WORTH GROWING

OUR HOUSE @ 240 ••• Our favorite part of summer is when the lilies bloom. A few days ago, Keith used his grandfather’s scythe to cut them all down. We raked up two truckloads of stems and leaves, and hauled them to the park drop-off. I share these photos in hopes you will be enticed to visit next year to see for yourself. This is a view of our backyard (above).

Keith built that slanty roof on the left (which used to be one story). He also built the second story “sky deck,” his studio on the back of the garage, and our little vineyard (those are grape vines making that green fluffy roof to the far right). This is a farther away view of the backyard so you can see the span of the lily border. Keith dug up and replanted all these lilies from a drainage ditch owned by a kind farmer. Two or three times a day, Keith waters thirteen hanging pots, three flower boxes, and numerous other little table-top plants. He is a rigorous fertilizer and devoted to preserving this beauty for us to enjoy as long as possible.

And here is the entrance to our little Fairy Garden (above). When my daughters were children they thought the fireflies who populate this area during summer nights were fairies. When the grandkids were little, they’d hunt for fairy eggs (aka rounded pebbles of aquarium glass) and plant them in the Fairy Garden so more fairies would hatch. We carried this tradition through all the grandchildren and hope it endures for another generation of great-grandchildren.

Finally, here is the front of the house and side porch. We built a lot of what you see: the garage, the side porch, the fences, the front porch roof, the new roof. Keith is handy and a great designer. We have more projects planned and try to complete a few every year. That’s why we’re so stiff and sore all the time. The house itself was built in the 1860’s so keeping it from falling over has been an enduring hobby for us.

WORTH LOVING

TJ’s HARBOR INN ••• Keith and I kicked off our “50 Years: 50 Days” wedding anniversary observance on the eve of July 3rd at one of our favorite haunts. How lucky are we to live near this stunning lake? We visit it almost every morning. For dinner, we got a table at the far edge of the patio with our backs to the restaurant and our eyes on the serene beauty that’s inspired awe in humans like us for eons.

I wore my little silver filigree heart-necklace. It was the first gift Keith ever gave me. We were seventeen and had been dating for about three months. He gave me the necklace and said, “This is to remind you that you have my heart.” It was the first time he told me that he loved me. The memory is precious. It was a sweet and lovely night — and a sweet and lovely life. I wrote a haiku to honor Keith’s gift.

“This is to remind you that you have my heart.” — Keith May

WORTH WANDERING

PLANET EARTH ••• We take a lot of walks and rides, and randonauting has made this a new kind of adventure. One of the tenets of randonauting is that you are testing “the theory of quantum randomization and the possibility to change a life path or shift into a new, better space and time.” Personally, I think it’s more akin to dream analysis, a framework you can hang your ideas on and see them from a new and random perspective, but there are people who would tell you it’s much more. (Hey, who am I to disrespect quantum entanglement. I can’t even work the remote most days).

Using the Australian National University’s Quantum Random Number Generator, Anomalous areas within your radius are found through a computation that determines an Attractor (a dense cluster of points), a Void (an area with the scarcest points), and Power Anomaly (the most powerful of the two). Randonauting surely delivers new ideas and possibilities that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.” For a summary of Randonauting and how to do it, check out this article.

••• Summary of Randonauting - click HERE

I am a cheap wench so I tried to randonaut using dice, but it was a disaster. My frustration led me to download the app, which turned out to be free on Google Play or the App Store. Score!

I started a journal of our Randonaut expeditions. Juicy. I also ordered the official guidebook off Amazon which I haven’t dug into yet, so no comments yet.

••• Book: The Official Guide to Randonautica - click HERE

WHO SAYS NO TO FREE FUN? JUST DOWNLOAD THE APP.

WORTH PAINTING

THE WALL OVER MY SEWING TABLE ••• Welcome to my slow exhibit of works Keith has painted of our grandchildren. Sorry. Child of the Month for July is Kallie. She is our daughter Mollie’s first born. Her hair looks even more flaming orange in person. If you catch her in sunlight she looks mythical. And if you get to know her, you know she truly is.

WORTH MAKING

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE THE VIDEO WE MADE

My daughter Maggie and I worked on a fun project earlier this month. I have a friend who is the CEO of MarPam Pharma and she needed a one-minute video for would-be funders to explain briefly what they’re doing (which is nothing short of an amazing one-time treatment for HIV)! It seems there is an ethos in the scientific community not to waste money on peripherals that don’t directly support the research. That meant they leaned toward an amateur video created by two willing volunteers (us) who lacked experience but were free. We learned so much along the way: lots of technical editing hacks, some video directing, camera work, and deep dives into software capabilities and online resources we never got to play with before. We bumped up against time constraints or we could have done even more, but considering it was the two of us at the kitchen table pounding it out, I think we did okay. Maggie taught me how to make the animations of the genetic treatment and of the MarPam logo. I should have taken notes! Now that it’s done, I feel dangerous! I have all sorts of animation ideas bubbling in my head for future amusement. Such a thrill!

Take a look at the MarPam video by clicking HERE. (1 min)

WORTH BURNING

FAIRYLAND ••• My brother John and his wife Jen put on the loveliest celebration for our family every summer. They both have an affection for fairies and harbor them in their backyard. Annually, we celebrate these complex magical creatures with a great feast and various festivities. Keith and our granddaughter Presley chilling after dinner (above).

Only P.T. Barnum has a finer selection of friends than John and Jen. Two of them are professional fire dancers who entertained us with perilous acrobatics involving blazing props. (No one important was burned in the making of this letter).

As sundown nears, we each are offered a lighter and spread out across the backyard and welcome the fairies by lighting almost 200 candles. As the sky darkens, we are transported to Fairyland. I think, granddaughter Kallie and boyfriend Gio (above) are calling out the “Lumos” spell to light their wands. Harry Potter would be so proud.

I tried to do an overly ambitious panoramic photo so you could see everyone lighting fairies, but it didn’t work. Here’s a snippet. Such a magical evening!

WORTH EATING

KUNG FU NIGHT ••• One of my ongoing goals is to show love through food. Aside from elevating the mundane chore of food prep, it has inspired many rituals and one-off creative meals over the years. One of my favorites is our monthly Kung Fu Night: Asian food, a martial arts movie, and matching jammies, of course. One of my favorite parts about Kung Fu Night is that there’s no real cooking. We either get carry-out or heat up a frozen P.F. Chang’s entree. Our movie selection was Ip Man. The quote below is from the real person upon whose life the film is based.

“We all have inner demons to fight. We call these demons fear, hatred, and anger. If you do not conquer them, then life of one hundred years is a tragedy. If you do, then life of a single day can be a triumph.” – Ip Man (1893-1972)

WORTH SHOOTING

PLAYERS PUB ••• I have two brothers and one sister who live in nearby cities (sadly, sister Samantha and her kids are in Arizona). Once a month, we gather for a Gunderfam event (“Gunderfam” short for Gunderson family). It includes dinner and pandemonium, which may or may not include roleplaying, costumes and props, singing, inebriation, competitions, and homage to our ancestors, to the fae, or the Norse gods. Several times a year, we invite the entire clan of children and grandchildren, as was the case earlier this month when we held our annual Pool Tournament and celebrated the retirement of my brother Jim (pictured above with his very happy wife Sandy). The motorhome has been purchased and a year’s supply of red Solo cups procured.

For the pool tournament, we paired off in teams of two and competed in 8-ball matches until the elimination yielded a victor. The Keith & Mary team handily dispatched their first opponent thanks to some deft shots by Keith and consistent play by Mary. Unfortunately, one of the players on our team scratched on the 8-ball. We don’t want to embarrass anyone by naming names, but the player identifies as male.

WORTH CELEBRATING

OUR VINEYARD ••• We have always enjoyed a special relationship with France. I began learning French in sixth grade and felt like a different person when I spoke in this chic tongue. There’s the Eiffel Tower, the cafes, the patisseries, the Seine, the fashion, the cuisine, — and then there’s the Louvre! Need I say more?

Over these many decades we’ve celebrated Bastille Day with pleine aire painting, picnic baskets by the lake, sketching and napping on a blanket along a river, and, of course, in our own little vineyard. More often, I wear something black with red lipstick. Hair in a French twist, of course. And always Chanel perfume. There is always a great lunch, French wine or champagne, and a chocolate eclair.

This year, we were easy on ourselves. I recreated a Parisian café, a lovely music playlist, and the most delicious chicken salad croissant ever. We reminisced about life and love. I swooned to the sounds of the accordion and Le Vie en Rose. “Hold me close and hold me fast, the magic spell you cast.”

Cinquante ans! Je t'aime, mon coeur.
50 years! I love you, my heart.

"In the middle of an ordinary life,
love gives us a fairy tale."
— Melissa Brown