summer is...

we're meeting summer with long, lazy, and humid days, best started early.
still working on that.
sometimes there are naps on the couch.  way later in the afternoon than mamas wish for, but what can you do?  the work of being a child in the summertime is hard wear-you-out stuff.

a new berry has come in.  move over strawberries (and thankyouverymuch), for now it is the raspberry's time to shine.  on our way to the first batch of jam....  I'm thinking it will be seedy.  do people really strain out all those itty bitty seeds?  guess we'll see how it goes.

wednesday was our 8th wedding anniversary and papa had the brilliant idea to spend the afternoon on the river.  something I'm hoping we'll be doing much more often.

not long in, I spotted this copperhead swimming by.  hmmmm.  so they swim.  fancy that.  as I took pictures and the snake swam right up to, around, and under the canoe, I held my breath and wondered if they were able to hop up onto things like canoes.  likely not, I'm sure, but still..... I wondered.

near our takeout we pulled the boat up on the shore near the petting farm/gardens of the Biltmore Estate.  we did this once before, years ago, and were quickly greeted by a man on a golf cart informing us that we were on private property.  he was nice enough but made sure we knew we weren't invited to come up onto the grounds beyond our already spread out picnic.  this time?  well, now we have annual passes.  but there was no man in a golf cart.  we just walked right on up and pet the goats, and wandered through the gardens.

and I saw the biggest chickens in the whole wide world.  I'm sure that's not actually an accurate statement.  probably not anyway.  but these lavender orpingtons (oh what a lovely name to be called! I do so wish that someone, sometime, is moved to call me a lavender orpington..) were HUGE.  I know there's no frame of reference in this photo to help show just how ginormously huge they are... just other ginormous hens.... but believe me.  giants.  at least the size of bear cubs.

and that about sums up our last couple of summer days.  add in some garden maintenance and lots of kimchi and lemon curd eating.  but most definitely not together.  I've found that so far, my favorite way to eat the lemon curd is, basically, with a spoon.  last night I sat on the kitchen floor dipping raspberries into the tub and licking my fingers when I heard little feet stomping towards me.  I scrambled to hide the evidence of my impromptu little picnic for one, feeling rather like the child hiding something from the parent.  citrusy sweetness brings me to sneaky kitchen floor eating, it would seem.  but that's alright, I'm betting I'm in good company.