Summer time is my favorite time of the year. Everybody seems friendlier. I feel friendlier. In the warm weather we take the time to pause and chat with our neighbors and passersby. I find that I just want to be outside in the summer. I drink my morning coffee on the front porch and I enjoy an evening glass of wine on the back deck. Everything is better in the summer time.

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.

I took about a week to decide on my final list of excellent summer time things. After narrowing down the endless list of awesome things, I finally decided on: 1) spending time gardening in one of my many gardens (house and cottage, front and back yards), 2) spending time riding my seadoo at our lake cottage, and 3) having gourmet meals that I cook with my Big Green Egg.

Cooking is a favorite hobby of mine, and I take every chance I can to attend any cooking class or watching cooking shows on HGTV or The Food Network. I just love the dinner and wine classes that are given at the LCBO (liquor and wine store) downtown. So I am forever looking up recipes and trying new things out. About 5 years ago my mother contributed towards a house warming gift for me, and it turned out that my partner and I got a Big Green Egg for our bar-b-que. We’ve never looked back, and I have to say that bar-b-quing with the Big Green Egg is a gourmet chef’s bbq dream! I’m not a gourmet chef yet, but with this charcoal smoker/convection oven/bbq, I can smoke, roast, bake, grill – you name it, I can cook it on the 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.

I love growing things and I love flowers. The time I spend in my garden just flies by. I get excited about new plants popping their heads through the soil. Over the years I have tried to plant perennials that will bloom at different points during the summer. The timing of the different flowers is not yet perfect but it is a work in progress. I add some annuals every year to brighten the colour and every fall I add some spring time bulbs to the mix.

I pondered my list of the top three things I love about summer time for a while. However, once the list was finalized I was certain that it encapsulated perfectly my love of summer. It includes three different activities that collectively mean summer time to me. So whether I have a spatula in my hand or I am pulling off Seadoo covers, or I am holding a garden spade, I am bound to have a smile on my face.

Tags : Cooking
Categories : Cooking