I woke to the sound of rain, a gentle rain. I could even hear the individual drops falling on the leaves. I wanted to stay in bed, comfy and warm, but Henry had other ideas. He ran downstairs, and I had to follow to let him out. The rain has since stopped leaving a damp, dark, cold day. We’re back to sweatshirt weather.

The other day I lived through the first plague. When I got into my car, it was filled with flies. Some were in the back on the window, some were on the front console and a few were at the side windows. I started opening windows and waving the newspaper. A few flies left immediately. Others took a while, and yesterday, a day after the plague, a few were still in the car, but I think they have all since flown to freedom. I have a guess as to where they came from. Last week, if you recall, one of my trash bags had some maggots. I thought I got them all when I was at the dump. Obviously I hadn’t.

When I was a kid, very little scared me. I didn’t mind spiders or most bugs. I remember watching a praying mantis for a long time. It fascinated me. Darning needles were another bug I loved to watch. They flew back and forth just like sewing needles moved. We told my little sister they could sew lips together. She believed us. It wasn’t until I was older I found out they are also called dragonflies.

My father was a mighty hunter. On hot summer nights with his chosen weapon in hand, a rolled up newspaper, my father hunted mosquitos. I remember him standing on my bed walking back and forth while trying to kill the ones on the ceiling. Every room in our house had blotches on the ceiling, testaments to my father’s prowess with a rolled newspaper.

When I was in Africa, I saw a centipede. I didn’t get too close, but I watched for a long time. The centipede was quick, and its legs moved in all different directions in sort of a timing pattern. It was mesmerizing. The other neat insects I saw were a parade of ants. They walked in a wide swath. I remember putting a leaf in the middle, and a bunch of them grabbed onto the leaf and it moved up the column. That column of ants was so long I had to jump over it to get to my training student teaching class.

The only thing only dance card today is the first play of the season at the Cape Playhouse.   Until then, I’ll just hang around, read a bit and eat some more Necco tropical wafers. That’s more than enough to make me content.

The morning is perfectly lovely with a bit of a chill left over from last night. The birds are active, and they keep flying to the feeders which are near empty. I’ve put filling them on my to-do list. I  stayed on the deck for a while watching Henry. The air is filled with the scent of flowers and the smell of the newly laid mulch in the different front gardens. The mulch smells of earth and wood. It is a dark mulch in contrast to the flowers. It will get warmer, as high as 77˚,  but will drop down to the 50’s tonight, perfect for sleeping. If I had my druthers, every summer day would be like today.

My wild rose bush has bloomed. The white flowers appeared this morning. There are about four or five of them around my yard. They climb and some of one bush in the front is up a pine tree.

Every now and then I need chocolate and lately I have been on a Clark Bar binge. I usually buy one or sometimes two at the store. They are conveniently placed near the cash register. I actually have a 24 bar box of Clark Bars which I bought when the future of Necco was in doubt. I won’t open it because I know that will be the end of my Clark Bars. One will do if I buy it but one won’t do with a boxful. The flesh is weak.

When I was a kid, I was content with penny candy. I had my favorites. They were mostly chewy like Mary Janes, Tootsie Rolls, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Banana Splits because they lasted longer. Once I sneaked some Banana Splits into school and popped one into my mouth. The nun called on me. I had to spit the candy into my hand disguised as a cough. I did eat it later.

My mother made the best brownies, delicious brownies full of chocolate. She never used a box. She used to frost them with chocolate and then put jimmies on the top. They never lasted too long in our house.

My father loved chocolate pie. I used to make him one every time my parents visited. He didn’t want to share. He claimed I made it for him so he didn’t have to share. He’d pretty much finish that whole pie before he left.

My father used to hide his candy under the couch. I don’t know whom he was hiding it from as everybody knew where it was. We were all adults by then but not above stealing some of that candy. He was big on Hershey Miniatures and M&M’s.

He also loved truffles, and I used to give him some every year either for Father’s Day or his birthday. Those he never shared.

This morning is cloudy, damp and chilly, but the forecast is for a mix of sun and clouds. Right now, though, the clouds are holding sway. I’m rooting for the sun.

Huzzah! My laundry is in the washing machine, at least half of it is. It sat by the cellar door for a long time, but I needed clean underwear so I brought the laundry bags down to the cellar, to the washing machine. I just heard the buzz: first load done and ready for the dryer. It isn’t so much I hate doing laundry. I just load one machine then the other. I just don’t love folding and getting the laundry up two floors is a pain. The solution, of course, is to do the laundry more often so I’ll have less of it to haul, but that doesn’t appeal to me.

When I went to the cellar, I found evidence of cellar mice, but I have traps I’ll set. That got to me thinking that a few creatures might have found their way up here so I’ll also set my Have-a-Heart trap.

This morning I stood on the deck and watched Henry. He does his business close to the driveway and seldom ventures further into the yard. I watched him run circles around a few trees before he decided he was ready to come inside. I saw a chipmunk running up the driveway and escaping under the fence. The male cardinal visited. He is around most days and occasionally stops to eat. I also saw the red squirrel. It was among the missing until last week. I watched it jump from limb to limb on the tallest pine tree in the yard. The red spawn is smaller and much more agile than the grey spawns but no less annoying.

My new front plants are now in the ground. My landscaper planted them early this morning. He also put my paper on the step. A few empty spots in the garden are still catching my eye. I’ll have to plant quickly as the mulch is coming, the last step for this years’s garden.

I have four flags in my front yard, three big, one small. The small one is by the front door. It has the beach, a starfish and some shells. It says welcome. My American flag is in a holder attached to the house. It is my fourth flag in that spot. On a tree in the front are the two other flags. One is a Peace Corps flag. The other is a white flag with a big pineapple in the middle. In Colonial times, the pineapple represented hospitality. Some of the old captain’s houses even have pineapple door knockers. I love pineapple. It is either my first or second favorite fruit. It alternates with coconut.

Living in Ghana was like living in fruit heaven. I ate a bowl of fruit every day for lunch, the perfect meal in the heat of the afternoon. The bowl was filled with oranges, mangoes, bananas, pawpaw if it was in season, and pineapple chunks. I savored every bite.

I have been busy this morning. Already I’ve gone to the garden center and gotten some more flowers for the pots and more soil to put those flowers in. Skip and his friend, now his handy helper, are filling pots with a variety of annuals of many different colors. They will be put on the deck rail and on the shelf just outside the backdoor. I have also spoken to my landscaper as I want the deck and the wooden furniture power washed. When summer finally comes to stay, my deck and I will be ready.

It is warm, 70˚. It will even get as high as 75˚ but will slide right down to 59˚ tonight. Today will be the warmest day of the week.

I can hear lawn mowers and peoples’ voices. It seems Saturday is still outside chore day but a lot noisier than when I was a kid. I also saw kids riding their bikes. I’m watching Jet Attack, a back and white movie from 1958, on YouTube. Add some Good and Plenty and some flying JuJus and this could be the Saturday matinee.

I have an empty dance card today, but I’m dressed for the outside world so I might just take a ride, a ride with no destination. I think I’ll go up-Cape.

Saturday has long been my favorite day of the week. When I was in the eighth grade, I had CYO basketball practice in the mornings and sometimes games in the afternoon. I loved playing basketball though in those days the rules for girls were far different. I was a guard and and was always stuck on one half of the court and wasn’t allowed to shoot for a basket, only the forwards on the other half of the court could do that. The reason for the half court was that  full court was considered too much physical activity for girls to handle. Girls, after all, were delicate. Our coach made us wear black high tops to protect our ankles. Mine were Converse.

Once basketball season was over, Saturday mornings were a variety of activities. I remember learning to cha cha. The record played was on the floor of the gym. We were in rows. Our coach, now our dance instructor, stood in front and showed us the steps. We followed as best we could. Next, she put us in pairs to cha cha. That’s when I learned the dance gene skipped me, but I did like to cha cha. One two, cha cha cha!

The day is perfect. It is sunny, breezy and a bit chilly, flannel shirt weather, which is just fine with me. This is only June. Summer doesn’t have to hurry.

I haven’t yet bought my flowers. It has been too hot or rainy the last few days but not today. I am also going to the dump. It is a banner day.

Henry is crazy. He woke me up at three to let him out. I went downstairs and opened the door then went back to bed. At around eight, I could hear him running from my room to the guest room pounding the floor as he ran. I wondered how the horses got inside to run with Henry, and I’m not exaggerating. He’d jump on my bed then jump off over and over.  The bed shook each time. Finally he settled down, and I went back to sleep until ten when his chewing woke me up. He was chewing on my beautiful spread from India. He had almost chewed off one piece. I saved the piece and folded the rest of the spread over to cover the chewed part then we both went downstairs.

I talked to my sister yesterday, the one near Boston, and she asked what was going on. I told her nothing and nothing was exactly what was going on. In the afternoon it rained enough to wash the pollen off my car. Parts of the deck are also clean, but under chairs and tables are still pollen covered. Rain is predicted for tomorrow so more or even all of the pollen should be gone. It will be a cold rain with the temperature only in the mid-50’s.

When I was a kid, the end of school was in early June. We spent the week before the last day putting books away and cleaning the room. I always liked getting the erasers to clean. I got to go outside and beat them one against the other. My school uniform front and my hands and arms always got chalk dust covered. We didn’t do much school work that week as the text books were packed. We did do a few works sheets and spelling words.

The last day was always a half day. The nun gave out ribbons for excellence. I remember  one year getting spelling, history, religion and reading ribbons. The nuns also gave us our last report cards, the big report card. I remember looking at the back before anything else. On the bottom back, it said promoted to followed by a number we all expected to be the number of the next grade. It always was.

The weather shifts hour by hour. When I got up at 5 to let Henry out, it was foggy, cloudy and damp. The fog was whirling around the bottom branches of the pine trees. The air felt wet. When I got up again at 8, the sun was shining but it was humid with thick air. At 9, I went to get the papers and was surprised at hot it was. My house was much cooler. Right now it is cloudy and still humid despite a strong breeze, but the clouds seem transitory. The sun will be back.

I have no plans for today though I should buy my flowers. It is time to get them in the ground and on the deck, but I just have this laid back attitude which flinches at the idea of work of any sort particularly in this heat and humidity; however, were it suddenly to get cold, I suspect my mood wouldn’t change. It is just one of those days.

The only sound is the lawn mower working on my front yard. I can smell the cut grass. It hangs in the air.

Enough flowers have bloomed to give the air some sweetness. This morning I noticed a yellow iris. It stands in the front of the garden bed taller than many of the flowers behind it. I also noticed the flowers are spreading and the front garden is filling in enough so I can count the spaces needing new flowers. There are 7 of them. I’m glad I have a list.

When I was a kid, summer was haphazard. We’d bike ride, go to the pool, the zoo or the playground. My favorite was the playground. It was just below the hill where I lived and was monitored by two college students who planned each day. I took tennis lessons early in the morning. The park provided the rackets and the coach. All day long there were activities. A couple of days a week in the afternoons, our softball team played other playgrounds. We were good. For other activities I could play checkers at the big picnic table or toss horseshoes in the pit. For arts and crafts I made the looped pot holders. I think everyone made the looped pot holders. Another activity was painting a wooden tray. I actually did a great job which surprised me. Painting was not one of my talents.

My mother loved the playground more than I did. If we were they, we weren’t in the house driving her crazy.