I started this week making real progress on my book.  Then Wednesday I had a routine appointment with my doctor, a six-month checkup. He decided that I needed to be given two vaccines, a booster for Covid and a pneumonia vaccine. He also went out to the lobby and brought Woody back for his Covid booster.

The new pneumonia vaccine is nothing like the old ones, far, far more powerful and supposed to be much more effective against more strains of pneumonia. We both were getting sick from the Covid vaccine – as we both always do – as the day wore on. By supper, I couldn’t eat and Woody had little appetite. We both spent a tortured night without sleep.  I was miserably sick the next day Woody had an appointment in Hyannis as his truck was fixed.  He had to go as the traffic will be unbearable this weekend and he needs the truck. It cost $1000 to get the window fixed. We’re beginning to understand why our new/used truck was such a bargain. Did they just want to get it off the lot? They actually said we were very lucky as that was the last part ordered before the nationwide car dealer software attack.

Finally Friday morning I was back to normal.  I had a lot of freezing to do – a quart of strawberries and then 6 ½ pints went into strawberry freezer jam.  Made six half pints. We love that.  It tastes much fresher than regular canned jam.  Then I froze broccoli.  Today I froze more broccoli.  I just got back to my book today with great pleasure. 

For two years, some creature ate all the broccoli I had started and nurtured along in the greenhouse and also the red cabbage – ate them down to the ground.  Last year, Woody put up protection around both crops and whatever wanted to gobble them, couldn’t.  We got plenty this year to eat and to freeze.  The red cabbage is doing fine this far – it takes much longer than the broccoli to head.  We’re still getting lettuce and salad greens.  I pulled the mustard as it was bolting and we ate all the radishes but we’re still getting usable arugula. We’re cooking the last  spinach tonight. Many zucchini are ready and so are the pattypans.  I have to get into my garden and see if the peppers ripened.  I need to weed the far bed where the peppers and shallots are.

We have seven people including us for a dinner on July 4th. No barbeque – it’s too crazy with mosquitoes this year.  Woody was bitten this morning by a giant ant. My problem for the dinner is that I find it more difficult to cook seafood for seven; meat is easy.  I have figured out I’ll make a pasta dish with shrimp and a zucchini dish in custard and Woody will make a Caesar salad. We have plenty of vegetarian hors d’oeuvres.  Dale is making dessert.