Summertime Reasons

My friend Julie was listing some of the considerable delights of summer in Maine: strawberries, wildflowers, farmer's markets. I've been savoring the simple pleasures of summer in Somerville, too.

Clothes on the line, in popsicle colors.


A pot of fresh basil, poised to enhance a plate of tomatoes and mozzarella at any hour of the day.


Flourishing tarragon and thyme. (We had cilantro, too, but it got wilty in the sun, and then somebody dug it up with its scrabbly little paws.) I don't normally cook with these herbs, so I'm not quite sure what to do with them, but we liked the way they smelled at the garden center. I put some in a potato soup last week: savory and wonderful.


Walden Pond, first swim of the season. The water was high from all the rain we've had. I've never seen it like that. A groundskeeper said they'd lost 40 feet of shoreline. The beachy area along the right side of the shore where we normally sit was completely under water. But we found a vacant spot where the trail dead-ended right into the pond, hung our things on the fence posts, and waded out into the cool, clear water.