The Sounds of a Wellfleet Summer

Our guests have all headed off on bikes, rented from Idle Times. The house is quiet again. The sun just came out, making most of the 25000 people now in Wellfleet extremely happy, for the day's weather remained quite iffy all morning. The summer visitors can go to the beach. The locals can get to the store. Only the merchants do not welcome the sun. They would have preferred clouds to increase the number of 2011 tax-holiday shoppers. Friends of the Wellfleet Libraries are also peeved that they canceled another book sale due to risk of rain.

Here's what I hear when I stick my head outside: The birds are chirping. Down at the Waterbury’s, it’s changeover day, and one of Ms. Waterbury’s sons-in-law buzz-cuts the grass, astride her motorized lawnmower. A few fans whir in windows behind me. Bees buzz amongst the cleome while butterflies flutter here and there. Ah, summer!