Pan holding the iced tea and Winston guarding them!
I can finally be barefoot! I love to feel the earth under my feet, especially the mud! I kick off my shoes in the summer and walk barefoot on the warm ground.
Hummingbirds love the feeders that I fill with nectar. The days are so long. I get up early before it gets hot and go out to the garden to decide what to make for lunch and dinner. I don’t pick anything until the last minute so that the food is really, really fresh. There is nothing like biting into a tomato right off the vine or a strawberry still warm from the sun!
Hydrangeas mean summer to me—snowball flowers bring summer inside and dry so beautifully. They are a good reminder of summer on cold, dark winter days. Beds of daylilies that close up every night, butterfly bushes filled with butterflies, cleome, or spider flowers, climbing roses and pink and white cosmos make me smile!
Summers a vibrant time, and there are so many beautiful flowers that bloom through the season. Don’t let your plants get too thirsty as the temperature rises.
Tomato Tarte Tatin, with a beautiful dahlia I had just picked from the garden.
When I pick blackberries and raspberries, I pop as many in my mouth as I do in the bowl. Every summer I try to figure out ways to get to them before the birds and critters—they always win!
Outside I always use plastic plates, glasses, and tableware and serve iced tea with lots of fresh mint; everything grilled—zucchini, corn on the cob, squash blossoms—tons of pesto, celery with shaved artichokes with lemon and olive oil dressing, ice cream and sorbet with no sugar. Everything very simple.
We toast with rosés, pink champagne, crisp white and chilled red wine. After the salad course, I take everyone to the berry patch where they can pick their own dessert. It’s fun, different, and everyone loves it. Summer is a time for wonderful, fresh food and relaxed good times.
I love the sounds and smells of summer nights. Fireflies, croaking frogs, cicadas singing, and clear starry skies. And who doesn’t love the smell and sound of the ocean? It makes me sleep so well.
Hydrangeas are summer. From the garden into every room, in every vessel of every sort, hydrangeas are the answer. The temperature drops a good 10 degrees every time you glimpse a cluster of the cool blue or pink or even white blooms. I’m refreshed just thinking about them.
There’s no need to “arrange” hydrangeas. They’re so full and frothy, they pretty much arrange themselves. Just be sure to remove foliage from below the water line to avoid bacteria in the water.
MARGOT SHAW
Editor, Flower magazine
Cooking in the summer is so much fun. I go out to the garden early in the morning to see what’s there and plan my menu. I’m always amazed at how quickly everything grows. One day it’s a seedling and the next it’s an entire plant with something delicious to eat! I think the energy Mother Nature puts into growing all her wonderful things is so pure that when you eat them you feel better, happier, and you increase your own energy.
There is such an abundance of fresh food in the summer that I like to invite friends for a sampler of dishes with as many ingredients as I can get out of the garden, served buffet-style by the pool. That way there is something for everyone, and I can have fun with the ingredients. I eat often by the pool in the summer—a big buffet with as many ingredients as I can get out of the garden. It’s fun to see my friends taste new things and understand how well they can eat just from plants. It’s truly a joy to watch people learn and understand that the alternatives to animals are just as delicious and filling. I think even more so!
