A Note From Laurey - April 26, 2008

North to South, Birds to Bees

Oh what a nice day it is here. The air, soft, invites. Come play!  Come walk, loll, laze. Soon, I say. Right now I am at my desk, tidying, organizing. Saturdays are that for me and it’s just fine. The quieter pace of the day suits me most of the time. It’ll kick up in a little while as lunch visitors drift in. In the kitchen things bustle, preparing for a nice wedding this evening. It’s a perfect day for that sort of thing.

I had a fun early part of the day today. I was one of the speakers at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society. Miss Rawlings was a Northerner who moved to Florida, and who became so well known for The Yearling and Cross Creek. When the organizers of the conference met me, a Northerner who moved South and wrote about food and place, and heard about my mother, a Northerner who moved farther North and who cooked and wrote about food and place, they invited me to read. What a treat for me. The audience, people who read and mull and appreciate words, listened perfectly, rapt and appreciative, laughing when they should, becoming chocked up right along with me when that seemed right. I read, signed books, and left, feeling good about being a person who gets to live and eat and remember and write and then, some lucky days, read those words in front of people.

AND, drum roll, it is finally time for my bee story to go to the next level. We’re getting bees this Monday. (If you’re reading this note on that day, wish me luck – I’ve still never even looked in a functioning bee hive and I’m about to have two on my very own property!) The weather has been warm enough, the queens are ready, the workers are set to go, and the drones are looking forward, I suspect, to their summer. I can only hope that all this is true. It seems like I’ve been waiting forever and it’s all about to happen. Whee!

In the meantime, my yard is roaring with color. The big rhododendron plant in my upper garden is full of blooms that just popped open this morning. Lilacs are about as full as they get around here and the path to the back of the house is richly graced by Lilies of the Valley (my birth flower – right on time for next month’s festivities). The apple trees have a bloom or two (I hope the bees will make that situation different next year) but the Redbuds are grand, filling the perimeter with their delicate purple blossoms.

Birds are here in a huge way too and sing with vigor and pleasure in the still dark hours of my mornings. I haven’t managed to sleep until my alarm in weeks, which is actually just fine. I slip awake, tiptoe outside, and let their songs surround. It’s a very good feeling.

So much is good these days. We spent the first of four sessions here last week in our Sacred Geometry class, drawing circles and connecting dots and thinking about breathing in with each line, out with each image. I felt drawn into their simple and strange forms. I couldn’t explain it, but it felt really good.

I’ll be in touch next week – with BEE pictures! Tra la.

Reprinted with permission by Laurey Masterton, president and owner of Laurey's Catering and Gourmet to Go, 67 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801; 828-252-1500; email: info at laureysyum.com

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