Summer has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I am filled with so many wonderful memories of summers gone by. Of spending weeks “down the shore” with my best friend Anne at her grandmother’s seaside home. My father’s garden and my mother’s swiss chard obsession. Baseball games at Shea Stadium and hearing the jets fly overhead. Eating Jersey sweet corn from the Staat’s farmstand and juicy peaches from our backyard trees.

My parents held a Fourth of July barbecue every year and invited dozens of friends and family to swim, play bocce and eat my mother’s “famous” sausage and peppers drowning in a rich tomato sauce. It was her go-to barbecue dish, even though it was cooked in advance on the stove. To be sure there were hot dogs and hamburgers, but the sausage and peppers were the focal point of the meal. After more than a year of being in “lock down”, this Fourth of July is sure to be a welcome one following the many months of isolation we’ve just come through, even as we still need to be mindful.

In recent months I’ve been putting the final touches on my new book. Estrellas, Moments of Illumination Along the Camino de Santiago is due out on November 1st. I’m still waiting on a cover, but I hope to have one soon to share. The chance to “re-walk” the Camino during the pandemic was an extraordinary gift. Look for a chapter “teaser” on my website in the coming months. I’m excited to share it with you.

In July I’ll be heading back to New Jersey to visit family and do a reading of The Cardinal Club at The Asbury Book Coop in Asbury Park. Please join us on July 24th at 7:00. We’ll talk about family, conversations never had and the legacies passed down through the generations that have come before us.

Like many of you, Bob and I have spent the past year binge watching many of the shows we never had time to watch. We’ve seen some oldies but goodies… Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, some newer ones like Peaky Blinders and Bosch and some new new ones, like Ted Lasso and Penguin Town. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend In and Of Itself, an extraordinary one man performance by Derek DelGaudio. It’s emotionally riveting, thought provoking, and deeply moving.

Until then, dust off the grill, put the sauce on the stove get those sausages cooking! Happy summer!