Sunday, June 07, 2009

Too Soon for Solstice


Hard to believe summer is almost here, with the solstice just two weeks away. Especially since we've had SO much rain all spring, to the point where I fear the ground and gardens will remain permanently soggy.

Also sad to think that in just two more weeks the days will begin getting ever so slightly shorter again, an idea that completely deflates me each year on the longest day, especially this one where it seems like we've barely emerged from winter yet and haven't had nearly enough sun and heat to make even the distant idea of autumn in any way welcome. We need weeks and weeks of hot steamy days and equally muggy nights before that even begins to sound appealing.

I kicked off summer with a camping trip in upstate New York where I discovered that schlepping a ridiculous pile of belongings someplace, cooking over a fire and sleeping on the ground can be amazingly fun if you have the right gear (and fellow campers who know what they're doing!). With those awesome self-inflating mats that go under your sleeping bag, and with a new lightweight, easy-to-set up, waterproof tent from REI I was as cosy as a bug and slept for 10 hours the first night -- unheard of even in my own bed at home! The whistling wind and waters of Lake George lapping just outside, as well as a gentle, misty rain we woke to the next morning, all contributed to sleeping like the dead.

I now understand the appeal of camping, which had completely eluded me before. Why lug everything to some remote place and make extra work for yourself, only to sleep uncomfortably on the hard ground with the most rudimentary and disgusting bathroom options. And I admit the outhouse was the one unpleasant challenge, but I just held my breath, shut my eyes, and powered through -- kind of like doing burpess, ha ha! And that one negative was totally offset by the plusses: no phone or internet; the peaceful sounds of nature all around us; hiking, kayaking and hanging out by the fire; and revolving the day around preparing for and eating our simple meals was incredibly relaxing and restorative.

We have a fairly quiet and uneventful summer ahead, with the exception of a couple of fun trips later this month. Maddie finished her finals on Friday, and heads to Maui, HI with a friend and her family on the 18th for a week -- lucky her! On the 29th I'm heading back to Montana with Jane and Mel for a series of concerts Jane put together and I've helped promote. It's called Four Musicians Rendezvous and includes R. Carlos Nakai (top native American flute player), Will Clipman (Western percussionist), our friend Jack Gladstone (Montana's Blackfeet Indian troubadour) and Lee Zimmerman (well-known cellist), who will play together that week in four shows: first at Glacier as part of the Music in the Park series; then at Pablo, a reservation; then a house concert at Jane's which should be a blast; and finally at our friend Bill Montgomery's place outside of Whitefish called Stillwater Landing.

Bill is a huge music lover from Seattle who built the coolest outdoor stage on Stillwater Lake, and another one indoors in an airplane hanger. People fly in on seaplanes, land on the lake and pull up to his dock. You can camp there on the grounds as well, and musicians from all over the country come to play in this beautiful setting -- it's awesome. Click on the link above to check it out.

Also on the agenda in Montana is of course to get some writing done. I picture myself sitting on the deck at Achewa, looking out on the glorious view of Flathead Lake and the Mission and Swann Mountains, laptop in hand, and inspired as usual. Liza, Henry and Brian have been waiting a long time -- I have to get back to their story and hopefully inch closer to its resolution. Life and my business have dominated these past several months and my novel got shoved to the back burner. A major summer goal is to get back in the groove on that, and dare I say finish it by the end of the year. The worse thing about setting this type of goal is if I don't meet it, I will feel like I have failed again. But without a deadline, it's so easy to just drift along, always busy, always pressed for time to write. So there it is. Throwing down the gauntlet on myself, argh!