I
had the hardest time settling on a theme for this month’s post. And for once
the list of “Bizarre and Unique Holidays” that I tend to consult was no help at
all. For instance, did you know that today is National Cream Filled Donut Day?
Yeah, me, neither. And given that cream-filled has never been my go-to donut, I
didn’t really see what I could do with that. Last Sunday was National
Grandparents’ Day. Um...I’m not saying I have any kind of big announcement to
make or anything just yet, but it is entirely
possible I will have reason to be
very excited about that particular holiday next
year. But it’s a tad premature right now.
“Maybe,”
I said to myself, “I’ll have better luck if I check out the monthly holidays
rather than the daily ones?” So that’s what I did. And, ladies and gentlemen, I’m
happy to tell you I struck gold.
Where’s
a drumroll when you need one? Oh, wait; here it is.
So September,
it turns out, is National Honey Month, National Chicken Month AND National
Little League Baseball Month. Which probably means nothing whatsoever to most
of you. To me, however, it’s a total trifecta, a hat-trick of holidays, if you
will.
See,
there’s this little book I wrote a gazillion years ago (okay, it’s not that
little, really, and maybe it wasn’t quite that long ago) called Taste of Honey.
It’s always been one of my favorites...but, shhh, don’t tell the other stories
that I said so.
The
heroine of A Taste of Honey, Lucy, keeps bees, raises chickens, and has a
teenage son who plays Little League Baseball. And those three things are absolutely critical to her story. I mean,
seriously, if it weren’t for the bees, the chickens and the son, she wouldn’t
even have a story. So that requires an excerpt, right?
If
you’d like to read more about Lucy and Dan but don’t want to commit to a whole
book (or a whole series) I’ve made the prequel to their story free to anyone
who joins my Facebook group, The Crone’s Nest. https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheCronesNest/
Unfortunately,
there are no bees, chickens or son in the prequel, but young Lucy and Dan are
still pretty hot. At least, I’ve always thought so.
EXCERPT:
Lucy
drove out to the nursery early that afternoon, with the windows rolled
down. No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom, an album she’d ‘liberated’ from her teenage son’s
music collection several years earlier, was blasting from the Explorer’s CD
player, and a plan for fixing the deteriorating relationship between her
husband and her son was cooking in her head.
In fact, if things worked out the way she hoped they would, she might
even be able to give her own relationship with Dan some added spice.
It was a glorious Spring day. The air along the coast was warm and lushly
scented with yerba buena, eucalyptus and sage.
Fat, majestic puffs sailed across the sky, casting cloud-shaped shadows onto
the earth and sea below, further mottling the already variegated
landscape. When she turned off the coast
road onto the canyon drive that led to the nursery, she saw that the hills that lined the way, gray-green,
emerald, and gold for most of the year, had been transformed. They’d blossomed overnight into an almost
endless expanse of orange and
blue--mostly California poppies and lupine--disrupted only where the spiky silver
foliage and dried flower heads of wild artichokes broke through to tower above
them.
It was the same thing that happened
every year, but, as always, the beauty of it took her by surprise and made her
catch her breath.
It was a perfect day for a picnic,
she had decided after leaving Marsha and Scout that morning; and so she had
gone home and packed a basket with which she hoped to tempt Dan to join her at
Seth’s ball game this afternoon.
The relationship between the two men
in her life had become so strained of late.
And, even though she had taken care to pack all of Dan’s
favorites--marinated artichoke hearts, olives stuffed with sun dried tomatoes,
roasted eggplant and goat cheese sandwiches on fresh foccacia bread, and a
mint-mango salad--she wasn’t sure that even that would do the trick.
It
wasn’t so much that she feared her husband’s relationship with their son was in
any real danger of becoming irrevocably damaged, as had happened to Dan’s
relationship with his own father; although the possibility had certainly
occurred to her, and more than once. It
was just that it was so very obvious how much both he and Seth were suffering
from their estrangement. And it would be
good for Seth to see that, annoyed as he often was with him, his father still
supported his efforts.
Besides,
she knew very well that her own attendance at his games was almost more
frustrating for Seth than supportive.
Despite all her years as a spectator, Lucy still seemed to be missing
the finer points of the game. Their
mutual interest in baseball had always been a passion that Dan and Seth enjoyed
sharing. And really, what was the point
of sports, if not to allow men the opportunity to renew their bonds with one
another without shedding too much blood?
She
pulled off the road before she reached the nursery’s main entrance, unlocked
one of the gates that led directly into the fields, and detoured through the
back of the nursery’s grounds to check on her hives. Sunlight shimmered in the air, and as she
walked through the field she breathed in deep lungfuls scented with the heady
fragrance of flowering plants and warm earth.
The bees were everywhere; crawling on the flowers, filling the air with
their busy flights, and clustering around the hives’ entrances in a carefully
choreographed confusion. Lucy reminded
herself to keep all her movements slow as she moved among them. She was entranced by their gentleness as they
detoured around her. Even without the
honey, she’d enjoy keeping them. Of
course, she hadn’t been stung yet, although everyone who worked with bees
assured her that it was inevitable, and she hadn’t yet been forced to contend
with a swarm, either. Perhaps she’d feel
a little less enthusiastic after either of those occurred. But for now, it was a terrific little
sideline business.
She watched the bees for several
minutes longer, observing their activity, trying to take a count of the bees as
they moved in and out of the hives, as she’d been taught to do; looking for
anything unusual, any suggestion that the hives were ailing. Finally, satisfied that all was well, she
slowly turned and walked back towards her car.
She’d come back out here this weekend, with all her equipment, so she
could inspect the hives properly, but right now, she had an even more
interesting project to work on.
Seth was not the only one whose
bonds with Dan could use a little renewing, she thought. It had been months since she and Dan had
enjoyed the kind of romantic adventure she had planned for them. Altogether too many months. And man could not live by sports alone.
She’d included a jar of her honey in
the picnic basket. If she and Dan could
find a private, secluded little spot for their picnic, perhaps she’d find a way
to increase his appreciation for her new hobby.
* * * * *
For Lucy Greco Cavanaugh, life is a dream come true. She has it all, the perfect family, the perfect husband, the perfect marriage. What more could she wish for other than the chance to do it all again? To experience once more the agony and ecstasy of falling in love with the man of her dreams. To recapture the joy and uncertainty that comes with starting over. Sometimes you get exactly what you wish for... and it's more than you ever dreamed.
https://www.amazon.com/Taste-Honey-Oberon-Book-ebook/dp/B00143YIEQ
For Lucy Greco Cavanaugh, life is a dream come true. She has it all, the perfect family, the perfect husband, the perfect marriage. What more could she wish for other than the chance to do it all again? To experience once more the agony and ecstasy of falling in love with the man of her dreams. To recapture the joy and uncertainty that comes with starting over. Sometimes you get exactly what you wish for... and it's more than you ever dreamed.
https://www.amazon.com/Taste-Honey-Oberon-Book-ebook/dp/B00143YIEQ
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