Sunday, July 10, 2011

This and that and the other thing....

This past weekend was the kind of weekend that makes me wish summer would never end. Seriously. I could go from summer to fall then right back to summer and skip over all the nastiness winter brings. I love summer. I do sometimes complain and whine incessantly when we have days piled upon more days of 100 degree heat and high humidity that leaves me feeling like a damp smelly dishcloth by the end of the day, but even on THOSE days, I still love summer. There are so many things I love about this season besides the sun and the warmth. Most of it revolves around food.

I love fresh sweet corn:



And juicy sweet watermelon. Oh my, I eat so much watermelon at times that I am too full to eat real food. Good thing that watermelon has zero calories. Although it's not so good when you can't stop eating it before you go to bed at night. I'll stop with that.




Probably my very favorite thing in the whole world to eat is tomatoes. Well, HOMEGROWN tomatoes. I love tomatoes, but I only eat them in the summer. I cannot stand the tomatoes that you buy in the grocery store in January...those pink things that juice doesn't even squirt out of when you cut into them. And then if you are brave enough to eat them, they are usually sour and slightly crunchy. Shudder. I could write a ridiculously long post just about tomatoes. I will save that for another day. But, here is a picture of a reason why I love homegrown summer tomatoes. I love BLT sandwiches. And this is my version of the BLT...a BAT. Bacon, avocado and tomato. On toast. With ranch dressing, salt and a shake of red pepper. YUM. And I only eat these in the summer.



Enough about food. I'm making myself hungry.

Besides food, my other favorite thing about summer is sitting on my front porch in my rocking chair, my feet propped up on the railing, reading. My favorite time of day to sit out there is early in the morning drinking coffee. I love it when it is early and quiet and the birds are singing. I am always sad to give up my porch mornings when it gets cold late in the fall. A couple of weeks ago, I was treated to this:


You can't really tell from the picture, but that was a tiny little baby bunny. I couldn't believe I was able to get so close. I thought for sure I would scare it off when I opened the front door to grab my camera, but it just sat there happily munching away on the patch of clover that we have been unable to get rid of in our yard. I'm sure the neighbors wonder what is up with my yard...if anyone says anything, I'll just say I am providing food for the rabbits.

I am writing this in the midst of a heat wave. For the third day in a row, the heat index is over 110. And wow, it is HOT. But I still love summer, and I'll take it any day over this: