Late Summer Love

This was the sunrise at the regatta site in Canada. It was worth getting up at 5:00 a.m. (We had to be at the regatta site anyway, but the gorgeous sunrise was a definite bonus!

Late summer always feels tricky because some of the best parts of summer are in juxtaposition with getting things in order for school to start again. Here are some things I’ve been loving lately:

• The late summer flowers! Those tall brown eyed Susans and coneflowers are everywhere, and they are in their prime! I’ve even learned to love the ragweed and tansy. Zinnias and Dahlias are sparkling all over the neighborhood.
• To celebrate the end of The Banana’s calculus class and in anticipation of The Banana returning to college (Wah!) the two of us celebrated “Banana and Mom Day.” It involved numerous pampering activities, and we loved it. The activities actually ended up getting spread out over two separate days due to some scheduling issues, but that was fine!
• When my neighbor is in his garden and sees Peanut Maximus in the sandbox and me in my hammock, sometimes he gifts us cucucumbers and carrots straight from the garden. They are incredibly delicious.
• We have had some amazing, gorgeous weather the past few weeks, and a little rain over the last week has even managed to green things up a bit again. (It’s been overly dry, unfortunately.)
• Zucchini season means that I can make my favorite chocolate zucchini muffins!
• The Banana painted a mural on the wall in the basement stairwell, and she also painted the basement steps bright purple! It’s something she and I had wanted to do for quite some time, and I love it so much! The wall is covered with gigantic brightly colored abstract flowers. It makes the trip down to do laundry so enjoyable!
• The house has been filled with creativity since The Banana finished her calculus class. She and Peanut Maximus did quite a bit of watercolor painting. The Banana and her friend painted doormats to take to college. Peanut Maximus has been busy drawing with all sorts of art supplies. Sidewalk chalk is a beautiful thing too.
• The summer library sale happened last week, and I found some amazing treasures to read along with some new classical music on CD to listen to in the car. (I’ll move them over to my computer bit by bit for regular listening on my iPod too).