Things I love about the summer (on a 58 degree day in Cambridge, it seems awfully far away!):

• The sound of halyards snapping against masts in Marion harbor
• Sauvignon blanc on the rocks on the back porch in Marion
• When it cools off at night enough for open windows and blankets
• Watching the children run through sprinklers naked and being sorely tempted to join them
• The smell of sunscreen
• Flip flops all the time, or, even better, bare feet
• Swimming in the ocean, every day, no matter what the weather, when I’m in Marion
• Summer thunderstorms (a passion already detailed below)
• Shiny bright red toenails
• Jack Rodgers
• Driving to the beach in a bathing suit, towel, and bare feet
• Early morning runs before the sun comes up and the heat sets in
• Blue hydrangeas in full bloom

Grace. Class of 2021. Wow!

A random old Spin Doctors song came on this morning while I was running. Reminded me of one of my favorite stories. Summer of 1992, walking on the beach with my boyfriend (Will) – somehow “romantic songs” came up. I asked him, imagining myself charming and coy, “what songs make you think of me?” and prepared myself for a sweet answer, say, “In Your Eyes.” He thought for a long moment, and then said, seriously: “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong.”

Ahhh. I have always been drawn to men who put me in my place!

Good day today … dancing and singing this morning at the DeCordova with Natalie & crew and Elizabeth and Robert & team … then home for naps and rest … family walk and then dinner with Nana and Poppy to celebrate Poppy’s birthday (yesterday). Everyone is asleep and I’m getting organized for Providence tomorrow – literally the first time in a MONTH that I have been there!

Random quotes

We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh. – Agnes Repplier

She would give him all the armour she had hitherto used to keep herself safe… She loved him. – Peter Carey

Our love, or our lack of it … will in the end be an expression of ourselves: of who we think we are, of what we want to be, of what we think we are here for. – Thomas Merton

Hard to refute the photographic evidence of Grace’s growing up. Wow. She started at nursery school as a small toddler and emerges as a full-blown child. Incredible. I will be forever in debt to that school for the extraordinary care and love and attention they gave to my daughter.