Today's Women of Age

I always dread the question “What are you doing this summer?” because I never have anything interesting to share. No weekends wine tasting in Napa. No exciting Europe or Asia travels. No hot air ballooning. No sailing on the bay. No anything. The best I can answer is that my husband and I attend free weekly summer concerts in a nearby city which are extraordinarily good musically and usually lead to dancing.

But the truth is for the most part I don’t like being out and about a lot in the summer. Places tend to be too crowded, noisy, inconvenient and hot. That makes me irritable. I used to love going to the local Art & Wine festivals, but realize I haven’t been to one in decades for those very reasons. Add in any venue where you have to circle around trying to find parking.

As the years pass I am becoming more of a home body. I enjoy the peace and quiet, and the feeling of safety, comfort and beauty inside our home. I enjoy our bits of artwork, pottery and textiles–little treasures acquired over a lifetime. I know folks say that once you buy something it doesn’t take long for you to get bored with it, but I rarely find that’s true for me. I have so many things that still enchant me.

I enjoy just puttering around in our house and tending to our front yard garden. Yesterday I pruned back the lavender (I wait till the birds have finished eating all the seeds) but realized the plants are looking raggedy and need to be replaced. And the one oregano plant I planted over seven years ago has spread (almost invasively) and I pulled up a lot of in earlier this year–which did it no harm. It’s still a big patch and now in full bloom attracting a lot of bees.

Slow living for me also means making more meals from scratch. A favorite dish is a chicken stew made with thighs, white beans, broth and a variety of vegetables depending on what I have on hand–carrots, onions, mushrooms, celery along with few rosemary sprigs from our garden. I let it simmer for hours and I love how the savory scent fills the house. And tomorrow, though I rarely make sweet things, I’m whipping up a blueberry cobbler from my favorite recipe because we have an abundance of blueberries in the fridge. (I cut back on the sugar because I don’t like overly sweet things.)

This slow living also means I have time to read and write–two of my favorite activities. I’m working my way through Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal “The Second Sex” and I’m just starting Henri Houwen’s “Here and Now: Living in the Spirit.” And I always have a pile of decor books nearby to inspire me.

And now that it’s getting darker earlier (already!) I’m lighting my beeswax candles on our mantel at night and enjoying their soft glow while watching a mystery movie or listening to music or just looking out the front window watching the last of the birds to-ing and fro-ing before they tuck in for the night.

At this time in my life I appreciate that I don’t feel a strong pull to be out and about in the world a lot. I have my little forays. Little joys. Recently they included a delightful lunch with my friend Rosalie, thrifting for my Etsy biz and a concert.

Sometimes that’s enough.