yesterday, so here we are, last night, at the beach. That’s my girlfriend Barbara in the foreground, and I’m taking a picture of Lowely back there with two visiting friends she’s known since KINDERGARTEN and 3rd GRADE! And Joe is taking pictures of all of us! While he opens icy clams on the half shell to share with us all! Lovely evening. 90º when we left the house at 6pm… but a nice breeze next to the water … and we cover up because it’s cool enough and to keep the no-see-ums off us ~ we talk, eat, and watch the ferry and sailboats go by.⛵️ Now Girlfriends, I need some help!
While working on the new calendars these last few months I’ve also been realizing how long I’ve been doing this, and thinking about my next steps in life, and trying to lay down what I call “the foundation for the creation.” A foundation for what comes next, because basically, something has to 
give. I need help. I started thinking I could be so much more creative if I had a literary agent! There are so many things they help you do! But I haven’t had one in years, since my last agent retired in the early 2,000s. And I was so busy back then, plus there wasn’t this luv-lee internet connection to help, I didn’t try to get another, because, as many of you know, it can be time-consuming trying to find a good match and writing all those letters! So it’s just been me all these years, in my house, like a 5 year old, making stuff. So I decided to ask you! And TIME is my big problem. I asked my Girlfriends on Instagram yesterday too… because what is better than word of mouth? NOTHING! Might take a while, but that’s fine! I’d like to go back to the way it was in the old days, when all I did is write books and paint! I want to go back to writing ENCHANTED! But I get waylaid by doing organizational stuff instead of writing! So, if any 
of you know a literary agent, or you know someone who knows one, please ask them to get in touch! I could do it the old-fashioned way and write those letters, but it would be so much easier if someone with experience in this business was interested ~ someone who’s already familiar with my work, and already likes me, and would enjoy representing my books! I want it to be fun! Just going to see what happens! I figure if someone is interested they will contact me . . . my job is to put that dream out there… so here I am! 💖 Thank you!💖
I need to practice what I preach ~ the magic of new beginnings!❤️
Maybe we can get some of these out-of-print books re-published! Not to mention new ones! And perhaps do something to protect the future of my book-children! Distilled Genius and Gratitude are missing from this stack! I need to take a new photo! But look how cute! All those ribbons!💖
And now that I think about it🤔 . . . what about the last 40 years of my art? Yikes! What shall I do with it… it’s a huge digitized library, do I just pile the originals in boxes and put them in the garage? There’s a LOT of it. And all these years of blog posts and 
Willards! They should be made into a book, don’t you think? Or three books probably! And my 133,000 photos! My diaries and even my “Legacy?” I need someone who knows what to do with all of this! And that is definitely not me! Plus if I try to do it, it means I have to stop everything else! 😯 And therein lies the rub!!! I don’t want to! I’m still young! 🤣 See my dilemma? And I just realized (through just now talking it out), I know what’s been bothering me these last months!!! THANK YOU for listening my good Girlfriend Psychiatrists! I made a big mess for myself over here!🤣
Look at all this stuff!
Remember the stickers? The stationery, fabric, rugs, and pajamas . . . the dishes? So MUCH stuff!
OK, going to quit now before I think of anything else! (The film rights!) Good grief! Noooo. STOP.
Okay darlings, this is a different kind of post, right? But you have been with me the entire time, who else would I ask? Feels almost as exciting is going to England together! And as always and forever it comes with love . . . and gratitude… we’ve had some wonderful years sharing our lives!💞
And it ain’t over yet!
My boy keeps busy too!
their supervision ~ and I didn’t know how to publish a book! But it was either that, or stop writing books forever.
doing was writing!
The lights, the story, the singing and dancing, the costumes, the joy, the music, the orchestra, the originality, the appreciation of the audience.
already madly interested in Emerson. First off, it’s 27 hours long. Poor Joe. And written by a serious scholar. Poor me. In a nutshell, it’s hard to “read” … in fact, if we weren’t listening to it I would have 
