It was a beautiful day in Boston today, sunny, low humidity, and temperatures in the 70s F. I took a lunchtime walk, as I'm trying to do every day. I was going to do a short one, because I was planning to walk over to the Farmers' Market in Copley Square after work, but I got carried away by the beautiful weather. On my way back, I stopped at Foodie's Urban Market, a high-end grocery store in the South End. They were giving away samples of hazelnut gelato and mango sorbet. Free dessert! Well worth the trip.

My boss let us leave a couple of hours early. I decided that since I'd walked earlier I could take the Number 10 Bus over to Copley Square. This is one of the most unreliable bus routes in Boston, from my experience. They run about every twenty minutes at rush hour. All the best bus routes run buses every five to ten minutes at rush hour. Anyway, since it was early, I guess it wasn't technically rush hour. I didn't look at a schedule before I left work, so I had no idea when one was expected. So I sat down on the bench at the bus stop and worked on the sudoku in the newspaper. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, there was still no bus, so I decided to walk over to Copley Square after all. It got very warm during the last part of the walk, up the hill by Back Bay station and down into the square; it's a little like walking through the desert, all that pavement reflecting heat back at me. Even though my walk rarely took me out of sight of the bus route, I never laid eyes on the fricking bus.

At the farmers' market, I bought raspberries, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and peaches. That filled up my little Stop & Shop reusable shopping bag, and it was heavy. I already had my backpack, which contained my pocketbook and the jacket I'd worn to work in the morning - it's been in the 50s when I leave for work. So I decided I had enough. Last week I used the corn to make corn chowder, and I think I'll make some more this weekend. I want to make tabbouleh out of the tomatoes, using the mint and parsley from my herb garden. Or else I can just make BLTs or grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches. Yum! My yard is too shady to grow good tomatoes; this year I put in one grape tomato plant (they're even smaller than cherry tomatoes, but boy, do they pack a wallop!). Next year I think I'm going to attempt to grow regular tomatoes in pots on my deck, which gets more sun.

Now I'm home, looking forward to a three-day weekend!