You can tell it is summer in Haines when you are walking out of the post office and a friend is pulling in with their car, and you lean up against their window to chat about the weather, (it is freezing) and a mutual friend’s health, and the person in the parking space you are blocking honks his horn so you’ll hurry up and get out of his way. Honks! (It was a big truck with, a friend noted later, “foreign plates.”- Colorado, I think.) In February you can chat like that on Main Street until your coffee gets cold. (And honestly, at least when you have to wait a few minutes at the post office you can read your mail.)
In other news, I put the bird netting over the strawberries last night and it foiled the crows this morning. They are having a meeting about it now, on the picnic table. They look kind of cross and are pacing back and forth. I also pulled up the bolted spinach and gave it to the chickens and planted another row of lettuce. There are green tomatoes on the vines in the greenhouse, and yesterday I signed a pile of books at the bookstore, since I leave for Anchorage Saturday and the two week summer residency part of my master’s degree program. (I’m already homesick.) While I was signing, two woman from the cruise ship came in the store, all dressed up, in black raincoats with umbrellas. (It was a little misty, is all.) And one looked at me and said, “do you live here?” I said yes, and I wrote the book I was signing. One woman, the one with the big hat and the sunglasses, said, “Good luck with that. Can tell you tell us where Al’s Fish Shack is?” Of course, I did. Then I went home and applied for a job with Harry and Summer at Al’s. (Just kidding.)
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