We have finally had some hot, humid days before returning to the clear, dry, breezy weather that has been a gift this summer. I could be spoiled by it not getting too hot and raining often enough not to have to water every day. It’s beginning to feel like Camelot.
We have lost one of our iconic Vineyard gentlemen. Condolences to Simone, Leo, and Josepha for the loss of their dad, Donald DeSorcy. He was quite a guy, always with a smile and a sparkle in his eyes, a very nice man. Over the past few days, I have heard one story after another of his thoughtfulness, his care for his craft, his good humor. Surely there will be more at his funeral service and over the weeks to come.
One of the things I do love about summer is the annual appearance of visitors I have gotten to know. Seb and Emily Keegan are English friends of Henry and Hugh Bassett. They all came to visit on Sunday afternoon with their parents, Jan Keegan, Sarah Wasserman, and Brian Bassett, guests of Bob and Susan Wasserman. I have enjoyed hearing about the kids’ winter adventures and all their plans for their time on the Island. Among the big interests is working on the Friends of the Library’s Annual Book Sale, coming up the first weekend in August. Henry reports there will be a very rich selection of art books this year; he has carried lots of bags to that section.
Just a reminder that the book sale always needs bags with handles, so if you have extra Cronig’s bags please drop them off at the school or the library. Nelia still needs 1 and 2 liter plastic soda bottles for a craft project at the library.
The Polly Hill Arboretum has a wonderful-sounding installation called A Walk Through Imagination. Bill O’Callahan’s sculptures and storyteller Robin Tuck lead one through the landscape with their tale of a girl who finds her way with the help of a flock of butterflies. It remains through August 15. Admission is $5, free to PHA members. It will be great fun to go with Linda Hearn and her granddaughter Morgan Caruso, as we plan to do. Bill O’Callahan’s sculptures are so whimsical. I can’t wait for this outing.
West Tisbury artist Sheila Fane is busy making and exhibiting her original prints and handmade paper sculptures. She opens a one-person show this weekend at the Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown that runs from July 26 to August 1, with an opening reception this Sunday, July 27, from 5 to 7 pm. Sheila is also showing work at West Tisbury’s new Artspace on State Road, exhibiting and teaching at Featherstone, and getting ready for the Ag Fair, where she manages and installs Children’s Art.
The Author Lecture Series continues at the Chilmark Community Center with two programs this week. This Sunday, July 27, The Beekman Boys will discuss “The 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook” at 7:30 pm. The Beekman Boys are former advertising executives who have become goat farmers and television hosts of a program on the Cooking Channel. Thursday, July 31, there will be a tribute to historian and Southern scholar Sheldon Hackney, who died last year. Charlayne Hunter-Gault will moderate a discussion by many of the writers who contributed to “Dixie Redux,” a collection of essays honoring him. A reception follows the discussion. Tickets are available at ticketsmv.com or at the Community Center Monday through Friday, 9 to noon.
A gentle misty rain is falling outside my window, dripping silently off the porch’s edge. Whatever combination of elements and care and just plain serendipity has made my garden more beautiful this year than I can ever remember. Part of it is luck, that the deer who ate every daylily bud the past couple of years have left it alone. Maybe their pruning sent vigor back to the roots, which have responded with a display worthy of a gardening magazine spread.
My garden is off of our kitchen, laid out as an old-fashioned Colonial square inside a fence, beds inside with bisecting walks, four squares in the middle. The daylilies fill the fence-lining beds. They make a composition of colors and shapes, much like a painting or a woven tapestry. Yellow Mary Todd daylilies weave throughout like the warp that holds the tapestry onto the loom. Paler and darker yellows, bright gold, pink, salmon, orange, red, soft peach are the weft colors, punctuating and enhancing the overall in-fill of their green leaves. Inside the squares are herbs, and rudbeckia that has self-sown and flourished. I suppose it’s a rather untidy display, not like the careful straight beds of a true Colonial garden. Once the daylilies are finished blooming and the rudbeckia gets cut back, it will need something new planted in if there is to be any color for the next months until boltonia and asters take over and the rudbeckia and roses rebloom. For now, I am amazed by its beauty and enjoy the meditative morning chore of dead-heading the daylilies’ spent blooms.
