It's going to be warm today--80 degrees!--and Tom and I are taking the morning off and going to Peaks Island. For a change I don't have to work at all this weekend, and the freedom feels luxurious. We won't stay all day, but it will be lovely to walk, to climb on the rocks, to watch the water and the trees. And then tonight: the first firepit of the season, dinner with our neighbor, the cat prowling among the lawn chairs . . .

Yesterday I planted peppers, marigolds, calendula, zinnias, basil, lavender, and a clematis. By next weekend tomatoes and eggplant should go in. Tomorrow I may sow okra and sunflowers, and certainly I'll have to mow and weed.

But today will be play. I will sit on a beach with The Duchess of Malfi and stare out into the bay. I will eat a bagel with whitefish and worry about sunburns. I will not let my hat blow off on the boat.