Summer!

People around here, and that’s a pretty broad “here” taking in lots of New England, have had a lot to say about rain this spring, so I was happy that the long weekend my daughter got for a visit included some sun. Being from L.A., Emily was done with mostly gray days after one and  a half of them, and found it hard to believe that was our norm. I think she got the hint as we had lunch and did a few errands in Northampton, and strangers couldn’t help exclaiming over the sun that showed up. It felt like old days driving around with her and occasionally pulling out my laptop while she went off. She saw some old friends, visited her grandparents, got in some time with the dogs and her own old bed. So it was hard to leave that, but we made a family road trip to Maine, trying to pack into two days some of what we’ve eked out over two weeks in the past. There was the sound and smell of the ocean crashing on rocks, the vanishing pool at the Cliff House, shared fried clams, Moose Track ice cream, the J. Crew outlet, Harry Potter being read in the back seat, Oginquit and Kennebunkport, Maine and Portsmouth, N.H. street life and shops.

Now it’s laptop on the porch season. I still have a peaceful sense of Emily sleeping upstairs, though she’s back home, glad for a short work week following the short vacation. I’ve got a draft of a new work in the hands of my husband and writing group, so July will be devoted to some revision and wading into a new book set in a favorite time and place: Concord in the 1860s. I’m looking into kayaks on the Concord River and bike paths as my husband asks about my desire to see “buildings that aren’t there any more.” And some that are. So writing and summer fun may mix.

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