Goodbye Summer.

As I watch the sun set sooner each evening, and feel the first hint of a chill in the air, I am sad to see the summer come to a close. I have always loved the summer, I love going for hikes and camping. I love being able to take the kids walking with me each morning and not have to worry about them being too cold. I love the many bike rides and summer strolls. I love the kids playing outside in the sprinkler and spraying the water at the sliding glass door and laughing at me from the other side. I love sitting in the warm sun. I love running and the feel of sweat running down my face. It always makes me feel like I am running even harder. I love the summer races and parades. I love the look of a freshly cut lawn. I have loved my flower garden this summer. At the start of spring I went out and bought beautiful tall bright pink flowers, and had pansies and alysum surrounding it. I think I got to know more people in my neighborhood because of that garden more than anything else. I enjoyed watering each evening and visiting with neighbors as they passed by. I always kept my front window open so I could see the flower garden each time I passed. I grew a vegetable garden in our backyard as well. I was pretty sure nothing would grow back there. It was mostly gravel and leftover construction supplies from the builders. But I spent a good afternoon raking and cleaning it out and bought some decent dirt and put it in. Then I put in several tomato plants, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalepeno's, and chili peppers. (Ben likes the spicy ones). My garden grew more than I could even handle, my tomatoes are out of control, the cucumbers started to grow over the air conditioning unit. Needless to say, we have enjoyed many tomato and cheese sandwiches and many salads. The best part about our gardens was James' enthusiasm for them. He helped me doing everything for them. Each day he went out looking for weeds and pulled any that had started to come up. Now that the tomatoes have ripened he goes out there on a daily basis and picks all the red ones he can find. He comes inside with a handful of cherry tomatoes and excitedly tells me he found even more red ones. Then he washes them up and eats them in a flash. I think he has eaten more tomatoes than the rest of us put together. I also have enjoyed making jam this last month. I picked tons of Raspberries from my parents garden and made it all into the yummiest jam ever. So while I am sad to see summer go, I am certainly enjoying the harvest.