inspiration, presently

I have been stumbling upon little pieces of outsider art lately (I think they are always around, but in summer the pace slows enough for me to notice more). Take the broken necklace. When it snapped in two in the car on the way home from camp sending tiny beads flying, there were bitter tears in the backseat. Last night I found its parts tenderly reconfigured as eggs cradled in plastic popper nests.

What else? We've been eating well, thanks to our fantastic CSA boxes that always arrive nearly bursting with gorgeous produce. I've been roasting beets. The kids won't touch them, and a five year old friend of ours nearly gagged on one at dinner the other night, but who cares? Could there be a more beautiful, vivid color in nature?

These leftover roasted beets, dressed simply in olive oil, lemon, and crunchy salt, were simply brilliant. I ate them over salad greens, drizzled with hot honey, a new family favorite. A good friend of Frances's happens to be a relation of Mike, the maker of hot honey, so I traded Ava's mom a jar of granola for a bottle. (Sometimes I sell my granola; bartering is even better!)

Mike is studying botany this summer to prepare for a course he is teaching in the fall, and the children have joined him in learning and identifying the parts of flowers. Once it was established that flowers have ovaries, Frances asked if they also had penises and vaginas. A natural question, especially given the frequency with which we've been reading It's Not the Stork (thank you, Rachel, for the excellent recommendation). It's a great book for answering questions and talking about bodies, sex, boys, girls, friends, families, etc and has brought some sweet, cloud-clearing moments of clarity to Gabriel especially (So your birthday is the day of your birth? Really?).

We are also loving Looking at Lincoln, by Maira Kalman. If you love Lincoln, your kids, and Kalman's passionate, expressive work, reading this together will be a sincere pleasure for you, too. On a whim I put The Principles of Uncertainty (also by Kalman) on hold as well, and spent a good chunk of the afternoon in the library with the kids reading it. To myself. (That's another summer development: the three of us, in the hot heavy afternoon, all reading our books, spread out on my bed, or Gabriel's bunk beds, or the couches at the library. I could never have imagined this when they were babies!)

The book is an extraordinary journal, full of exuberant feelings, small and perfect observations from a passionate lover of this world. You won't really get the same effect from the following quote (it's different without her handwriting and evocative paintings) but apropos of our trip to New York, I had to share this passage:

If you are ever bored or blue, stand on the street corner for half an hour. 
I have a special love - old people who have difficulty walking. I walk behind them and quietly imitate their step. My heart goes our to them. 
Shall I follow for the rest of the day?
Shall I offer help?
Sit and read with them?
Clean their houses and make them lunch?
Step, step, step. 
Soon enough it will be me struggling (valiantly?) to walk - lugging my stuff around. 
How are we all so brave as to take step after step after step?


And what about you? What is bringing you inspiration these days?