summer of love

it started out as just another day when ordinary turned into extraordinary. i've been expecting it, waiting for everything to fall into place in that dreamy effortless way that these things do. it was early in the evening, just after supper and i was sitting on the deck when i felt it. when everything was just as it should be. it was a perfect moment. the kind you want to hold on to forever. the kind you lock in your heart. commit to your memory banks. the kind you don't forget anytime soon. finally. it was here! summer was here. oh, i know how these things work, according to the calendar spring still has a few weeks left on it's lease, but there it was. the sun winked like an old friend, the breeze fluttered past just like i wished it would, the addition of flowers blooming everywhere was nothing less than magic. did i mention it was perfect? i had this whole scenario planned out in my head of how it would go, and instead it just fell into my lap. i was so willing to welcome it, i coached it on. i was overcome with the most basic kind of happy. i was totally in the moment. in-the-moment. i have been talking about it for weeks. i can not say it enough i love summer, i love summer, i love summer. I have been making people crazy yapping about summer this and summer that and now that summer is here...yep, i'm that person.

i know, there is the humidity. there are west nile carrying mosquitoes. sweat you can scrape off with a spatula. days on end when all i want is to sit near the air conditioner dreaming of weather that has me wearing sweaters and boots. i know this, i really do. but it's summer that makes me giddy and gooey shoed. thoughts of turquoise water. toes painted cotton candy colors. beach sand between my toes *sigh*. picking blueberries. dripping homemade popsicles. skies so beautiful they hurt to look at them. peaches. cotton sun dresses. going barefoot. laying in the grass watching the clouds drift by. flicker of lightening bugs. bird songs. corn on the cob. sting of sunburn. tomatoes warm from the garden. these things make me happy. make me feel alive. i am finally able to talk myself off the ledge. kicking off the shiny season, does that for me. not just because i need to walk barefoot, play in the sunshine, and wish on lightening bugs...or because i need special days to wallow in the gardens, splash about in a pool, eat with my fingers on a blanket, b-u-t...because I need days where flowers reign supreme. the sun struts around like it owns the place and the days roll out lazy, hazy and crazy. i am a sucker for such things. and i'm not ashamed to admit it.

i have decided that this will be the summer of my life. this summer, my house will not be immaculate. i will choose sitting on the deck sipping lemonade and reading over mopping and polishing. i will keep a bag packed of beach-related things at all times, and take impromptu trips to the pool. i will suggest random trips to the beach (and by suggest, i mean demand). this summer i have decided to enjoy the sunshine and my garden. to embrace the heat and humidity and not to complain about it. maybe. as a pale person, i am determined to become at least bronzed if not brown sugared. this will be the summer i sit outside listening to the crickets. eat popsicles at midnight. i will channel my six year old self, the one who actually enjoyed the months June through August, who lived for green chlorinated hair, all day bike rides, watermelon for lunch, root beer floats, who was immune to the 110* heat  a-n-d...

 
this will be the summer of love. let me tell you why. it is a summer for milestone birthdays and anniversaries. the summer where the big 6-0 looms ever closer. the summer i give up caring about what happened to my butt (or chin). or what it looks like in a bikini. this summer, there will always be fresh flowers on my kitchen counter. i have the hydrangeas and roses working on this as we speak. this summer, I will wear seersucker and madras, maybe even together! i will sing. i will whistle. i will make wishes. i will daydream. i will give my dogs bellyrubs.

honestly...
i am expecting nothing less than excellent, fabulous and extraordinary...

i won't be able to get enough of summer breezes (after all they do make you feel fine). i will take in the green all around me. delight in the flowers, blooming as if they have nothing better to do. pick herbs fresh from a garden that i planted. spin around to the music in my head. in my twirly skirt and flip flops. hang clothes outside to dry. get poison ivy. i once believed that perfect summers only existed in childhood memories, sappy movies and at ina garten's house. i aim to correct that. i want to eat outside, grilled hot dogs with grainy mustard and artery clogging potato salad. i will set the table with vintage linens, antique crystal and bouquets of  heirloom roses from my garden. i will string chinese lanterns across my patio. at sunset. did i mention wine?...oh there will be wine.

the amount of loveliness will be obscene.

i will plop myself in front of a bowl of fresh cherries and get some reading done.

picnics. running through sprinklers. bare feet. all that summery goodness. absolutely, positively, definitely summer is here...i  have enough reasons to believe.

there will be bed and breakfast week-ends. starting things i have no intention of finishing, because i am kooky that way. now. this coming summer is a big one, and i'm trying to avoid my usual white-knuckled way of dealing with the unknown. and because i have no self control, there will be strawberries for days on end....

 fresh strawberry cake (from Martha Stewart)
(go here for recipe)

peace.