Points of inspiration

Take me outside.

Tonight I get to go hunting for oysters on the beach in Winthrop. Low tide is at 7:30 p.m.

Next week I get to sample water from the Mystic River and learn what tests they do to determine quality.

Today I got a reading list of New England geology resources that I hope to start on. Roadside Geology of Massachusetts is one; so I could be compelled out onto the highways looking at bedrock sometime soon.

Tomorrow I have an interview to be a guide at a Somerville chocolate factory. In a couple weeks I am scheduled to give out veggies to CSA members at a farmers market at South Station. (Did the same last week, got a wicked sunburn, but also lots of delicious produce, like blueberries and garlic scapes and kohlrabi).

This past weekend I rode bikes with my parents through the richie rich parts of New Seabury, Cape Cod, and ended up at Waquoit Bay Nature Preserve. We locked up the bikes and started down the sandy path (so sandy, it was a workout). It was like a botany tour going out, and a bird-watching tour coming back. Juniper, cedar (which is which?), lots of poison ivy, bayberry, blueberry, roseated tern, piping plover, killdeer. And a jetty, by a boat super-highway, with kite-surfers sailing about. The fishermen on the jetty seemed to be leaving empty-handed, but maybe there's something else that draws them to hike a mile in sinking sand to get to that coveted spot.

Also last week I ended one of those hotter than hot days at 32White -- the magical backyard barbecue that more often than not ends in carpooling to Walden Pond for nightswimming. And it did. We parked at a "field" and walked by starlight past farms and fireflies shouting "car" whenever we saw headlights as if we were a bunch of street hockey kids on the neighborhood block. We tread water and wondered about cicadas and triathletes and shooting stars.

Pretty soon I need to go have lunch with my grandfather and ask him about Nova Scotia again. I think he's driving up there again this summer. What was his fisherman father like? What details can he remember of their wee-hours boat launch ritual and how did they endure the long choppy days at sea? What did his mother cook for dinner? What did she grow in the backyard? What did she make their clothes out of? Where are his cousins and friends and aunts and uncles now? What would his life have been like if his mother didn't send him to live with Aunt Nell in Quincy so he could get an education?

Here's to summer, and being outside.