Summer time is my favorite time of the year. Everybody seems friendlier. I feel friendlier. In the warm weather we take the time to pause and chat with our neighbors and passersby. I find that I just want to be outside in the summer. I drink my morning coffee on the front porch and I enjoy an evening glass of wine on the back deck. Everything is better in the summer time.
I recently had someone ask me what it was about summer that I loved so much. They asked what my top three favorite things about summer time would be. Well, I couldn't decide right away, because there are just so many things that you can do in summer that you can't do in the winter, and I love everyone of them. I wanted to make sure that if I came up with a list of top three summer things, it would really be my favorite things.
I took about a week to decide on my final list of excellent summer time things. After narrowing down the endless list of awesome things, I finally decided on: 1) spending time gardening in one of my many gardens (house and cottage, front and back yards), 2) spending time riding my seadoo at our lake cottage, and 3) having gourmet meals that I cook with my Big Green Egg.
I just love cooking; I absolutely can't turn the channel if either Rachel Ray or Iron Chef America is on. And bar-b-quing has become my summer cooking option of choice. But not just any bbq, it is way more fun if you have the luxury of cooking with a Big Green Egg. This thing has changed our perspective on bbqs - it is a natural charcoal smoker made of ceramic, it is shaped like a giant egg, and it is glazed a dark green. You can add wood chips to it so you can smoke something all day at 200 degrees, or you can open the drafts and have it reach close to 700 degrees to sear a steak in 3-4 minutes. It even rivals wood fired pizza ovens for cooking pizzas.
Now, one of the best things about summer has to be the summer cottage we have, and the time our family is able to spend at the lake. But it just wouldn't be the same if we hadn't invested in a couple of seadoos in order to enjoy the lake and visit our neighbours and the neighbouring beaches. I almost feel stranded at our cottage if we don't have some way of getting out on the water, and the seadoos are just so convenient and fun, it has to a pretty miserable day for us not to be out on the lake. Until it's time to pack them up under the sea-doo covers and haul them home, they barely see any dock time.
Gardens have always been a part of my life. Ever since I was little and followed my mother around with the weed pail it just seems that I enjoy gardening and the beauty my gardens provide more and more each year. I follow the perennial and wild English garden philosophy, so even though the amount of space that my gardens take up expands every year, I still spend the same amount of time every year doing the necessary weeding and pruning and re-arranging. I have gardens both at the house and the cottage, so I have no shortage of time in the garden come summer.
Just thinking about my top three list is making me a bit sad, because unfortunately the end of another season has come, and we just recently packed up the cottage and pulled the seadoos home for the winter. There is still a bit of gardening I can do, and happily there is quite a bit more bar-b-queing weather. But nothing compares to the the beginning of summer and the thought that a whole new season of my favorite summer time things is ready to begin.
I recently had someone ask me what it was about summer that I loved so much. They asked what my top three favorite things about summer time would be. Well, I couldn't decide right away, because there are just so many things that you can do in summer that you can't do in the winter, and I love everyone of them. I wanted to make sure that if I came up with a list of top three summer things, it would really be my favorite things.
I took about a week to decide on my final list of excellent summer time things. After narrowing down the endless list of awesome things, I finally decided on: 1) spending time gardening in one of my many gardens (house and cottage, front and back yards), 2) spending time riding my seadoo at our lake cottage, and 3) having gourmet meals that I cook with my Big Green Egg.
I just love cooking; I absolutely can't turn the channel if either Rachel Ray or Iron Chef America is on. And bar-b-quing has become my summer cooking option of choice. But not just any bbq, it is way more fun if you have the luxury of cooking with a Big Green Egg. This thing has changed our perspective on bbqs - it is a natural charcoal smoker made of ceramic, it is shaped like a giant egg, and it is glazed a dark green. You can add wood chips to it so you can smoke something all day at 200 degrees, or you can open the drafts and have it reach close to 700 degrees to sear a steak in 3-4 minutes. It even rivals wood fired pizza ovens for cooking pizzas.
Now, one of the best things about summer has to be the summer cottage we have, and the time our family is able to spend at the lake. But it just wouldn't be the same if we hadn't invested in a couple of seadoos in order to enjoy the lake and visit our neighbours and the neighbouring beaches. I almost feel stranded at our cottage if we don't have some way of getting out on the water, and the seadoos are just so convenient and fun, it has to a pretty miserable day for us not to be out on the lake. Until it's time to pack them up under the sea-doo covers and haul them home, they barely see any dock time.
Gardens have always been a part of my life. Ever since I was little and followed my mother around with the weed pail it just seems that I enjoy gardening and the beauty my gardens provide more and more each year. I follow the perennial and wild English garden philosophy, so even though the amount of space that my gardens take up expands every year, I still spend the same amount of time every year doing the necessary weeding and pruning and re-arranging. I have gardens both at the house and the cottage, so I have no shortage of time in the garden come summer.
Just thinking about my top three list is making me a bit sad, because unfortunately the end of another season has come, and we just recently packed up the cottage and pulled the seadoos home for the winter. There is still a bit of gardening I can do, and happily there is quite a bit more bar-b-queing weather. But nothing compares to the the beginning of summer and the thought that a whole new season of my favorite summer time things is ready to begin.
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