That's not a summer... THIS is a summer!

The summer months in Seattle were mild and terribly pretty, but the part of me that still calls Australia home (it's a song, look it up) really missed the searing heat and clinging humidity of a real summer.

Call me crazy, it's what I'm used to.

So I love being back in the Southern heat where (if you care to step outside the air-conditioning) you really know it's summer. And Berry – a Northwest baby who used to recoil at a glimpse of sunlight – is learning to love it too.


Stu and Rikki came to visit from New Orleans and we hung out by the pool at the Beau Rivage. I'm pretty sure it's the best pool around these parts, and Berry rolled out the Uncle Stu Fan Club red carpet and played in the shallow end with Stu for a length of time that would've bored me silly (if I was Stu, not if I was Berry). Stu is a good man of endless patience.

Happily (I say, from my air-conditioned studio) here in the south we have at least two more months of real summer left before we tentatively break out the woolen stuff. And then put it away again because it's still kinda warm...

Roll on summer.

Sailing

{Berry – in the orange lifejacket – and her new-best-friend Lily set up camp by the snacks. Clever girls.}

We went out on an old-style schooner in the Gulf of Mexico with a bunch of people from the hospital. I thought it was ambitious taking the kids along (Berry in particular, maybe!) but things went well till the last half-hour of the 2.5 hours. Boy oh boy was it hot and airless. Blazing sun and not a breath of wind for the sails. But we saw lots of dolphins (woohoo!) and met some great people who've just moved down here, like us.

Also, the pelicans made an effort to be picturesque...