Summer Stripes

While many folks know I'm a girl who loves plaid,
I do believe summer and stripes make perfect partners.
Here are a few of my favorites:

From Pottery Barn

The classic black and white beach umbrella.  I can't afford this one, but I'll find a cute knock-off!

From T.G. Green

A Cornishware dreadnought pitcher to hold fresh-picked garden roses.

From Garnet Hill

Cheerful jersey-striped sheets and pillowcases.

From L.L. Bean

My all-time favorite striped jersey.  I've worn L.L. Bean French Sailor's shirts since I was a teenager.  They come in great colors, wear beautifully for many years, and look perfect with jeans, capris, a skirt, shorts--you name it.  An absolute staple.  The knit is heavy, so it's perfect year-round and for cooler summer days or evenings.  Here in Maine we get a lot of those!  :)

From Nicola's Home

I LOVE the colors in this hat!  Everything at Nicola's Home is beautiful, but this hat . . . oh, my!

From Target

What could be better in summer than espadrilles?  

Target has some great ones at good prices!  

I'll be stocking up.

Please let me know about any other summer stripes you find!

No Man is an Island . . . Except when the Internet is on the Fritz

Hello, lovelies!  Please forgive my long absence.  My hiatus from blogging was completely unexpected.  Actually, it was a hiatus from all things online.  Mr. Magpie and I were staying over on the island with friends, and we'd been assured that our rental cottage would have internet access.   When we arrived, however, we discovered that it didn't.  Not one single bar.  Not a wee bit of the World-Wide Interweb.

Ah, the mixed blessings of no internet.  Yes, it was lovely to be completely cut off from email and Facebook, and we would have relished it were we there on a straight-up holiday, but it was a working-vacation for most of us, so the lack of access to the outside world proved to be a challenge.  In fact, Mr. Magpie ended up coming back to the mainland to work quite often, and I simply postponed all internet-related tasks.  

That, combined with one non-functioning shower, a busted DVD remote, a chair held together with cardboard and contact paper (I'm not kidding), and a toilet that ran until you lifted the lid and adjusted the ball cock, made for much improvising all week.  In fact, we've changed the name of the cottage from "Beach House" to "Make Do."

On the other hand, the lack of amenities made for much hilarity as we discovered each new broken item in the house, and we cared very little about showers or sitting down when we were just a few yards from a sandy beach and a sky full of stars.  Mostly, the holiday was about reconnecting with dear friends during long walks and bike rides around the island, afternoons of beach combing, ferry rides at sunset, and food--pots of steamed mussels, bowls of fiddleheads, plates heaped high with fresh local greens.

And did I mention writing?  There was writing, indeed.  Loads of it.  With no interruptions from the online world, we wrote our hearts out.  And truly, what could be better than that?

Hoping you are well and flourishing.  Looking forward to catching up with you.  xo Gigi

     

Night Rain (No Pictures, Just Words)

Some nights rain is a refuge, the foghorn's blast a blessing murmured half asleep.  She finds all the hidden places on those nights, piles memories on like worn quilts, forgets to listen for steps on the stairs.  She reaches for nothing, lets the curtains stay open, leaves the candle be.  What's a little darkness?  

Once she tasted night from a knife's edge in small, hard slices, but over time she has learned the art of the spoon, the small stir and sip, the warm, burnished curve that cools on the tongue, but never turns cold.  Night rain can fall all it wants.  She has her pages and cups and the rise and fall of a small life that needs hers.  

To be needed in the dark.  That is something to hook her heart and hold it fast until the light returns.