Second Day of Summer

Summer's here with it's warm sunny days and gorgeous blue skies. Yesterday the summer was ushered in with almost black clouds rushing in from the south and passing over us. Now there are just a few masses of grey clouds lingering over our country side. Our field is full of white daisies and yellow dandelions and the forest is sporting white blackberry blossoms and cherries that are just beginning to ripen. There are whisperings of all sorts of good things that our bit of land has to offer this summer, I can't hardly wait to discover the secrets it's been hiding until the weather warmed up a little bit.

Sunrise Sights

This morning Moodchild, Ladybird, and myself went for a country walk. Following are the plants and animals that we saw

One hawk teaching her baby to fly.

Three deer watching us as we walked towards them, they scampered off into the woods when we were about fifty feet away.

Lots of Huckleberry bushes, but only two of the berries were ripe.

Wild Cherry trees the cherries are the size of a pee wee marble.

Dozens of swallows flying through the fields playing games with eachother.

Mean yellow caterpillars that bite you if you pick them up, but they're awfully interesting to look at.

A spider that looked for all the world like a bee which was scampering across the ground.

Penstemon serrulatus, at least I think that's what it is, it grows all along the road.

Chamomile that grows like a weed, it had pretty feathery leaves though. Moonchild says the chamomile looks more like daisies than the daisies do.

A couple of Tiger Swallow Tail Butterflies, they are stunning in their beauty.

Wild Raspberries that aren't ripe yet, I can't wait until they are.

Pretty crystal like rocks, Moonchild collects these.

Masses of daisies just waiting to be made into daisy chains.

And so much more that is just waiting to be named, pretty wild flowers in blues and pinks and reds, birds that flit in and out of the trees, and sounds filtering through the trees that are yet to be identified.

The Other Side of Things

I feel as if I have arrived, and in a way I have. I have arrived at the other side of my graduation, and guess what I feel good about the performance I gave. As much as I love to play piano, I am not one to jump at every opportunity I get to play in front of people. When my piano teacher suggested that I give a senior recital sort of as a capstone to my high school years I wasn't thrilled at all, now on the other side of the performance, that recital was worth every second of practice that I've put into it over the last year.
The recital was less than perfect, but that's not what was important, the recital wasn't about showing people what an amazing pianist I was (because honestly I'm just your normal pianist, I just happen to practice a lot and that goes a long way) the recital was really about sharing a part of my life with the people who have shared so much of their lives with me. My recital was about giving a gift, and a celebration of the learning that has been going on in my life over the last 13 years of schooling.
There were two amazing things about my recital, the first was all my piano teachers were there, Mama, Mrs. D, and Anne. I was so amazed that Mrs. D. would drive up here for my recital and so blessed to be able to see her. Piano teachers generally aren't the sorts of people that you assume will make it to their students graduations unless you're still taking lessons from them, but Mrs. D. was so much more than a piano teacher, she was a friend as well and that is truly a blessing.
The second thing was that although I was nervous preceding the recital, when I sat down to play I felt incredibly at peace. I wasn't shaking like I normally do and I was completely conscious and aware of what I was doing. There was no huge adrenaline rush or pounding heart involved, just a steady awareness of what I was doing and how I wanted to play. And the mistakes didn't matter. One thing I've learned over the years is that piano performance isn't so much about a perfect performance as it is about moving on from your mistakes without getting hung up on a few wrong notes. If you can keep your calm and keep the music moving it's almost more impressive than a flawless performance.
And now the recital's done. I don't feel relieved there isn't an "oh I'm so glad I'm done", but rather there's a calm and satisfaction, I did well, I gave the friends who surrounded me on this occasion a gift and this stage of life is completed. It's not a relief to be done, I thought it would be but I felt so comfortable with the job that I did I just feel well satisfied, granted I'm not ready to embark on a new recital just yet, but it's very satisfying to have put so much work into something when you can offer it to someone else as a gift, and I was so blessed to be surrounded by such a great crowd of friends who genuinely care about me and care that I succeed in life, but not just that, they are committed to praying that I make the right choices and walk with Christ and it's encouraging to realize just how many people are committed praying for me and being here for me.

A Friday Muffin

I've mentioned that Friday is muffin day around here and since it's Friday today I have a muffin recipe for you. This is one of the nicest blueberry muffins out there, nothing fancy, just a nice homey sort of muffin that's warm and good tasting. What else would you expect out of a recipe out of The Tasha Tudor Cookbook?

Robie's Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup shortening (I use butter and they turn out just fine)
1 cup sugar
2 farm-fresh eggs, at room temperature (I use eggs from the store and straight out of the fridge, it doesn't seem to have and unwelcome affect on the batter.)
2 1/4 cups unbleached flour, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup fresh dairy milk (again I get my milk from the store seeing as I don't have a cow near at hand.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen, not thawed
sugar and cinnamon for topping.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper baking cups. ( I put mine straight into muffin tins that have been greased)
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and beat the mixture well. Sift 2 cups of the flour with the salt and baking powder and add it to the bowl, alternating with the milk. Beat the mixture just until smooth, then add the vanilla. Mix the remaining 1/4 cup flour with the berries, just enough to coat them. Gently fold these into the mixture.
Fill the prepared tins about 2/3 full. Sprinkle each muffin lightly with sugar and cinnamon.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, until lightly brown.
Makes 18 muffins

The End Has Arrived

This day has been looming over me for a couple months now, the day when I would finish Highschool, and now it has arrived. The last couple weeks I've slowly finished off books and yesterday the last paper was written, now I'm done. It's hard to grasp the fact that I won't have school on Monday, that there aren't more papers to write and won't be until I get my summer assignment for Honors. The only regular part of my school day left is piano practice and even that will change in a week when my recital is over.
I've been gearing myself up for this day, June seemed so far away last August when I started my Senior year, and now I'm done. And my year didn't even end with a bang exactly, the subject just tapered off until I was down to literature and the writing that comes along with all those great books that I've been reading. It's so strange to think that from here on out I won't be handing work in to Mama, that next fall I'll be heading off to school each day, that in four years my formal education will probably be over, unless I have a drastic personality change and decide that I should pursue Grad. School, but I don't think that is very likely.
Now the summer is looming ahead, well not exactly, the summer will loom ahead after my graduation/senior recital next Saturday. And I'm already making plans for how I will fill my days. There's a mission trip on the board for July, and our annual visit with the cousins, and work, I'll still be putting in a couple of hours at the tea room. But there is going to be a good deal of extra time over the summer and I can simply concentrate my efforts in filling it up. There will be time to garden, we have a beautiful new house but the yard is in need of some attention, I suppose I could help it out. There are years worth of pictures just waiting to be scrapbooked, and lots of yarn in the closet that should really be used up before I go buying anymore. And of course there are books to read. I don't generally make reading lists, but I'm thinking that perhaps since there will be so much time this summer it might be to my benefit to make up a list of the books I'd like to read, besides, even if I don't read the books, I like to make lists. It's so much easier to get things done if you have a visual list to run through every so often even if the things you do don't have to get done, there's just something about having them written down that makes me happy.