Remember the Country Time Lemonade commercials from the 90s?  The ones with scenes of kids running through fields, swinging on tires and rolling inner tubes down the dock to a lake?  I haven’t had the pleasure of mixing a pitcher with that magical powder for some years now, but I always associate those commercials with my ideal summer.  Lazy days.  Best enjoyed in the late afternoon when the sun makes everything look a little golden.

We’ve been enjoying some rare hot but non-humid days lately.  The kind of days that I don’t want to turn on the air conditioning and, instead, dress the girls in airy little sundresses and keep all the windows open to capture the warm breeze.  We went out for a backyard picnic yesterday and it was as close to one of those commercials as I can remember.  Yes, the baby’s nose was running into her graham crackers and I left the beets in the oven to shrivel up for dinner, but so what.  The three of us swung on the swing set letting our bare feet feel the breeze, gobbled up our graham crackers, and watched planes draw lines in the sky.  And out of the corner of my eye, I happen to notice a small patch of sun peeking through the trees to give my coreopsis just the right light.  Darn good afternoon.