Summer 2011 is ending this week, and I think it can be helpful to get closure on the last season and try to embrace the upcoming season. Summer 2010 we had just moved to our new apartment, so there was a lot of settling in, slowly making the home look and feel like we wanted. This past summer we were able to enjoy our home more. We do have central air in this apartment, a first for both Lorenzo and myself, so that felt like a new luxury. We wanted to save money on electricity but still use our AC on those humid 90 degree days, so we kept the thermostat at a higher temperature. That worked very well, particularly with liberal use of our secret stay-cool weapon, natural fruit popsicles. Lorenzo’s favorite is coconut and mine is strawberry. They’re only 100 calories each, and I’m sure we saved a lot of money on AC because we were keeping cooler by eating popsicles. Well come to think of it, we did have a lot of popsicles! On my last shopping trip I bought more, but it will probably be the last time this year. Now I have to have hot tea afterwards to stay warm.
Another thing that stands out about summer is that I finally planted pansies in a window box. We inherited a large window box planter at the end of last summer, and I had a very specific image in my mind of dark pink pansies for it. This spring I procrastinated, but this summer I went and got the pansies and and also a hanging basket of pansies. I went with my “Little Sister” Jazzy from Big Brothers Big Sisters, so that made the purchasing and planting a million times more special. Watching a 10 year old city kid make her first mud pies with a bucket, dirt, and a hose was pretty much priceless. I’m looking forward to having even more fun this fall, and I hope you will too.