Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Best Things About Summer Time

By Jane A Moore

My absolute favorite time of the year is summer time. I have so many friends that seem like they have a whole new personality when summer is approaching. Like my friends, I love getting out as soon as the weather turns warm, whether that means meeting my friends after work on a restaurant patio, or having them over for a backyard bar-b-que, or going for bike rides and hikes in the sunny weather.

I was asked to distill my love for summer into a top three list. I immediately rattled off three things I love about summer. I then immediately amended the list. I soon realized that I needed some time to think carefully about this list. I could easily come up with the top 20 things I love about summer and with little trouble craft a top 10 list. A top 3 things I love about summer time was going to be difficult.

It took quite a while actually for me to decide on my final list. But I finally managed it, so here they are: 1) Using our Big Green Egg for backyard bar-b-ques, 2) riding my seadoo at the cottage, and 3) anything to do with gardening.

I love to cook and consider cooking to be a hobby. I didn't really love to BBQ until approximately 5 years ago when we started to BBQ on a Big Green Egg. The BGE is a charcoal smoker BBQ based an ancient Japanese method of cooking. The BGE is a large ceramic BBQ that has a huge range of temperatures and great temperature control. It can quickly cook the perfect steak at 700 degrees or slow roast ribs at 200 degrees all afternoon. A summer time BBQ is much more fun if you have a Big Green Egg.

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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