It's Summer, and I'm Holding

Several days ago I was thinking back to my childhood, and realized that the only season I really remember is summer.

Sure, I remember the Halloween when I was 12 and dressed up as a gypsy; the Thanksgivings when we had a pop-up, cutout centerpiece of the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving (it's still down in the basement, a wonderful vintage reminder of times past); and of course, there's Christmas...

But other than that, all my memories are centered around summer: fishing at Audubon Lake, picking blackberries at my grandfather's farm, my grandmother's blackberry cobbler, homemade peach ice cream at the church ice cream social, the church picnic at the Marsh's house on Coro Lake, running through the sprinkler, swimming at Maywood--I could go on and on.

Summer was my favorite season then, and it's still my favorite season--or at least, until the world started getting hotter.

I love homegrown tomatoes, I still love blackberry cobbler, homemade peach ice cream, swimming, picnics and all the other stuff that goes along with summer, but the intense heat we've had in Tennessee this summer does not agree with me.

I abandoned my running schedule in June when we had three weeks of 90+ temps. Then, I ran a couple of times in July when the early morning temps were in the 60s, but once they got back into the 70s even at 5:30 a.m., I have trouble breathing.

I feel lethartic and lazy, not motivated to exercise even indoors. And I've been eating a bit more. The plus side of that is that I am not hungry all the time. And, also on the plus side is that I haven't gained any weight--I've maintained for the past month.


So at least I know that I know how to maintain! That is something I was wondering about and unsure about, because I've never been able to do it in the past.

I've had some wonderful summer meals, too. We've grilled out a lot: chicken, beef, veggies. I got some pretty darn good frozen peach yogurt at Kroger, which replaces the homemade peach ice cream, and I am trying out a new recipe for lemon-macerated okra that is marinated with Kalamata olives. And I have a few heirloom tomatoes left from my Farmer's Market foray on Saturday. I also found out that heirloom tomatoes are really, really good with pulled pork. They make a nice, low-calorie sub for slaw, which I don't care for anyway because I don't like mayo.

So all in all, it's been a good summer despite the heat. It's not even August yet, and I feel sure we have at least another 4 weeks of temps over 90.

As long as I keep maintaining, squeeze in a few yoga workouts, and maybe even go to the swim beach at Old Hickory Lake, I will definitely be able to say it was a good summer, maybe even a memoriable one!

Oh, and I'll be putting up recipes later this week...I can't wait to try that marinated okra; it has to sit for 48-72 hours and I just prepared it this morning.