Art Teacher in the Summer

Summer can be such a luxury of rest and relaxation. I LOVE just meandering through a day (or week) doing whatever comes to mind as fun. Reading is always a big part of my life and last week it was these two books:

Sundance, by David Fuller, continues the story of the Sundance Kid after we left him in South America in the movie. Apparently, it is unclear what actually happened to Butch Cassidy and "The Kid" in real life. Perhaps they died in South America, perhaps not. This historical novel follows the premise that Harry (the Kid) returns to the United States, is caught and imprisoned for train robbery, and once released goes to New York in search of Etta, his wife. It is an engaging read, steeped in the flavor of New York in the early 1900s, that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. 

Still Life with Bread Crumbs explores the life of a sixty year old photographer who moves from New York City to the country for financial reasons and builds a new life for herself in a small town. I always enjoy reading Quindlen and summer is the perfect time for this novel.

I always make time in the summer to make jam from the Blenheim apricots that are only available at our Farmer's Market for 3 weeks of the year. Some friends joined me one morning for the project. We all now have our supply of jam to last us until next July! I am thinking about having kids use oil pastels to draw apricots from some of my photos. The colors are just luscious.