mid-july: good times, great food,

Prepare yourself: this is a picture-heavy post. There's a lot of good stuff going on right now, and I've been pretty good at capturing the fleeting moments on my camera. (Of course, for every one picture I take, there are at least a hundred I wish I took. Oh well - can't do it all.)

More than the other seasons, summer is the one where I feel I'm running to keep up, so keenly aware of how fast time passes. Trying, so hard, to soak it up. 

Here's what these pictures are of:

The goodness of nail polish, rediscovered after years and years. Food: chocolate banana pancakes with whipped cream and maple syrup. Last year's apple, kept in the cold room, now wrinkly. Chopped local mushrooms and garlic scapes waiting to be fried (to accompany a roast). Strawberries, strawberries, strawberries - I could eat the local, warm, ripe ones for every meal. The community market on a Wednesday. A print by Elise Blaha (whose summer mini-book I am avidly working on, and will share about at a later date). Surf lesson - first one ever. It was harder than I thought to get up on the board, over and over again. But exhilarating when the instructor would help push me onto a wave, and I would attempt to rise from my prone position to my knees while gliding along a rushing wave, all while keeping my balance! Arms were quite sore the next day.

Oh summer. OK. You're here now, you won't be here forever. Let's do our simple part to live in the warmth you give us, as much as we can.