More reasons to love summer

One of the things I love about summer is the abundance of fresh produce. You can pick your own strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, and you can find freshly picked, locally grown squash and zucchini and eggplant, as well as tomatoes*, corn, and potatoes, up and down the East Coast. Heaven.

This summer, the teenager, whose passion is creating healthy yet yummy meals and desserts, is spending the summer working on a farm. This past weekend we visited her there, and I took (stylized) photos of some of the beautiful flowers and vegetables currently in season. (To see more, full-color photos of our favorite farm, click here.)

Farming is incredibly hard, labor-intensive, not-high-paying work, but it is immensely rewarding (when everything goes right) -- and I feel fortunate to get to enjoy the benefits of these incredible farmers' labors.

I hope you enjoy these photos and will support your local farmers.

 *Sadly, it is not quite tomato season out on Long Island. Otherwise there would be half a dozen shots of tomatoes.

10 Things I Love About Summer

How do I love summertime? Let me count the ways....

1. Sunny, warm weather (though I don't like it when it stays above 90 degrees for more than a day or two)

2. Setting the alarm to go off after 7 a.m. (even though I'm usually up by 6:45 a.m. anyway)

3. Longer, lighter days

4. Everything is so green and leafy

5. People are nicer (especially me)

6. Summer vacation

7. Long bike rides and walks on the beach (that is when I can get to a beach)

8. No complaining about homework

9. Grilling (and chilling with a beer, on the deck)

10. Driving with the sun roof and windows open and the radio blasting (though I probably haven't done this with any regularity since the summer of 1991)

So what do you all love about summer? Let me know via a Comment.

The dog days of summer

I like summer, and I am pretty heat tolerant. But 95 degrees, which feels like over 100 when you factor in the humidity, is just too darn hot. (Definitely way too hot to be sitting in an un-airconditioned gym for two hours watching your eighth grader graduate. At least the girls can wear sundresses; the boys have to wear jackets and long pants.)

So, to help you cool down, I have provided a handy visual aid.

Just imagine you are a dog... with no job other than to look adoringly at your humans... who have kindly provided you with this big thing of cool water to jump in, again and again and again...



Aaah... I could watch that Boxer dog jump into that pool all day. Wish I could jump in with him.

Time to break out the Beach Boys and reggae music!

While summer may not officially start until June 21, I consider Memorial Day Weekend the unofficial start of summer (in addition to being a time to commemorate all the brave men and women who died doing military service on behalf of this country). And one of my fondest childhood summer memories is listening to the Beach Boys.

Indeed, you knew summer had begun in our house when my mother broke out the Beach Boys records and we danced around the living room... and kitchen... and dining room. To this day, whenever I hear "Barbara Ann" or "Surfin' Safari" or "Fun, Fun, Fun" or really any Beach Boys song from that era, I can almost smell the sunblock and am overcome with an urge to do the Monkey and bike, drive, or fly to the nearest beach.



[I don't know about all of you, but watching that clip of the Beach Boys singing "Surfin' USA" makes me want to don a bikini and blend up some piña coladas NOW. That is, if we had piña colada mix.]

Reggae music, specifically Bob Marley (with and without the Wailers), has a similar effect on me. Indeed, one of the best gifts I ever received from a former boss (actually, it may have been the only gift I received from an employer) was the deluxe CD edition of Exodus, whose loss (the CD's not the boss, whom I'm pretty sure is still alive, making someone else's life miserable) I still mourn.



[Hmm... wondering if including "Buffalo Soldier" is too controversial to include in a Memorial Day Weekend post.... What about "Jamming"?]



Oh, and the Police's Synchronicity. Every time I hear "Every Breath You Take" or "King of Pain," I am immediately transported back to the summer of 1983, when I had just learned how to drive and you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing the Police.

So what music -- group or song or album -- says summer to you? Let me know via the Comments.

(Request: Instead of leaving an Anonymous comment, please consider clicking on Name/URL if you don't have your own blog or Google account. Just click on Name/URL and fill in a Name -- can be your initials or a nickname. You don't need to include a URL. Thanks!)

School's out for summer

Or will be at 12 noon today.

I'm not sure who is more excited, the kid or us. I will certainly be a lot happier not having to get up at 6 a.m. every morning in order to drag a cranky, sleepy child off to the bus stop at 7:06 every morning. Though actually our daughter really likes school, including homework, and will miss her friends and teacher terribly; and we will miss having 6 - 8 uninterrupted hours to do work. But we are all happy it's summer. Though we would be a heckuva lot happier if it would stop friggin' raining ALL THE TIME and warm up a bit. Seriously, I think I'm developing gills.

Anyway, in honor of the last day of school, I think it only appropriate to play a little Alice Cooper.



I must now go prepare for our little end-of-school party and make sure the Prosecco is properly chilled.

Here's to a great summer. Cheers!