For a moment, your writing made me romanticize the humidity and heat…. and then back to reality, I know I do not like this at all! But it all sounds magical ❤️
Ms. Mayes. The brilliance of your writing is a skill that can’t be taught or learned. It’s innate. Love reading your pieces and, at 77, Creedence Clearwater was a band favorite. The music of my formative years has passed the test of time. May your quill be forever sharp and inkwell always full. Safe travels.
What moves me most is exactly what you've touched here — the way weather can carry us back. The first rain of the year, the first hot day, and suddenly we're leaping from one memory to another. Those are the details that make me sit down and write.
My first kiss was a June more than twenty-five years ago, and to this day a certain daylight brings it back — bright but cold, sunny with plump clouds, the kind of light that comes the day after rain. I recognize it and think: it must be like that June day. And it always is.
Read this at breakfast the day we are leaving Paris. It's in the grips of a canicule in the 100 degrees that will make NC seem balmy when we return. Nice to see this withering weather through your always sensitive eyes. And return mentally to the books of my youth. Look Homeward Angel! O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again...forever etched in my heart.
The Summer light in North Carolina is especially gold. I can’t wait to have the first watermelon salad of the season . Loved the Correspondent. Don’t waist your time on Theo of Golden. As I write this comment I’m waiting for the news on the birth of my first grand child. Summer just makes living better.! ☀️☀️👩🍼👩🍼
Oh Frances I just experienced an Italian hospital 2 weeks ago in Asti. Luckily mine was a trip on cobblestones so only needed stitches. I waited in the ER for 4 hours before seeing a non English speaking doc but his nurse was fluent. I then ask the friendly nurse to please call a taxi; however they stop running at midnight and my apartment was in the next village! However the friendly cab driver had given me his number so all was fixed!!!
I grew up in Florida so I can identify with the humidity tolerance skill. Boiled peanuts and an ice cold beer (in my adult life), sitting on the deck looking at the beautiful Gulf of America on St. George Island. Nothing better! Living in the eastern Sierra of CA now and I do miss the south. Safe travels back to Italy. We will be there for three weeks beginning the end of October. (Bagno a Ripoli area) By the way, I made your roasted peppers with basil and ricotta from the Under the Tuscan Sun cookbook. It was amazingly delicious.
More and more, I'm realizing how great an impact those childhood memories have had on my creative life. Images of place in both written (Faulkner! Wright Morris! Fitzgerald!) and visual (alll those trips with my mother to the Art Institute of Chicago for Wood, Seurat, Hopper, Monet and Hokusai’s "Great Wave") formed me in ways that I'm only now beginning to understand.
Hope you're managing the heat in Cortona - we're back in the US for a few weeks.
Peanuts and Fanta orange pop, racing my cousins eating corn on the cob, or even better fresh picked watermelon 🍉, summertime memories.
What a beautiful way to evoke summer through food.
For a moment, your writing made me romanticize the humidity and heat…. and then back to reality, I know I do not like this at all! But it all sounds magical ❤️
Ms. Mayes. The brilliance of your writing is a skill that can’t be taught or learned. It’s innate. Love reading your pieces and, at 77, Creedence Clearwater was a band favorite. The music of my formative years has passed the test of time. May your quill be forever sharp and inkwell always full. Safe travels.
Thank you--so sweet!
What moves me most is exactly what you've touched here — the way weather can carry us back. The first rain of the year, the first hot day, and suddenly we're leaping from one memory to another. Those are the details that make me sit down and write.
My first kiss was a June more than twenty-five years ago, and to this day a certain daylight brings it back — bright but cold, sunny with plump clouds, the kind of light that comes the day after rain. I recognize it and think: it must be like that June day. And it always is.
oh, this made me crave a Cheerwine!
Read this at breakfast the day we are leaving Paris. It's in the grips of a canicule in the 100 degrees that will make NC seem balmy when we return. Nice to see this withering weather through your always sensitive eyes. And return mentally to the books of my youth. Look Homeward Angel! O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again...forever etched in my heart.
Mine too!
The Summer light in North Carolina is especially gold. I can’t wait to have the first watermelon salad of the season . Loved the Correspondent. Don’t waist your time on Theo of Golden. As I write this comment I’m waiting for the news on the birth of my first grand child. Summer just makes living better.! ☀️☀️👩🍼👩🍼
I’m from Albany GA and I’m feelin it
Oh Frances I just experienced an Italian hospital 2 weeks ago in Asti. Luckily mine was a trip on cobblestones so only needed stitches. I waited in the ER for 4 hours before seeing a non English speaking doc but his nurse was fluent. I then ask the friendly nurse to please call a taxi; however they stop running at midnight and my apartment was in the next village! However the friendly cab driver had given me his number so all was fixed!!!
Memorable adventure!
Lovely!
Love your descriptive writing. Have a wonderful trip
Sounds like you are having a great time. ENJOY
There is nothing better than a family gathering.
I grew up in Florida so I can identify with the humidity tolerance skill. Boiled peanuts and an ice cold beer (in my adult life), sitting on the deck looking at the beautiful Gulf of America on St. George Island. Nothing better! Living in the eastern Sierra of CA now and I do miss the south. Safe travels back to Italy. We will be there for three weeks beginning the end of October. (Bagno a Ripoli area) By the way, I made your roasted peppers with basil and ricotta from the Under the Tuscan Sun cookbook. It was amazingly delicious.
The bookshelf 🤍🤍🤍
More and more, I'm realizing how great an impact those childhood memories have had on my creative life. Images of place in both written (Faulkner! Wright Morris! Fitzgerald!) and visual (alll those trips with my mother to the Art Institute of Chicago for Wood, Seurat, Hopper, Monet and Hokusai’s "Great Wave") formed me in ways that I'm only now beginning to understand.
Hope you're managing the heat in Cortona - we're back in the US for a few weeks.