September | 2017 | Peter L. Masi

Click here to read Catalog 237
well, ‘summer’s almost gone, winter’s tunin’ up’ (‘sincerely, l. cohen’) – old home days in montague & august papermania serve as annual reminders, along with shorter days, cooler nights — relatively wet & cool summer here – tho’ not ‘epic’ – ala Houston or last summer’s drought – somewhat counterintuitively garden having tough time – effort devoted to new fence not spent hauling in hay to manage weeds & look nice – young deer decided new fence perfect to practice for deer Olympics hurdle event – source of some nutritious snackage aussi – young pea & pepper & beet greens & escarole greens – defensive tactics semi-effective – tomato blight back bigly – spread to potatoes – squashes & cucumbers unhappily hosted powdery mildew – cabbage moths back from last year’s vacation – bye-bye brassicas – flea beetles ate young eggplants now staging heroic revival – peas aplenty in spite, few good beds of salad greens, beans produced few pre-beetle pickings, fair crops of summer squashes & cucumbers before succumbing, onions enough for winter, beets rallied a bit, blighted tomatoes producing enough for sandwiches, gazpacho, tomato-basil pasta sauce, dozen or so quarts canned – froze much pesto, basil now yellowed – peppers producing prodigiously – small corn crop, buttercup squash plants perished, but butternut persists & produces – raspberries enough to preserve, picked blueberries twice, gone on breakfast granola, 2 cakes – first cord of firewood delivered & stacked – 3 to go – zach passed board exam, head radiological resident for final year at cooper in Camden, sharing new philadelphia living quarters with ducom friend – humming ‘when i’m 64’ as of august 5 – dined with edie at blue rock in Shelburne falls – Allentown, pioneer valley & boston shows on deck for fall, hopefully with catalogs in between – national politics producing chronic elevated metaphysical distress – details tediously astonishing – third installment for shorter catalog format – herein another mixed bag of recent acquisitions – second installment from former pharmacist don brodeur – first of massive haul from sadly defunct American textile history museum in Lowell, standard histories & overviews, much more to come – have offered many minor subjects over decades due to customer with circumspect collecting – David L. Cole of san marino collected automotive travel, bought from me forever, sent ‘how to date a roadmap’, his explanation of map publisher codes, sent him regular lengthy lists of roadmaps, tourist brochures, he bought much, collected every variant, sent detailed typed letter with payment discussing purchases, details i missed, how item fit his collection, occasionally allowing some unknown minor gas company, or filling unexpected collection gap – son emailed after last offering with news of his death – irreplaceable gentleman, lingering interest, mere sampling within – catalogs, cooking, expositions, usual odds’n’sods – hopefully something of interest for you – peter