everything is great

Even with the heat, I love the summer. Our back deck is overflowing with green things, and yesterday I spotted the first tiny green tomatoes pushing their way out behind fading yellow flowers. There are two little girls who live in the basement apartment of the house joined to ours, and they spend a lot of time on our porch when there are people around. I let them pick leaves from all of our herbs and smell them. It's cool how interested kids can be in gardens. They like the basil best (rosemary is yuck), and I told them that it will go well with our tomatoes, when they're ripe.

Today I woke up and walked over to the farmers market across the street, which--while the pitted fruits have not yet made an appearance--is awash with color from showy vegetables, flowers, and abundant strawberries. As I walked home balancing bundles of carrots and beets, eggs, and baskets of strawberries, I saw the nuns (who belong to Mother Teresa's order and live a few doors down from our house) out in the alley playing wall ball with a bunch of kids.

So, everything is great right now.