Summer Time

My mouth is full of delicious summer flavours. I forgot how wonderfully tasty gooseberries are. My face is sticky from licking the spatula after baking and blending these funny furry tart green berries that will be transformed into a creamy fool tonight. I must plant a bush next year. Right now I'm enjoying my salad concocted from last night's BLT leftovers: juicy beef tomatoes, crispy bacon, smooth cool avocado, crunchy carrots, home grown buttery lettuce and a tangy blue cheese vinaigrette. Maybe I'll enjoy a sweet succulent peach for dessert! My taste buds will be bombarded again tonight with an explosion of exotic flavours. Jon is cooking one of our favourite summer dinners: hamburger curry. It doesn't sound appetizing, however the spices and ground beef meld beautifully in this rich creamy curry which is topped with a warm salad of summer squash and fennel. Lilli savoured her simple lunch too. Cubed cheese, cucumber, peanut butter on toast and strawberries we picked from the garden this morning to the roars of the Blue Angels flying overhead. I am glad we are escaping to the mountains this weekend. Seattle can keep their noisy F/A-18 fighter jets. We'll take ourselves and our airplane-fearing daughter to the silence of the Cascades, where hopefully all we'll hear are birds, bubbling creeks and the wind rushing through the pines.

Our summer has been beautiful. The days have been perfectly warm. On hotter afternoons Lilli has cooled down in her giant bobbing inflatable giraffe paddling pool. On cooler mornings we've walked to the park (Lilli now walks most of the way herself) or watered the garden together. This week we started a new music class. Lilli confidently introduced herself to everyone in the group. She breaks the ice with an offering. She becomes frustrated when her proffered doll or instrument is not accepted with an outstretched hand and a smile. She gleefully watched the bigger children running haphazard laps around the room squealing in excitement when they careened past her. Standing in the middle of the race course made this game even more hilarious and exhilarating. Dancing with yellow silk scarves in front of mirrors that endlessly reflected each child was also fun. Lilli marches, spins in circles, bobs and wriggles her bottom and flaps her arms to the melodies. This morning we danced to The Beatles in the living room, shaking loose the sand from our hair that we accumulated yesterday at Golden Gardens beach. Ahh, summer days.