It’s like living in a light bulb, with the leaves Like filaments and the sky a shell of thin, transparent glass Enclosing the late heaven of a summer day, a canopy Of incandescent blue above the dappled sunlight golden on the grass. -John Koethe “Sally’s Hair” Reading: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s powerful, moving, exquisite new book, Between …

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Summer arrived in full sunny, sweaty force. I’ve been immersed in my annual Tour de France viewing (tomorrow’s penultimate stage features the iconic climb of Alpe d’Huez). The Tour always brings me back to the summer after college when I was mostly unemployed except for a few odd …

Sometimes, there’s nothing better than sitting outside on the deck with your husband and your dog with a refreshing popsicle in your hand and a sticky drip running down your arm. Like watermelon, I think popsicles are meant to be eaten outdoors in the open air on a hot and sunny summer day. These lemon …

This summer I’ve fallen hard for lovage. It was never really on my radar before. I had heard of it. I was vaguely aware that it was some sort of green, leafy, herby kinda thing, but I couldn’t have described its flavor or told you a good use for it or even picked it out …

I love elderflowers. When I saw that Seedling Farm was selling them at the Green City Market last week, I immediately bought a flat of them. They are delicate tiny flowers that have a brief season and a big heady fragrance. They are mildly floral, slightly anise-y, and they pair beautifully with citrus flavors. They’re …

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” –Maud Hart Lovelace Betsy-Tacy and Tib Watching: The riveting BBC screen adaptation of HIlary Mantel’s Wolf Hall that recently aired on PBS. It’s a brooding, visually dark, and sumptuously rendered piece of historical political intrigue with an all-star cast …