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Mary Simses QUOTES

Mary Simses QUOTES

1 " At the top, I put the camera's viewfinder to my eye and slowly turned, the way my grandmother had taught me. From every vantage point something remarkable filled the screen- clusters of wild red columbine, fallen boulders forming geometric designs against the wall, crusty green lichen gnawing on rocks, a Baltimore oriole popping from a thicket of brush, and, at my feet, a grasshopper clinging to a stem of purple aster. I could spend a day here and barely scratch the surface.
The sun felt warm on my shoulders as I bent down to capture the blossoms of yellow star grass, the feathery purple petals of spotted knapweed, and the lacy wings of two yellow jackets as they alighted on tiny white blossoms of Labrador tea. By the time I finished taking photos of a monarch butterfly resting on milkweed, I realized an hour had passed. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

2 " I have many wonderful memories of this days we had together. It would make me happy to know that at least a few of your memories of me are good ones. I wonder if you ever think about sitting under that oak tree, with the cicadas buzzing, and, at night, the crickets. Or how the ice used to cover the blueberry bushes in the winter, giving them that dreamy look. Or how we used to sell the pies for your mother at the roadside stand.
I still think of you whenever I see blueberries. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

3 " I have many wonderful memories of those days we had together. It would make me happy to know that at least a few of your memories of me are good ones. I wonder if you ever think about sitting under that oak tree, with the cicadas buzzing, and, at night, the crickets. Or how the ice used to cover the blueberry bushes in the winter, giving them that dreamy look. Or how we used to sell the pies for your mother at the roadside stand.
I still think of you whenever I see blueberries. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

4 " I guess that's the lesson in all of this-not to be eighty years old, looking back on your life, wondering if you made the right choice or how your life might have been different if you'd done one thing and not another. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

5 " At the edge of the lot, wildflowers had taken over, forming a thick border. I stopped to pick a bouquet of gold buttercups and yellow-and-white oxeye daisies. I plucked a sprig of Queen Anne's lace and watched a black swallowtail butterfly land on a branch of goldenrod. Then I stretched and took a deep breath. The air was mellow and sweet. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

6 " Yeah, this place needs a better-quality blueberry muffin." I raised a pointed finger. "And I could provide it."
"You sound pretty sure of yourself," Jim said, placing a pat of butter on his baked potato.
"And there are always blueberry pies," I said, pausing to think of other possibilities. "Turnovers, cakes, croissants..." I popped the fry into my mouth. "I don't think anybody's done blueberry croissants."
"No," Jim said slowly. "I don't think they have."
"Of course, I'd sell some other things, too. Can't all be blueberries," I mused as I began to envision the bakery- a tray of lemon pound cake, peach cobbler in a fluted casserole, a basket of pomegranate-and-ginger muffins. I could see myself pulling a baking sheet of cookies from the oven, the smell of melted chocolate in the air. There would be white wooden tables and chairs in the front room, and people could order coffee and sandwiches. Maybe even tea sandwiches, like the ones Gran used to make. Cucumber and arugula. Bacon and egg. Curried chicken. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

7 " There was a little sketch pad with a pink paper cover, a packet of handwritten notes in what looked like my grandmother's handwriting, a silk scarf of water lilies on a blue background, a black fountain pen with an ornate silver hand on it, a book of poems by American poets with a number of pages dog-eared (I made a mental note to see if "Mending Wall" was in there), a magnifying glass with a carved wooden handle, a book called 'Native Flowers of New England' with a ragged cloth binding, another clothbound book called the 'Berry Farmer's Companion', and a stack of twenty faded black-and-white photographs. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

8 " I grabbed a menu and looked at the selections. There were several tempting salads, including one with field greens, goat cheese, pecans, raisins, and fresh sliced apple. The tuna salad also looked good- albacore, diced celery, onion, capers, and mayonnaise, served on mixed greens. Capers? I'd never heard of putting capers in tuna salad. It sounded interesting.
Farther down the menu I saw sandwiches. Rare roast beef and Brie with sliced tomato on a toasted French baguette. That sounded great, but I'd have to forgo the Brie- too much cholesterol. But then, without the Brie, what did you really have but just another roast beef sandwich? The chicken salad sandwich also looked good, with baby greens, tomato, sprouts, grapes, and crumbled Gorgonzola, but there was the issue of the cheese again. Then I saw something that really caught my eye- the Thanksgiving Special. Oven-roasted turkey breast, savory stuffing, and fresh cranberry sauce on whole wheat bread. Perfect. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

9 " Are you feeling any better?" I asked.
He nodded. "A lot better. I think it's fine."
I looked at his ankle. It still looked puffy to me. "Well, you need to be careful. You know what the... uh... doctor said." I would take the knowledge that Dr. Peter Herbert's patients typically had four legs with me to my grave. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

10 " Meat loaf. Of all the things to eat, why would somebody want to eat meat loaf? Give me a nice piece of yellowfin tuna or a simple breast of chicken in a white wine reduction- but meat loaf? Oh, well. Maybe some people would consider my food choices equally odd. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

11 " I'll have a cup of coffee and one of your blueberry muffins." She sighed and looked at me. "Your grandmother was such a good cook. Her blueberry muffins were extraordinary."
"Yes, they were," I said, and I was back on Steiner Street again, Gran and I taking muffins from her tins and placing them on a wire rack to cool, the smell of baked sugar hanging in the oven-warmed air, the muffin tops covered with rivers of blue where the berries had melted from the heat. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

12 " Her walk-in closet greeted me with the smell of lavender. Hanging rods held Chanel suits and sale-rack department store dresses side by side. Shelves displayed sweaters of every color from peach to cranberry. I brushed my hand over a pink sweater. The cashmere was soft as a cloud. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

13 " Roy. Roy Cummings.” I gazed at the watered-down "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

14 " I called it the garden room because it had a white wooden bed, pale green carpet, and wallpaper decorated with vines and flowers. "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

15 " His eyes were so bright and so blue, like the waters of the Caribbean, clear and deep and full of bright yellow fish and purple ferns and red coral, and they were pulling me in, those eyes, and I was going under, ready to hold my breath and take the dive... "

― Mary Simses , The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe