LATE BLOOMER: Today I was given a genuine moment of nostalgia. T...

LATE BLOOMER: Today I was given a genuine moment of nostalgia. T...: Today I was given a genuine moment of nostalgia. The new Nat'l Geographic came, and had a story about Russian Summer. It was described on th...

Today I was given a genuine moment of nostalgia. The new Nat'l Geographic came, and had a story about Russian Summer. It was described on the contents page as: "In vacation cottages . . . they brood, plant, party, and restore their souls." And eat watermelon! A great picture showed a family at a dacha, with cut-up chunks of watermelon, big, bright red and luscious, just as I remember it from my early childhood, when my whole family -- parents, grandparents, aunts and cousins -- gathered at a dacha for a month every summer and vacationed together, enjoying the produce of local farmers and the fun of being together -- "restoring our souls" -- as I think Russians still do and always will, no matter what kind of government they suffer under.
Even after all these years my dear lost family comes back, with that wonderful juicy melon that I still love to eat, and still get messy with juice and nostalgia. Watermelon has always meant summer to me, and always will.

It seems to be hard for me to write my blogs regularly. So many things seem to get in the way. Last week and this one have been pretty hectic. Of course the high point was my Book Launch last Saturday. Though my audence was nt very numerous, everyone there seemed to be interested in my new memoir, and a couple were new to my writing and bought all or most of them, which was very gratifying. I am now promoting my three memoirs as a historical trilogy. I'm hoping they will appeal to older people because they remember those times, and to younger people because they know so little about them, and would like to know more.

Then my writers' group, High Country Writers, had our annual Spring Fling yesterday, and it was a lovely party. This year it was hosted by Maggie Bishop, our founder, in her  beatiful new house, which has the most superb view I have yet seen, Even in this High Country, where great views are everywhere you look, I have not found its equal. To help make up for the days when I didn't write a blog, I will share the poem I wrote for the occasion (we're all supposed to write something):

ANOTHER SPRING, ANOTHER FLING
How quaint!
In this chop-chop world
of pleasure NOW!
of moment by moment delight,
 never mind tomorrow
they say it may never come.

The feast is spread.
Sit down to it
before some angry god
jerks off the tablecloth
and sends ther world crashig.

And in this selfsame world
we sit and read our verses
as we have done each year
and plan to do in many years to come,
peaceful in our surety of eternal renewal.

All hail to HCW. I know
our future is safe in your folded hands.

Too much to do to have time to have much to say. Suddenly my book launch is just around the corner, and we have to rush more publiciy about it because of the necessary rearrangement because of the mix-up with the bookstore. I hope the new plan to have it the same morning, June 9th, at the Library has been aired thoroughly enough to get to all those who had planned to come. I know I'm being a bit fussy about this, but it makes such a huge difference in the attendance and the success of the party, that I feel I must try to do all I can to spread the word.

BOOK LAUNCH of "The Whirligig of Time" at the Watauga County Library on Queen Street in Boone, this Saturday, June 9th, from 10 a.m. to noon. Rerfreshments, readings and revelry! discussion, signings, the works.
Hope to see you there!