That First Perfect Weekend

It happens every year --- that first glorious weekend in Gloucester when the sun is brilliant and warm, the breezes off the ocean are salty and cool, the air is fragrant with sea salt and flowers and everyone is out wandering around drunk on the beauty of the day. We’re all a little bit daffy then. The temperature on the bank clock reads 57 degrees but nobody believes it. We put on summer clothes because we can’t stand wool and fleece one more day. There are people everywhere, walking, cycling, driving, sitting, basking in the sunlight. The dogs go nuts. Summer will come and soon.

It is hard to stay inside. Saturday was needleworker’s day and we gathered in Connie’s beautiful living room to work on our projects but the light was so beautiful shining down on the twin lighthouses of Thacher’s Island that we watched them all day. The waves were high and foaming white with little rainbows dancing off of them as they rolled and rolled and rolled. “Look at the waves,” we kept saying, “have they ever been as beautiful?”

There were so many birds at the feeders. The male cardinal showed up for the first time in awhile, so brilliantly red it was hard to look at him he was too beautiful. On the way home I bought sea scallops fresh from George’s Bank. They are not as big as the ones you see in the winter and darker in color --- the color of a baroque pearl --- but so delicious. They have so much more flavor but then everything does just now.

Sunday morning I met my friend for breakfast at Cape Ann Coffee and as we ate and talked and talked and talked blossoms from the cherry and apple trees swirled by on the wind. Everywhere there are flowers. Tulips like boldly colored eggs pop out of the ground and spread their petals to the light. It is Spring. It is Spring. The North Shore Arts Association opened today. Next Sunday is the opening party. I am giving a talk on blogs and how to use them. Somehow I find that funny.

And the best part of Spring, the white lilacs outside my front door are beginning to bloom. What smells more like promise than lilacs? Everything will be all right because it is Spring and the flowers are back and the waves are high and the birds are singing.

I went a little crazy and bought a bunch of fabric. I haven’t been sewing all winter and I miss it. For me sewing is a very peaceful, centering, nurturing activity. I started cleaning up the sewing room last week and then I saw all this gorgeous fabric and I couldn’t resist it --- pure, soft cotton in dusty rose, periwinkle blue and aqua the color of the light coming through the waves just as they crest and begin to turn over. I found a stash of sueded rayon, one of my favorite fabrics because it is soft and yet has such lovely drape. I can’t wait to have some time to myself in my sewing room. I know what I want to make.

And so it was that first perfect weekend . Today is cool and overcast but that doesn’t matter, it is Spring and Summer is on its way. (Below, photo by Dun Fudgin in front of East Gloucester School)

Thanks for reading.