Here Comes Summer

It took Saturday and Sunday to get my energy and strength back after the workshop and Monday I was still a bit slow.  I had not exercised or gotten into the garden or done any of my own writing for at least ten days.  Finally, Wednesday I got back into THE HOUR OF MY DEATH and Thursday, I wrote my first poem in three weeks. 

Tomorrow evening, Saturday, Bonnie and David are coming over.  I’ve known them since my Cambridge days – 1974 or 1973 when I lived part time in a commune, going between Wellfleet and Boston.  When you spend part of a week in one place and part in another, whatever you need at any given time is always in the other place.

Summer humidity has arrived with a great clunk.  No rain, just air you could spread like butter.  However, the gardens are happy right now.  I think very soon we’ll have zucchini and patty-pans.  We’re eating lots of broccoli and bok choi still and salad greens including six kinds of lettuce and arugula and red mustard.  Lots of fresh herbs.  I froze two and a half quarts of rhubarb this week and made three containers of  June pesto – made with garlic scapes.  It’s milder than basil pesto, but delicious.  Great on fish.

Woody will spit roast a chicken for Bonnie and David.  I’ll make Lyonnaise potatoes and a peach dessert.  We’ll have some kind of hors d’oeuvres, and salad from our garden. Woody is doing his usual Friday shopping.  I’ll be freezing locally grown strawberries today with a hint of sugar. We need at least 15 pints and a couple of quarts.  It’s such a treat come winter to find them in the freezer and use them for fruit salads, pies, and breakfast cereal. Also, I like to make as much strawberry freezer jam as I can.  Freezer jams don’t require as much sugar as canned strawberry jam and the fruit flavor is stronger. 

Tonight, a stir fry with bok choi and broccoli from our garden and mushrooms from the store along with ginger root.  This morning we spent time looking for lodging in mid-July. We’re going to western Massachusetts to see a play that Jay, Melenie’s husband, co-wrote about his early life and sexual abuse by a priest and what followed.  We’ll get back as early as we can as the traffic on Friday can be backed up for miles to get over both bridges.  The Cape has crowded up early this year – already Route 6 is bumper to bumper at times and dangerous – three accidents last week alone.

Shaman celebrated his anniversary of being adopted last year. Woody keeps asking him if he likes it here but he hasn’t answered.