I’ve been enjoying writing poetry but this week I noticed that I had begun to miss fiction. I came up with what I considered a good idea for a short story and began it. The problem has been finding sufficient time to write it. I’ve written 5 ½ pp so far but every time I think I’ll have a block of time, something comes up. Yesterday it was the electrician that Woody called to look at something in his mancave. Still I managed to write 2 ½ pp before it was time to go off to Orleans to get some supplies that we need.I have been freezing local strawberries. I hate California strawberries: they’re wooden, huge and tasteless. I froze 9 pints, a container for a pie and a container of pureed strawberries for a mousse. I also made 5 ½ pints of strawberry freezer jam, one of my favorite jams. I have also been freezing broccoli. Thursday evening I was just too tired to cook, so we went out to Russ & Marie’s for a great meal.It’s been quite dry after last weekend’s downpour. It was glorious for a few days, warm but not hot, sunny, with low humidity. Now the heat and humidity are edging up but there’s no rain in sight. We have a number of roses in full bloom, plus annuals I started –cosmos, three kinds of marigolds –and the perennial goatsbeard is in full dramatic bloom. The daylilies are starting. We have some gypsy moths chewing our trees but not many. Parts of Truro – the next town north of here – is bare as winter in places. Wellfleet doesn’t seem to be hit as hard this year as last, when it looked like December in June and their frass rained down on our heads. A stand of red pines that had been beautiful since I moved here in ’71 is entirely dead.We’re already getting plenty of pattypans, yellow squash and zucchini – that’s summer to me as are the tomatoes when they come. It was a wet spring so there is an abundance of moquitoes and ticks. Last summer was too dry for mosquitoes. We had to put up a mosquito net yesterday and I used it because one of those pesky ones that lurk in the bedroom and prevent you from sleeping was right there circling me. Willow loved the net. Some cats find it great fun and secure besides, but others dislike it or ignore it. Oboe used to climb it.I am not looking forward to July 4^th. The Cape is crowded already and amateur fireworks are banging away every evening. Every parking place in town is occupied. One of my previous poets George Longenecker sent me his new book, so I’ll hunker down and read the manuscript in preparation for giving him a blurb. I don’t plan to leave the house until the 5^th of July.We’re mostly pleased with the gardens this year. Most plants seem healthy and all three gardens are belching out produce at a fierce rate. I have trouble keeping up, but that’ a good problem to have.