Golden Days

Courtyard between two retail shops, East Main St., Ligonier, Pa

These are the golden days of summer. Maybe it's the blue sky, sunshine, and low humidity, reminding me that my favorite season is fast approaching. Perhaps it's the festive holiday weekend brightening everyone's mood. Or maybe it's simply that I spent the days with people I love, doing things I enjoy.

The weekend has been full of sensory delights:

• a last minute visit with a dear friend;
• comic llamas at the market munching on grass with their broad, powerful teeth;
• a decadent lunch with Mom at Ivy's Cafe that included fruited iced tea, salad with homemade berry vinaigrette, lobster and shrimp croquettes, mashed potatoes, sweet carrots, an open-faced bleu burger, and homemade potato chips, with coconut rum cake and a strawberry and cream Napoleon for dessert;
• courtyards and bouquets of flowers, still going strong in the last days of the season;
• finding laughter and connectedness after too many days without;
• tills of fresh, local berries in hues of golden yellow, ruby red, and pearlescent black;
• wines from the new Greendance Winery at Sand Hill that remind me of the wines of my honeymoon;
• barbeque chicken and ribs with James at The Summer Place's last weekend of the season; and
• using gift cards to buy an outdoor fireplace for our new patio.

These beasties inspired my mom to quote from Napoleon Dynamite: "Tina, eat. Eat the food!"

Here's an extreme close-up of the tasty green morsel in Tina's mouth (and check out that chin stubble!):

This lantern is next to the Squirrel Crossing trellis (above) on East Main Street in Ligonier:

In front of a shop in Ligonier:

Sunday's solo expedition to the berry farm yielded beautiful, ripe fruit, shown here in my backyard, which is (finally) looking green and lush:

On Monday we'll water the new plants from our recent landscaping renovation, run a few errands, and find recipes to use up all those berries. I'll spend some time finishing my postcards for the swap while James practices his violin. Dinner will be a cookout that's sure to include corn on the cob. We'll initiate the new fireplace by toasting marshmallows and will end the day under the stars, relaxed in the knowledge that we both have Tuesday off as well. Golden days, indeed.