Summertime, when the living is easy

Liv's last softball game is tonight.  If it doesn't get rained out.

And I confess that I am mostly glad to be done with the games. Mostly because she is on a swim team as well and I feel as if I'm either driving her to practices or games/meets. Swim team goes until early July and after that....no sports until Autumn Soccer.

I have enjoyed being a sport mom, but am not sorry to be out of the hot sun.

And July will be filled with two weeks of Astronomy class, followed by two weeks of Math class (specializing in string theory...ugh!), so she will be plenty busy from 10-3 every day.

And then...welll....it will be August and school will start halfway through and then I will be the mother of an eighth grader.

Summers go so quickly.

You should see my garden. There is truth to the words in the song, June is Bustin' Out All Over because my garden is producing like wild fire. We already have salad fixings with lettuce, carrots, wild onions, radishes and peppers. And my peas and beans are ready to be picked so soon we will have laps filled with bowls of peas to shell and beans to snap.

Bing will make my favorite summer dinner: heirloom tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and mozzarella and sprinkled with herbs...placed in the oven and baked just a bit. This tastes incredible when there is a loaf of sourdough bread to dip into the oil too.

The television is rarely on, with the exception of Sunday nights. True Blood and the new Aaron Sorkin offering right after. Otherwise, Bing turns it to CNN to see the world news but that is it.

Summer nights are filled with soft melting sunlight spilling in through the windows while we read our books with drippy glasses of iced peppermint tea by our sides. It doesn't get dark until after 9 p.m., so we are outside a lot, sitting on our Adirondack chairs while Socks tries to catch those pesky squirrels. He eventually gives up and crawls up in a chair with me or Liv and pretends not to care that he didn't even come close to catching one. Liv or I will saunter into the garden and come out with a sweet chocolate pepper, a fistful of scallions, or one perfect big boy tomato and we will rinse it under the hose water and then eat them like apples, one bite at a time while we read or throw the ball for Socks.

We live in shorts. My favorite after work attire is a pair of comfy jean shorts and a man's shirt with the sleeves cut off. Flip flops. Or a bright yellow sundress.

There is not a lot of baking. Too hot and the air conditioners are working too hard already. So we eat lots and lots of vegetables straight from the garden. Cucumbers sliced into my mother's recipe for milk and vinegar water. Sounds dreadful, but tastes perfect. Crackers smeared with Bufala cheese. Slippery dill pickles. Salads with Dorothy Lynch salad dressing or Bing's homemade Italian. Crunchy carrot sticks and thick slices of bread with roast beef cut paper thin piled on.

Dessert is a perfect cherry popsicle, dripping all over the place and turning our lips into bright red smackers. Or, a root beer float. SOOOOO good.

We go to the farmer's market every Sunday morning to supplement what bounty we already have. Nice fat purple eggplant for Bing to slice and then slide under the broiler with cheese.

Can you tell it's almost dinner time here on the prairie?

I'm off now until next week, still on vacation...so will spend the rest of the week catching up on your blogs. I've missed them so.....

How is your summer goin? How do you spend these hazy days?