Black caccoons, beige moths
Most of the gypsy caterpillars have spun black cocoons that hang like evil fruit on trees and the witch hazel. However, many moths have already transformed. Thousands of them are fluttering about, all males of course. The females hatch, sit on the branches they have stripped bare and wait to get laid. Then they will deposit hundreds of eggs to hatch into more hungry caterpillars. I saw the first sizable tomato yesterday, pale green, no longer dark green. Maybe a week? We have Japanese eggplants extremely early and I’ve started cooking them. We are eating cucumbers, finochio, still a salad or two before the lettuce is done, the first peppers, zucchini. This week we were inundated by pattypans. We ate a bunch and I steamed, pureed and froze two quart containers for winter. I have been cutting lavender blossoms to put in the drawers with my sweaters this winter to keep the clothing moths away. I use the ends of old tights to make sachets. My herb garden is tremendously productive and beautiful. We have loads of rosemary, lavender, tarragon [I am hoping woody can find some white vinegar for me so I can make tarragon vinegar], lemon verbena, lovage, oregano, sweet marjoram, dill, summer savory, lemon basil and purple basil. My new herb garden is in a raised bed Woody built last fall. The old herb garden across the path is up to woody to tend; mint, more lovage, chives, sorrel and sage plus bright yellow marigolds I started in March. I have been writing poems; I was doing garden work until it got oppressively hot and humid today. I’m catching up on housework and revising recent poems. I have been on a kick to get rid of old books, clothes I no longer wear and objects of little or no use. I got rid of a bunch of vases last week to the swap shop at the dump. Who needs 35 vases? I kept those I liked best and actually often use. Friends have given me many vases over the years so I hesitated to get rid of them, since they were presents, but the time has come. I have been looking for a kitten. Unfortunately, Joan Norris at The Last Resort has no kittens left. That’s where wonderful Willow came from. Joan really socializes her kittens. However, CASAS, the shelter in Provincetown, has kittens, so we went by this Tuesday and met a litter of seven. We had a terrible time deciding, but finally narrowed choi ces to two. We settled on an all black kitten with longish hair,Penelope. We’ll change her name when we bring her home September 8th. She’s still too young and hasn’t had her shots yet. I have wanted a black cat for years. I had one decades ago in Chicago, Tamerlane. Woody is worried about how the other cats will react. We will try to give everybody extra attention. I hope the introductions go smoothly and that huge and powerful Xena behaves well. Only Mingus has been going out to the screened in gazebo most summer days. Two days ago we found him playing with a chipmunk that lives under the gazebo. The next day, they were together again. As far as I can tell, he has not even tried to hurt it and it comes and goes as it pleases through a tiny hole. One reason I prefer shelter cats is that they tend to have all their cat instincts intact. Any hurting urge or ability has been bred out of Mingus. That’s sweet -- but we live in the woods and animals come into the house with some regularity. We need cats who know how to catch mice – and not let them go. Xena is magnificent and a skillful hunter. She does not play with her prey at all but kills at once, usually with a blow or a bite to the neck. She’s a true working cat. Now she has taken on Willow as an apprentice. Last night we had supper at the Bookstore Restaurant with Woody’s youngest brother, Danny, his wife Linda, and their two daughters, Julia, who's in the business program at Vilanova, and Lillia, just beginning at the Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse. It was a great time and a long time since we’ve spent time with them. They were staying quite a distance away in Yarmouthport, so Woody gave them a tour of Provincetown yesterday including a visit to WOMR where people on the staff showed them how a radio program is produced.