Yesterday was hot and humid, and I counted 10 tiny tomatoes on the plants in the back yard.
After weeding and watering the container gardens, I went to BJs for a cake and a duck. The cake was our dessert contribution to the family reunion that afternoon, a combination homage to the reunion and to Bob’s birthday. The duck was for CM.
There was barely time to change and head north to Plymouth. I was lucky, managed to dodge traffic both going and returning. There were many horror stories about 2 and 3 hour drives from north and west of Boston.
The reunion was a nice event – everyone expected to be there was able to make it. There was, of course, way too much food and no air conditioning at the “club house”. It was good to get caught up on old news: two cousins has been retired for years, another was divorced, and I was surprised by the number of people in both my generation and the younger one who have chosen careers in finance.
James and I drove down to Priscilla Beach, which unfortunately was not a pleasant place to be: too hot and no breeze.
James kept himself busy all day taking pictures with his Dad’s old digital camera. He figured out all the controls and got a few really good pix.
My cousin Joan put together a fascinating family history. I’d heard some stories but still hadn’t appreciated how accomplished our grandmother, Nonna, and her second husband, “Papa”, were. Papa built their Plymouth house only with hand tools from scrap materials, even reusing the nails. Nonna made hard cider from apple orchard droppings and could prepare incredible meals from game and the produce from her vegetable garden.
Emme and James drove back with me to Mashpee, and we made a quick visit to the Fair. Emme hadn’t been to the Fair in four years, and she had a goal: to play and win at least one of the games.
She was successful, winning an adorable husky dog plush toy by scoring 160 points at skee-ball.
James was angry, he wanted a “wolf”, too, but settled for two plush “cobras” and a dolphin.
The kids briefly visited their friend next door and were treated to ice cream. We ate supper, dropped off James’ camera so Peter could edit the images and picked up Bob so we could see the fireworks at Mashpee Night at the Pops. Originally, I’d planned to watch the fireworks from the High School, but since there was no crowd when we got there, we drove to the Commons to see if the show had been canceled.
The show was on and incredibly, we got a great parking spot across the street. As a result, we had an excellent view, especially the kids, who watched the show from the back of the truck. It was so humid that at times, the smoke from the fireworks obscured the display, but the kids entertained themselves by creating stories about the creatures they imagined in the smoke. From our spot, we were able to easily escape the traffic when the show was over.
By the time we got back, Peter had downloaded the camera, and we had many laughs with his comical presentation of some hideous mug shots. Between James and Peter, though, there were a number of excellent photos, nice reminders of a very full, happy day.