I’ve been out of graduate school for 31 years but when September rolls around I remember so well how it feels to get new school supplies and to anticipate the return to structure and routine.  The sun seems to sit lower in the sky-( it happens so quickly!) and the shadows turn harsh in the yard.   My kitchen is dark all day long at this time of year because the sun can’t cut the giant oak tree near the patio.  I’m always shocked at how bright it gets once the leaves fall in November.  I used to think my eyes were going.

Such is the life of a mom of four nearly grown children, but especially, as a homeowner in the Syracuse University neighborhood.  I love to see everything green up and clean up after graduation in May, and I especially love having the streets and Tops supermarket nearly to myself all summer.  But I admit the infusion of students and life into this area just before Labor Day each year gives me a jolt of  youthful energy.

My youngest child enjoys the benefits of his man-cave in the basement within walking distance to class.  Christian is a sophomore in Computer Art at S.U. and as a card-carrying student, he had access to all the gym equipment at the Women’s Building all summer.  Lately he comes in surly for having to share the gym.  It’s easy to get spoiled around here.

The dogs have had an interesting summer, mostly because the regular flea treatment purchased from the veterinarian at the beginning of the summer had no impact on Otto, my 5 pound mini-dachsund.  I tried a different brand to no effect.  The fleas this year were virulent and it became a daily routine to comb as many as I could scour in the late afternoon so he wouldn’t infest the whole house.  The best way to kill them?  You know you can’t squish them, so I merely dipped them in a mug of hot, hot water and watched them cook.  That’ll show ‘em.  It was a relaxing exercise in a weird sort of way.

With Christian a self-reliant college student, I will divide my time between my two favorite places now; Syracuse and Cape Cod.  In fact, I’ll probably favor the Cape when things turn snowy around here.  The Cape is sunny year round and it rarely snows and I’m ready for that.  So I’ll be blogging from that beautiful place to give readers in Syracuse a taste of life “over the bridges”.

And speaking of the Cape Cod bridges, I chuckled this summer to hear Diane Sawyer of ABC News report on the black bear that apparently swam across the Cape Cod Canal from the mainland and sauntered around the Cape until it was trapped and returned off-Cape again.  Diane lives in Manhattan has a vacation house on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.  In a quick ad lib on camera after the report, Diane referenced “the Cape Cod bridge”, and right then, I realized she has probably never driven to the Cape.  She has most certainly only flown.  There are two bridges to the Cape, the Sagamore and the Bourne, and when one backs up with impossible New England traffic, we take the other.  Just as we navigate the snows of Syracuse, Cape Codders learn to beat the traffic as best they can and knowing there are two bridges in Cape 101.

How was your summer?  Is this the year you broke down and bought air-conditioning for your house?  What a scorcher it was.  We’ll all wish for a few of those degrees about four months from now.

I’ve been on a vacation state of mind, even from my blog.  I thank all of you who sent comments, even from older posts you found while searching the internet for various subjects.

Anyway, thank you for checking in from time to time and my apologies for not being more interesting lately.

I’ve been at the usual routine, spending a few weeks at the beginning of the summer at my house on Cape Cod, and returning to the best fresh water in the country, right here in Central New York.

Every time I leave town, I return with the realization that the Finger Lakes are an absolute treasure.  I’ve had a great time exploring Cayuga Lake on a friend’s boat.  We’ve stopped at waterfront restaurants, docked at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market, and visited some Cayuga Lake wineries by boat!  I’ll be you didn’t know there are a couple of docks on the lake where you can leave the boat and walk across the street to sample local wines.   Even Napa can’t match that.

Often in this blistering hot summer for the record books, I’m jumping off the boat into the clear blue lake water.  Unlike my beloved Cape Cod beaches there are no sharks in the Finger Lakes.  Thank goodness for that.

One thing I noticed upon my return from the Cape a month ago, I noticed Central New Yorkers pretty much let their brown lawns go dormant and I respect that.  Fresh water is a disappearing commodity and we are lucky enough to be within 40 miles of Lake Ontario.  The Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the world’s fresh water drinking supply.  You would think we would sprinkle our lawns with abandon, but we don’t.  Those lake effect snows are just around the corner and we’ll get all the “precip” we want, and then some.  In the meantime, the ocean-sized lakes can sit.

Are you enjoying the heat this sunny arid summer? How are you keeping cool?

Children have a way of shining a spotlight on the essence of something.  You’ve heard “out of the mouth of babes”.  Well even children who are becoming adults have a unique way of getting to the core of an argument.  Such was the case with my 19 year old son Christian tonight.

We were watching the news about President Barack Obama’s recent gaffe, that the private sector of the economy is doing fine, in spite of an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent.

When Christian saw the TV commercial from the Romney campaign, chiding the President for his comments, Christian did not look up from the BLT sandwich he was assembling  and said “I hate politics.  I hate it.  You know when you have to make a commercial saying how bad the other guy is, you know you suck”.

I could not stop smiling.  What an observation.  And who could argue?  I’ve taught my children that the use of the word “suck” is too crass for our household, but in this case, I couldn’t agree more.

How about your household?  Have your”babes” seen politics in a unique light?

In Harwich, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, there is a Department of Public Works feature called the Treasure Chest.  Simply put, it is a place for household items in good condition where people can come and “shop” for free.

I discovered this a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve been updating and upgrading some of the decor in my house on the Cape.  I didn’t pay a lot for the items I no longer needed but I paid enough that I didn’t want to just trash them.  The Treasure Chest was the perfect solution.

The Treasure Chest is open every Saturday and Sunday and it is a culture all its own.  The parking lot was packed with older model cars and families with children.  I pulled up in my green thing and prepared to unload two child’s adirondack chairs, two plastic syroco chairs, a couple of 8″ x 10″ prints and a vase.

No sooner did I open the trunk when two women with a carload of young children inquired if they might have the adirondack chairs.   I happily turned them over and when they saw the prints they requested those too.  They seemed genuinely excited and appreciative of their new “treasures” .

The usual protocol is to bring unwanted goods to the marked drop-off corner of the lot where staff categorizes them and places them on shelves inside the corrugated steel building the size of a small barn and on tables outside in the sun.  Everything is free of charge but there are signs imposing a 30 minute limit on “shopping” to discourage any one person from taking it all.

A Cape Cod pal told me she sometimes sees antiques dealers waiting to see what comes in because they too can shop for free.  There is no income limit, however judging from my first experience, it seemed there was plenty of needy families and few if any dealers pouring through the donations.

I also heard there is occasional trouble at the Treasure Chest as tempers ignite in the competition for goods.   Needy families want to provide as much for their children as the wealthiest among us. Volunteers do their best to maintain order, but it can be a challenge.

When I’m home in Syracuse I bring items to the donation trailor behind Wegman’s in Dewitt but I found the direct nature of the Treasure Chest to be more satisfying.  True, the Rescue Mission donations become paid goods, with the proceeds funding much needed social services in our area.  The Treasure Chest, like so many other things about Cape Cod, is simple and old-fashioned.  There is nothing slick about the operation.  It’s donations in, donations out, sometimes in the span of a couple of minutes.  And in my case, I saw the smiles of the grateful women with children who were happy to take the items I considered bringing to the dump just next door.

In addition to the beach, the fried clams and the bike trail, I’m adding the Treasure Chest of Harwich to my list of Cape Cod activities from now on.

My highly talented friend Wendy Harris will conduct a talk about Plein Air painting one week from tonight, Monday May 14th, at 7:30 pm at the Marcellus Public Libray, upstairs.

If you want to learn more about this gorgeous method of painting outdoors, or if you would like to take some lessons to try it yourself, this is a must-see event.

I met Wendy by happenstance last year and wrote about her in the Syracuse Post-Standard.   Read my column here.

And to view Wendy’s portfolio, go to her website and enjoy.  She finds beauty in everything, and I love that.

I recently spent four days visiting my dear friend Valerie in Washington, DC.   It was a great trip with one exception.  A Washington-based twitter friend of mine asked why I brought Syracuse weather to the national’s Capitol.   Brrrr.

Connecticut Avenue

Valerie has a terrific condo in a 1920s-era apartment building.  As readers of this blog are aware,  I believe the 1920s represent the finest in residential and commercial construction.  Everything about the place was the perfect blend of aesthetics and function, and when you add the Paris-born Valerie’s sophisticated flair, I felt like I was living in a magazine spread.

Here are a couple of interesting features about this area of D.C..  Connecticut Avenue cuts through upscale Chevy Chase, Maryland, and ends in downtown Washington and it is lined with six-story apartment buildings like this one.  Many of them on the 4000 block were built around the same time, as builders went farther and farther north to accommodate urban sprawl.

Houses sprout from right behind the apartment buildings

But just behind these apartment houses are tidy tree-lined residential streets with a seemingly endless number of brick colonial homes.  Think of the Strathmore or Bradford Hills neighborhoods of Syracuse and now multiply them by a factor of a thousand.  Shrink the lots a bit, add many more towering trees and azalea bushes, which in full bloom appear like flames at the foundations of the homes, and that’s what you see immediately behind these large apartment houses.  You leave a large building but then walk amongst quiet neighborhoods in an interesting merger of lifestyles.

Another fascinating aspect of Connecticut Avenue is it is a daily game of chicken on the road.  Connecticut Ave. is five lanes wide, and in the morning rush south to downtown, four of those five lanes become southbound traffic, and in the evening rush, it is reversed.  Four lanes head north while only one comes south.  I can imagine oblivious out of town visitors clipping along in the usual two lanes, only to see an onslaught of cars coming from the other direction.  It’s a bold and white-knuckled solution to major city commuter traffic.

See all the southbound cars?  Only the lane with the jeep at far right goes north during the morning rush hour.

So thank you Valerie, for opening up your incredible home to me once again.  I can’t wait to come back.

With my home situated in the Syracuse University neighborhood, and with a son and two graduate student boarders under my roof, I live the rhythm of the academic year.   It’s difficult to believe that “year” is winding down again so soon.

Jianan, my Master’s Degree candidate in Piano Performance from Dalian, China will receive her degree next month, however the biggest stress is over.  Jianan held her final academic recital yesterday at Setnor Auditorium in Crouse College and knocked it out of the park with five pieces ranging from Bach in the Baroque Period, to the 20th century Prokofiev.  Her selection by Bach was particularly special as she performed it on harpsichord, a true challenge because of a dual, petite keyboard with buttons that are pulled and pushed while playing to change the tone.

Jianan’s proud parents are staying with us for this last exciting month for Jianan.  Jianan will return to China for the summer but she will return to the U.S. to begin a Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois in August.  At this point in her life, she hopes to teach at a Chinese University someday, but you never know.  Life sweeps us up and she may be called to the concert stage.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to share that talent with the world?

Here are some photos of the reception held after Jianan’s performance yesterday.  She was concerned about the heavily Chinese cuisine, prepared in my kitchen by Jianan’s mother Li Na who woke up at 5:00 am to begin the work.  You’ll see in the photo there was no need to worry.  All the authentic home-cooked Chinese food went first.  The only food remaining at the end were the American vegetables and dip and cheese platter.

So, Bravo to Jianan for her outstanding piano performance and props to Li Na and Mr. Yu whose name I cannot even begin to spell phonetically.  Mr. Yu did dish duty all day long.  They were a good team and are a beautiful family.

Celebratory photos and the delightful Mr. Yu

After party at the house

I’ve been away lately, first in Fredericksburg, Virginia and then in Richmond, 70 miles further south on I-95.

Usually a trip that far south in the month of March brings a rapid transport to spring, with pink and white flowering trees, the yellow forsythia and shades of chartreuse unfurling in the woods.  It’s a welcome shot of color after all those months of gray here at home.

This trip though, was different.  It doesn’t look that much farther along in the seasons in central Virginia than it does in central New York.  The entire east coast enjoyed a mild winter this year, but the swing was more dramatic in the northeast.  So when you heard we had a “Virginia winter” this year, you can follow that up with a Virginia spring too.  I’ll be the first to admit I would love more winters like the one we just had, even if the flip side of that is more bugs and mold such as we are expecting in the coming months.

I visited my Salve Regina College chum, Syracuse native Dee Antil who has lived in Fredericksburg for almost 20 years.  Prior to that, she lived in Charleston, South Carolina and it was that time in her life that prompted my trip to see her.  I was Dee’s guest at the wedding of the daughter of one of her Charleston friends.

It’s funny.  We attend the weddings of friends for what seems like forever, but then suddenly it stops for awhile, and then we start it all up again, going to the weddings of the friend’s children.   Life is spinning.

In the 25 year gap between my last trip to Charleston and this one, I had forgotten how special is this glorious little city.  It has everything I love in abundance; history, weather, palm trees, water, architecture, great restaurants and some shopping.   The cobblestone streets are furiously bumpy and the real estate is out of reach.  It’s great.

I didn’t take a lot of photographs while there, but here are a few.

Fried Okra, a crispy treat at the markets

I love these giant topiaries outside The Doubletree Inn.

Dee and I at the wedding reception, Carolina Yacht Club

How stunning is the back of the wedding dress?

Sparklers in the night to bid farewell to the couple