summertime and living is easy

Happy first week of the Summer Reading Program! I am so sorry most of you aren't here to witness the screaming children, the stressed-out parents (school has been out for less than a week...HA!), and, most importantly, the lines. The very big lines. The lines that sometime contain upwards of 20 people impatiently holding stacks and stacks of books. On the upside, the hours are flying by and despite my bitching it really does bring me joy to check out 37 chapter books to a nine year old girl who reads as she's unpacking her backpack, reads while I'm checking out her books, reads as she repacks her backpack, and reads as she walks out the door.

Mom? Dad? Remind you of anyone?

Speaking of the Davisons-from-Vermont, I had a wonderful time as usual! I spent upwards of 2 glorious weeks with them. They even braved the barn for quite a few nights--and washed my windows! My windows have never been washed. Not once. Confidentially, I was terrified of the bug carcasses that had built up over the god-knows-how-long. One can now find me sitting in my chair (it's really my chair. Don't listen to Grace. She's under the mistaken impression it's actually her chair. Silly cat!) happily knitting away, listening to records, and actually looking out my windows onto the driveway/reflecting pool/birdbath/eco-system. I love it. And my new vacuum? AMAZING! Pre-new vacuum? I should have vacuumed every single day. Post-new vacuum? Once.a.week. And? The bathroom and kitchen are still clean. And mopped. I'll send you guys pictures just to prove it!

The other big news in Western Michigan is the return of produce to the farmer's market! I'm in heaven. Twice a week I head down to pick up whatever looks good. Today's loot: 1/2 lb of spinach, 1/2 lb of red leaf lettuce, a quart of golden baby potatoes (which make amazing fried potatoes for breakfast thanks to my small little herb garden), 1/2 lb sugar snap peas, 1 quart of the sweetest most bestest strawberries ever, a loaf of 7-grain bread, and a dozen organic eggs all for the very low price of $15.00. The produce should get me through until Saturday when I'm determined to get Mr. Berghoef up early to witness the gloriousness of this market. No really. Just watch. I'm thinking with coffee and a really good breakfast I can get him down there by 9:30am at the latest. Bets, anyone?

The weather here this week has been heavenly allowing me to forget all about the freezing cold winter I just endured and the upcoming sweltering humidity of the future. I've either biked or walked to work every day for a week. And the past 2 days I've gone for hikes--once in the Dunes and once at Sanctuary Woods. In both places, my eagle-eyed companion spotted a young deer not 15-20 feet away from us. This? This is why I live here.

Though I do wish I was in Boston this week. The entire Davison clan (including those from Colorado!) have come together to enjoy a week of the Red Sox vs the Rockies. Actually the menfolk are enjoying the series whilst the womenfolk go to museums and shopping and generally enjoy that glorious city. It'd be a tough choice for me as my obvious preference would be the games (where I would be giving some mad love to the Rockies, I might add), but I do know the delicious food and copious amounts of wine the women are consuming would be hard to pass up. I'm hoping the east coast Davisons are working on the west coast Davisons regarding a trip back out there in October....