The rain started a bit earlier then stopped but has since started again. That will be the weather pattern for today, on and off rain. The humidity is so thick you can cut with a knife. My father used to say that. There is a breeze but it doesn’t help much. I can hear the birds. I can hear the tapping of the drops as they hit the metal barrel on my deck. The sound brings me back to Ghana and the rain on my metal roof. Those drops are the best things about the morning.

I have lists: errands, house chores and deck planting. Henry should be bald for all the hair he leaves everywhere. I need to vacuum. I need to switch my clothes to summer. The plants are gasping for water. I need bread. I need more plants. I need outside screws and c clamps for a deck project. Before I sound handy, it was my friend Bill who told me what I needed. I had never heard of c clamps.

When I was a kid, the kitchen junk drawer was a magic drawer, always overflowing, sometimes even difficult to open, but almost anything we needed was stuffed inside. A hammer? A screwdriver? Nails? Screws? Pens? Elastics? The list goes on. Some of the stuff couldn’t be identified, but it couldn’t be thrown away. We might need it, whatever it is, later. I have a junk drawer in an old table, an old wooden kitchen table in the living room, one with two drawers. It too is magical. When I bought that kitchen table at an auction, its destiny was foretold. Tools I use often are there, a couple of old frames, Christmas ornament hooks, a book about birds, nails and screws and a few mystery items I’ll never throw away.

Happy July 4th!

I have a traditional musing for today, but I figured I’d give you an update first. The morning is lovely. The yard is bathed in sunlight. The breeze is light but cooling. Yesterday I planted a few flowers and some herbs in deck pots. I have more to plant. Last night Nala came in chewing a small plastic pot. This morning I found the basil from that pot on the driveway. I potted the poor victim. I need a few more flowers for the empty clay pots. I’ll shop tomorrow. We have a uke concert in Hyannis this afternoon. We’ll be playing Songs Across America with a rousing patriotic set at the end.

I just love birthdays and today is the grandest of them all. 

On July 3rd 1776, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail. In it, he predicted the celebrations for American Independence Day, including the parties:

“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.”

John Adams expected July 2nd to be Independence Day as that was the day the Second Continental Congress voted for independence, but the signing ceremony for the Declaration of Independence didn’t happen until two days later so because July 4th appears on the Declaration, it became the date we celebrate Independence.

I know some people complain that the meaning of the day is lost in the barbecues and the fireworks, but they have forgotten John Adams’ hope. We are honoring the day exactly as he wished. Flags are waving everywhere. Families get together to celebrate and to break bread, albeit hot dog rolls. Fireworks illuminate the sky. Baseball is played on small town fields and in huge stadiums. Drums beat the cadence in parades. We sing rousing songs celebrating America and our freedom. We also sing heartfelt songs about what America means to us. We are many sorts of people, we Americans. We don’t all look the same, practice the same religion, eat the same foods or dress in the same way, but we all celebrate today.

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” Happy Birthday, America, from all of us Americans.